dmdavis-687-77066
This has some really stunning shots of Israel. The old Russian tank running around the desert is rather impressive, but the plot is rather creaky as a dramatic tool; its execution here is offensively trite pacifist tripe, with the characters being so over-the-top as to be caricatures of themselves. Hats off to the professionalism of the actors for speaking their lines with such apparent sincerity. I cannot think of any one role that stuck me as realistic. Sad to note the service affiliation of the military advisor and one can only hope that, were we to take him out for a beer, he'd spend the entire time complaining about how the director refused to take his advice. It seems like every time any of the characters spoke, I'd be thinking "That would never have been said!!". To make up for the insulting portrayal of Russian tankers, I would suggest turning the sound off and playing the entire movie while listening to music by Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov. Then all you would be upset by are the stupid weapons effects and ridiculous costuming. BTW: That type of tank gets about one mile per gallon of fuel, another issue that kept making the whole thing just look "stupid."
bayardhiler
"War is hell", as the old saying goes, and as long as has been possible, Hollywood has tried to show what war's really like, sometimes succeeding, other times not so. It's probably fair to say that only a select few war pictures really achieve the grittiness and ugly realism of war, and if you know your films, you probably know which ones ("Full Metal Jacket", Apocalypse Now", "Platoon" , etc.). Yet there is another picture that deserves to be included in this list, a film that although American made, tells a war story that is probably one of the most unlikely ones to be told on the American screen. The film is called "The Beast of War". Made in 1988, it tells the seemly simple story of a Soviet tank crew who gets lost in the middle of the unforgiving wilderness of Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion and bloody war that occurred there. Cut off from the rest of their forces, they are mercilessly pursued by a group of Mujahadeen fighters, or Afghan guerrillas, in revenge for a massacre carried out by the crew in their village, all shown in horrific, graphic detail that grabs the viewer in the opening. Leading the pack of the crew is the tyrannical and hard charging officer Daskal (George Dzundza in a terrific performance) a veteran who fought at Stalingrad and who is determined to maintain the honor of "the motherland". The soldiers below him, though, are far more likely thinking a question most soldiers in wars through out the ages have probably asked: Just what the hell are doing here? That's certainly the question being asked by the young soldier Konstantin (Jason Patric in another great performance), who slowly begins to become a thorn in Daskal's side with all his questioning, especially as Daskal grows more paranoid and unjustly distrustful of the crew's Afghan liaison officer Samad (wonderful character actor Erick Avari). Eventually, Konstantin is tied to a rock and left to the mercy of the savages by the increasingly unstable Daskal but unbeknownst to him, fate has other plans. But the movie doesn't just show the workings of the tank crew, it also intimately shows the Afghans who are following them, showcasing the conflicts of interest and power dynamics within their group, and their hunt for "the beast", as they call the tank. Leading them is their newly minted village chief, or Kahn, Taj (played by Steven Bauer of "Scarface" fame in a most convincing performance) who, like the Russians, is under pressure to uphold the values and expectations of his people. "The Beast" is probably one of the most unique war films ever made, in that here you have an American made movie that deals with a foreign war that we were not fighting in at the time - though we were giving significant support to various groups within the Afghan Mujahadeen - and one that was being fought by our arc rival at the time, the Russians or Soviets. And yet, somehow, the film transcends these barriers and under the superb direction of Kevin Reynolds, creates characters and a story that somehow seem universal from time to time or conflict to conflict. Even though the soldiers are Russian, the films is able to show them as soldiers that can be found in any army, be it here in the good old, US of A or anywhere else for that matter. Granted, part of this is due to the fact the guys speak American English rather than English with a Russian accent. But it somehow, it all just works. As for the actors playing the Afghans, everyone of them must be congratulated, not only acting wise for their individual characters but also for convincingly speaking the Pashto language, something that must have had its own challenges involved. "The Beast" truly is one of those rare films that manages to not only show the ugly reality of war and dark side of man but also something universal about humanity, human connections, and culture, all of it enhanced by Mark Isham's majestic and hauntingly beautiful music score. The Afghans fight for what their culture holds dear, as do the Russians. But the funny thing is, if race, ethnicity, or ideology didn't separate them, many of these characters might have made good friends. Sadly, though, "The Beast of War" is a movie that managed to fall through the cracks, perhaps because of the unique subject matter of the film, which is a shame, for as the United States tries to bend Afghanistan to its will and bring it into the modern age, "The Beast" is able to fully show the hopeless situation the Soviet Union found itself in, and why we, my fellow Americans, probably won't have much luck there either, when all is said and done. Funny how man fails to learn from the past, isn't it folks? For this and other reasons that I simply cannot put into words at the moment, "Beast of War" is a film that should be seen at least once in your life, not only because of its story but stellar acting, be it Patric, Don Harvey, or Steven Baldwin of the Baldwin brothers! Watch and observe, and ask yourselves was there ever a war that wasn't rotten? For my money, hell no!
aamirmushtaque
an underrated gem.deserves at least an 8 on IMDb.greatest achievement of the film is to allow us to empathize with the afghans as well as the Russian soldiers ,although we know that Russia has the negative image here.also we get to understand the pathetic condition of the Afghanistan.apart from these achievements as a movie also the film entertains and thrills you to the core with its awesome climax.definitely in my top 10 war movies of all time along with Tae gukji, My way,spr, Platoon, Full metal jacket, Deer hunter, Cross of iron, Letters from iwo jima and The thin red line .definitely a 10 out of 10 for me.
bandw
It is 1981, the second year of the Soviet-Afghan war. After pulverizing an Afghan village, a Soviet tank takes a wrong turn and loses communication with its unit. Unfortunately for this tank it has entered a valley through a pass which is the only escape route. The anti-Soviet Afghan rebels did not take kindly to the brutal destruction wreaked by this tank, which they referred to as "the beast." The desire to avenge the attack is strong enough to unite a couple of feuding rebel tribes, and the story details the single-minded determination of the rebels to pursue and destroy the tank. In the process we get to know the five member crew in the tank as well as some of the rebels. There is a goodly amount of footage from the interior of the tank--claustrophobes beware.The tank commander is of the old school, having fought the Nazis in WWII at the age of eight. His obsession to get back to safety with his tank creates stress within his crew, to say the least. There is enough conflict in this movie to fuel several films--conflict among the tank crew, conflict among the rebels, conflict between the tank crew and the rebels. The pacing kept my attention throughout. The cinematography is outstanding. The desert landscape plays an important role and the camera uses it to great effect. The musical score contributes in establishing mood, but it is not intrusive. All of the actors were up to the task. Having the Soviet tank crew speaking in English was initially off-putting, but quickly ceased to be a problem for me. The Soviet-Afghan war proved that the Afghans are not easily subdued. Robert Gates (U.S. Secretary of Defense 2006-2011) has recently been quoted as saying that approximately two million Afghans were killed in the war and five million fled the country. What a disaster.The DVD I got from Netflix was single-sided with a 4:3 aspect ratio. The movie was filmed in wide screen and I think much would have been gained with that format, since the landscapes played such an important role.
