The Beast (aka The Beast of War)

[Neville]

Keeping on watching war movies...

This one, as "The bridge" belongs to the forgotten movies cathegory. It shouldn't, because it's a brilliant film, albeit a very strange one. Based on a theatre play, which already is weird for this genre, the movie follows the misdaventures of a Soviet tank crew (!) during the Afganistan invasion of '81. After a succesful raid on a village, a tank gets separated from the rest of the squadron. Led by an overzealous commander, the tank gets lost in the middle of the desert. Thirst and paranoia plague the crew members, as a new Afgan leader and his mujaideen follow the trail of the tank in order to avenge their dead.

Weird? You've heard nothing yet. The film was shot in 1988 by Kevin Reynolds, who shows here a rare (and fitting) restraint. Both Russian and Afghan are played by Americans (Jason Patrick and Setphen Baldwin among them), and surprisingly for the film's setting, plot and filmmaking don't seem to aim for political statements, but rather for an abstract, almost to the point of being hipnoting, tale of revenge and honor, something in which the eerie soundtrack by Mark Isham is a great help.

Highly recommended.

[Ash]

I bought this film for $5.50 at Wal-Mart last year but I had first saw it years ago.

It is a good film!

The scene near the beginning where they slowly run that guy over with the tank always makes me cringe.

[Dr. Whom]

I've seen bits of it have been wanting to see the whole thing ever since.

[BoyScoutKevin]

I've seen it, and I liked it alot. Though, I do think it sort of fell apart at the end. But it does make you wonder what is wrong with audiences, when a film like this can take in , in total, only $161,004 at the box office, while films worst then this, take in that much, on their  first weekend.

[Neville]

True, the ending is rather strange. I expected more extreme things to happen, or that the issues that are brought to topic would reach a conclusion, while the ending is sort of... vague. It's still reasonably logical, but yes, it's not as good as the rest of the film.

 About the film being a flop, I can understand it. It's certainly not for all tastes. It's not very spectacular, nor action packed. It sort of reminds me Herzog's Aguirre, in that it confines the characters in a claustrophobic space and gives them irrealizable goals. Not everybody likes war movies that are so bleak or introspective, and I'm sure many young viewers would find it boring.

[Shadowphile]

I picked this movie up on the recommendation of a friend and was not disappointed.  I recall turning to my gf as we were watching the scene where the Afghan was teaching the main character the word for 'refuge' and saying "He's just saved his life."

It was a well done movie.  I almost cringed when I saw the results of the last RPG shot.  I wanted that tank commander to die so badly.  A well done job by both director and actor to bring that out in me.  I normally don't invest that much into a movie.....

[akiratubo]

The ending pretty much killed it dead.  It was such a disappointment I think I turned it off less than a minute before the end credits.

Too bad, the rest of the movie was pretty good.

[Shadowphile]

I suspect there is a version out there where the hero ends up running off with the rebels and hooks up with the main female character.