The Beast of War (1988)

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.

The exact story, I don't know; but it goes something along the lines of: The Beast of War was played at theaters for a short while. The company that distributed it, if not the production company that produced it, went bankrupt, was bought out by I forget whom, then redistributed to theaters under the title The Beast. That's what happened.So, yes: the only thing that really takes away from Beast is that we have our Soviet tankers speaking with American accents. Look past that and you have a war movie on par with Hamburger Hill or even Saving Private Ryan. The message that this one sends, I'll venture to say, has a lot more to say than Ryan, but let's not start with the comparisons and contrasts. (Personally, I like Ryan a whole lot, but I also think it is a tad overrated.)With Beast, you have to keep in mind the German invasion of the Soviet Union in the 1940s, specifically the siege of Stalingrad, which saw the Russians taking a victory over the "undefeatable" German army. This time around, the tables are reversed, and it's the Russians who are the aggressors. (Honestly, I still don't know what pretext was used for Soviet Russia to invade Afghanistan. I should read about that.) Jason Patric plays Konstantin Koverchenko, driver of the tank crew which has taken a wrong turn into a valley that has only one way in and out. Soviet ideology and his proclivity to "think for himself," apparently, don't mix well, and so when he and his crew are doggedly pursued by a band of Mujahadeen, he is more and more disillusioned with the Soviet invasion.To make matters worse, his tank commander Daskal (played by George Dzundza from The Deer Hunter) is an ardent Soviet—but more so war hawk— and when a dispute over a fellow crew member, an Afghan communist patriot, ends with the murder of that crew member, whom Koverchenko endeavoured to protect from Daskal's irrational suspicion—when that happens, proverbial sh—— hits the proverbial fan. To make a long story short, Koverchenko shifts loyalty to the Mujahadeen, for whom he has sympathy and admiration.One Mujahid in particular—Taj—is played by Steven Bauer from Scarface and Traffic fame. I am not an expert on Arabic, but he seemed pretty damn convincing to me as a freedom fighter. We also have in the tank crew Stephen Baldwin in, perhaps, his best role apart from The Usual Suspects. We also have Don Harvey, who has been, and probably will always be, type-casted as the scumbag character. (If you do not know whom I speak of, he is the fellow from Creepshow 2, Casualties of War, Tank Girl, and why don't we include Die Hard 2 for extra measure? The only movie that I can think of right now where he doesn't play a scumbag is perhaps The Untouchables. You could put The Thin Red Line in there if you'd like, but it's such a small part that… well, I don't know.)In any case, what we have is a bunch of a character actors and one semi- starring actor taking on an ambitious project. The product is gold. Mark Isham's score is something of a highlight itself. Seriously, this movie is such a downer if you really think about it. (Mark Isham, by the way, also scored Crash. So-so movie, badass OST.) Dour, yes, and bittersweet, too. On top of that, The Beast has one of the best endings I've ever seen in my lifetime. I mean, it really stays with you.Zauber Zerão, die zauberkatze

One of the few Hollywood films (never mind 'Rambo III') to exploit the Soviet-Afghan war pits the crew of a wayward Russian tank against a handful of rebels bent on vengeance, with the beast of the film's title becoming the machine itself: a fully armored Goliath challenged by the sticks and stones of a primitive nation. It's a robust, masculine adventure, drawing heavily on the juvenile appeal of hardware and firepower, but with more guts than glory at the end of the pursuit and a surprising blend of character development balanced against all the military action. Mark Isham's atmospheric music score sets an effective mood, but it might have been a more challenging film (though of course less accessible) if the Russian troops had thought to camouflage their Southern California accents: it's as if they came through the Khyber Pass by way of Malibu Beach. The Afghan natives speak through subtitles, so why not the Soviet invaders as well?

this is one of the best combat films i have ever seen. and it feels, looks and smells real.it has everything: the conflict between the idealistic draftee and the hardened professional; the difference in commitment between invaded and invader; and self sacrifice; the ultimate warrior virtue.it shows you can't always pick a conflict's winner solely by judging which side has the greatest amount of firepower, asks whether one should gauge a society's sophistication by the modern standard of technological achievement, or by its moral sophistication? and proves that terrain may often be the greatest adversary an invading army has to conquer.and you get to feel just how impregnable a tank feels to foot-bound infantry--you feel its awesome firepower and how dangerous it is in the attack, and the potential sacrifice inherent in an infantry assault on on this impregnable beast.and at the bottom of all these realities lurks the ultimate occupier's question, "how come we're the Nazis this time?".and then there is George Dzundza. how come he didn't get more hard roles like this one? he was always the jolly fat guy who bought the next round. what a waste. but maybe his weight is what kept him sidelined. too bad. i bet he jumped through a giraffes tonsils to play this role, no matter how hard the shoot must have been, or how much weight they wanted him to lose.