The Beast of War

Plot synopsis:
A rustic Afghan village in a dry, rocky terrain. The villagers look up to the sound of jet airplanes, explosions rock the hillside and buildings and a group of three tanks approach, firing and destroying more of the village. People and goats run for their lives. An Afghan man fires an anti-tank round but misses. Women pelt and hammer a tank with stones until a yellow smoke canister is deployed, the poison gas drives off the Afghans. The gas-masked soldiers get out and continue to ransack the village.Major Daskal (George Dzundza) a tank commander exits and fires his machine gun at another tank being attacked. Koverchenko (Jason Patric) runs to aid the other tank. An Afghan elder is captured and dragged to Daskal's tank and placed under the tread. An interpreter, Afghan tank crewman Samad (Erick Avari) demands to know where the mujaheddin are. As the women wail the village elder is crushed.The three tanks depart but Maj Daskal's tank misses a left turn and heads into an area surrounded by high ridges. Back in the village the menfolk return to see the destruction. Taj Mohammed (Stephen Bauer) is distraught and laments to his uncle Akbar (Kabir Bedi). A group of modern rebels arrive on motorbikes, led by Taj's cousin, Moustafa (Chaim Girafi) with his Ray-Bans, AK-47 and cigarettes. Moustafa reports the tank is lost in the valley of the jackals. Taj is now the village Khan as it was his elder brother who was crushed. His sister-in-law-to-be Sherina (Shoshi Marciano) brings out an old rocket propelled grenade (RPG) launcher to help avenge the deaths.The lost Russians stop to get their bearings. Major Daskal's map is partially burnt and doesn't have all the details. Koverchenko and Samad chat and Samad admits he doesn't believe in Muslim paradise. Suddenly the tank is attacked by the Afghans on the ridge, the Major fires a round close to the mujaheddin as the tank moves away. Moustafa fires the RPG but misses by a mile. Taj is angry and demands the RPG as the rebels squabble. Uncle Akbar has a leg wound but the Afghans continue to follow the tank.Hot and thirsty the Afghans approach a waterhole, one of them bends down to drink, Taj finds an empty poison box but it is too late and the drinking man suffers an agonizing death. Hidden in bushes not too far away the tank aims at the group by the waterhole. The round misfires and the men quickly evacuate. Maj Daskal suspects Samad had something to do with the misfire. The Major and Koverchenko enter the tank to clear the round. The shell is placed on the ground with a grenade booby trap. The tank continues on it's way.An Afghan finds the tank shell and blows his arm off when he moves it. Taj tells the others to leave the man food and water but Moustafa puts the badly injured man out of his misery. A pack of dogs and the village women arrive at sunset to bury the man.The walking Afghans come up to a man chanting by a large bonfire. He thinks Taj is David come to slay Goliath, the tank. The Russians have camped for the night and Koverchenko and Samad play chess and talk. Samad explains the Afghan philosophy of nanawatai, where anyone, even a sworn enemy can request sanctuary which the Afgans are obliged to provide. Golikov (Stephen Baldwin) and Kaminski (Don Harvey) fight and Maj Daskal discovers Kasminski has been drinking the brake fluid (alcohol) in his canteen. The Major also rips the last page from Koverchenko's diary.A grenade drops down and the Russians take cover. In a wild firefight the panicky Russians manage to get in their tank and drive away blindly. They stop again some distance away, Golikov has a face wound from shrapnel. Once again Maj Daskal is suspicious of Samad. They do a 360 degree sweep with all weapons as they fire tank rounds, flame thrower and machine gun after the perimeter security devices indicate intruders. Samad is sent to investigate. All he finds is a dead goat.At a river Daskal prevents Samad from his prayers and forces him to check the riverbed by walking into the water. While waist deep the Major kills him with a burst from the turret machine gun. Koverchenko is enraged and records the incident in his diary. Daskal rants about giving to the motherland, he fought as an 8 year old against the Germans in WW2 and was called "Tankboy". The three younger tankers start to discuss mutiny. Koverchenko reports they now have no food or water and running low on gas and leaking oil. After another argument Koverchenko is tied down and left on a slab rock with a grenade under his head. Koverchenko pleads with Golikov to let him loose to no avail.Uncle Akbar notices Sherina and the other women are following. Sherina has some C4 and grenades. The dogs find Koverchenko and nip at his heels, as he moves the grenade falls and goes off but Koverchenko is unharmed.Taj expresses doubts to his uncle as he leaves the injured older man behind. Motoring down a wide open area Daskal sees the Kandahar road up ahead in his binoculars. The Russians rejoice! But they have to stop, a large deep chasm blocks the way forward.Koverchenko bakes in the sun, now the Afghan women find him and start to stone him. Desperate, Koverchenko pleads for Nanawatai and the women stop. The men arrive and Taj grants the sanctuary and wonders why the Russians left him. At mealtime the Afghans prepare food and allow Koverchenko first dibs. The RPG is damaged and using simple language and gestures Taj gets the Russian to repair the launcher. Koverchenko also agrees to help destroy the tank.A Russian helicopter lands near the tank. The two young men are happy to board the aircraft but Major Daskal demands they get off, they are "tankers" and have to drive back. The pilot provides some jerrycans of fuel and says they have to go back the way they came. Golikov and Kaminski are stunned as the helo flies away in a cloud of dust. Hiding in rocks the Afghans are happy to see the tank come back. Taj lays out a plan to attack.The tank travels thru the night, Kaminski reports the engine overheating in the morning. At the waterhole the helo is there on the ground. The pilot and crew are all dead, not knowing the water was poisoned. In the distance the Afghans approach, Major Daskal sees Koverchenko running with the mujaheddin. The tank won't start, dead battery. The machine gun is out of ammo. Daskal begins a manual turret traverse cranking a handwheel. The tank fires an anti-tank round over the Afghan's heads, Koverchenko gestures and tells them to spread out. The tank starts up and moves away before Koverchenko can get a shot with the RPG. The Russian notices an oil trail and races after the tank. The tank has to follow a winding path in the canyon while the pursuing Afghans can take a straight line shortcut over the hills. Daskal notices them following and shoots at the ridges, finally the main gun runs out of ammo.Taj and Koverchenko get ahead of the tank and try to aim the RPG. Koverchenko fumbles but gets a shot off, a direct hit on the muzzle of the main gun. The tank continues to the Pass and apparent safety. Taj appeals to Allah and an explosion above sends a rockslide down onto the tank. It is stopped. Sherina and her women look down from above. The tank is disabled as the right tread is broken. Noticing leaking fuel, Koverchenko sends a firebomb that explodes under the tank. Golikov and Kaminski panic and Daskal issues them with grenades, he wants them all to suicide together. Kaminski refuses and the two younger men manage to disarm the Major. The three Russians get out with their hands up surrendering. Golikov gets on his knees disgusting both the Afghans and Daskal. Koverchenko taunts the Maj but uses his nanawatai protection to allow the Russians to leave on foot. At the crossroads Daskal pauses and falls behind the other two, the angry Afghan women approach screaming.At the burning tank Taj gives Koverchenko a souvenir rifle. Sherina arrives all bloody and apologizes to Taj. Another Russian helo arrives and the mujaheddin scatter. Taj calls for Koverchenko to come with them but he puts on the horse collar sling and is lifted up in the air.

Tags: revenge

Review:
Allegedly came out during a change of administration at COLUMBIA, and they knew not what to do with it, and at a time when the 'blockbuster' mentality was starting to become the norm, THE BEAST may have played in what, five cities for a week or two.....they say the most valuable gems can be the hardest to find...and THE BEAST is no exception to that maxim...This is as close to a 'foreign film' out of Hollywood as you are going to get...the story brings the conflict between people forward, and makes the action incidental-virtual guaranteed bankruptcy for a US film today.And as for the actors speaking English-I think the producers realised they were close enough to no profit by having one language being subtitled as it was-the whole film being subtitled would have seen no financing at all, probably.-That just doesnt fly in H-town....'art-house' kiss of death...
The main character comes to understand this during the film, finally telling his Soviet commanding officer that "we're the Nazis this time."During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the United States funded, supplied, and trained Mujahadeen forces.
Reynolds captures the essence of man's struggle with right & wrong, good & evil, on several levels in this realistic depiction of the Soviet-Afghan conflict.
The movie then operates subversively against this natural tendency throughout the remainder of the story.The hunting of the tank by the Mujahadeen has an almost mythic quality, except for the fact that the T-62 is real and it has a human crew.
And leading that crew is the tank commander whose entire life was shaped by his experiences in "The Great Patriotic War" against the Nazis when, as an 8-year-old, he was used by Russian troops in Stalingrad to help kill German tanks.
Dzundza, Patric and Bauer, although lesser-known among the 'gods' of Hollywood and together with a cast of very capable unknowns, have conspired to make a high-calibre testament to the evil of war and the resiliency of life and spirit in war's midst.Others may fault the movie as they will: Soviet tankers with American accents, incorrect tank, inaccurate terminology, made in Israel, et al; The plot outshines all that.
The conflict here is totally between a group of local Afghan mujahideen and the crew of a lost Soviet tank struggling to find their way out of a valley in which they're trapped.
(The image of the lost tank may well be a symbolic representation of the wider war - the Soviet Union being hopelessly lost in Afghanistan.) The movie features a fairly graphic portrayal of the horrors of the battle from the point of view of both sides, as well as of the growing weariness of the Soviets, who - with the exception of their gung-ho and somewhat insane commander - want nothing more than to get out of this country as fast as possible.
Opening with an example of an atrocity by the tank crew against the inhabitants of a small Afghan village, the movie follows the mujahideen as they seek revenge against their invaders.The performances in this movie were absolutely first-rate, headed by a fantastic piece of work by George Dzundza as the insane commander Daskal, who willingly kills his own men if he takes a dislike to them and who refuses a chance to escape via a Soviet helicopter that chances upon the lost crew, choosing instead to get out with his tank and his crew.
Jason Patric was equally good as Koverchenko, a member of the tank crew who finally turns against Daskal, and eventually finds himself aligned with the mujahideen in a quest for his own personal revenge against Daskal.The Russians in this movie speak English (thankfully without fake accents) while the Afghans speak whatever their particular native language is with subtitles, which suggests to me that the Russians (and how they respond to their increasingly hopeless situation) are the focal point of the movie.
This movie try to deal with a nature of war as it self and does it to my mind pretty good.Well, these guys in a tank were not Russians in any manner.
Tanks could be used as support, but there is no way massive tank attack would be enforced without commandos on foot or vehicles guarding them as it was shown (well, armament has always been a virtue for soviet commanders not soldiers).But as I already said, in general this movie is totally worth to see..
The good: Beautiful desert scenery, photography that really stands out, emotional soundtrack (though dated at times), powerful acting, great storyline and convincing character development The bad:Nothing worth mentioning!
The film, a drama with some action and no large scale battles, manages to whet the interest, build suspense, deliver some wartime ironies, and provide slivers of insight into what war in Afghanistan must be like - something much more relevant today than during the Russian occupation.
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.
The film's insistence on demonizing the Soviets and employing them as a force of pure evil makes this a rather bad source of information on Afghanistan.A well made piece of Cold-War trash in my opinion.
I knew nothing about this film when I decided to watch it-I was interested in tank warfare, and movies about that are thin on the ground.
The first pleasant surprise was that (in the print that I saw) the Afghans' dialogue is subtitled (rare in a pre- 2000 Hollywood film), and that the Russian characters speak plain American English.
This is not really intended to say that the two conflicts are identical, but rather serves as a tool to convey a broader anti-war message.As the film begins, we are in an alien desert setting with the Russian tank crew speaking only in Russian and committing a series of terrible deeds.
When you can get used to the Soviet soldiers having American accents, this is an excellent war movie, with some great camera-work and editing, some nice twists and turns and, and I'm not sure if this was just me, a subtle vein of black comedy.
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 echo of Vietnam is powerful of course, and the film is a very rare and amazingly prescient attempt to bring some mass-media insight into something that we see all the time on the news, but hardly ever in the movies:  Afghanistan was maybe the beginning of the new East-West contest of Humanism vs Islam, replacing after 1989-91 (and this film was made in 1988!) the old contest of Capitalism vs Communism.
It's a wonderful tale about war, the men who do them (a fanatic old tanker wonderfully played by George Dzundza, the intellectual Jason Patric, the dumb one and the coward one), good and evil on each side and intelligence.
I was surprised as well by Kevin Reynold's work (far from waterworld), by the musical theme, and the shots of this movie.Dzundza ("Tank boy")should have won an Oscar for his interpretation of this villain, victim of war and sticked to his tank..
I've never watched a war movie about the Soviets in Afghanistan before, and this was not a let down!
The actors all give great performances, especially Jason Patric who plays the protagonist and George Dzundza who plays the twisted commander that leads the tank crew.
It shows the tank crew as simply soldiers following orders; the movie depicts the barbarity of war without antagonizing either side.
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.
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).
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.
"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.
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.
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!
For me, the tank commander's acting is significant.It is not hard to infer that screenplay writer is not well informed about Afghan war realities.
There is a world of difference not only in speech but in mannerisms, characteristic's and attitude between Americans and Russians; it is a fatal flaw in the movie to expect the viewer to accept otherwise: a bit like, for example, having a cowboy and Indian film with the latter played by Polish people!
This is another dumb American war film made during the Cold War attempting to show the Russians as Barbaric Soldiers, and in the end Jason Patric sides with the Afghans against his crazed tank commander played by George Dzundza.
If you have recently watched the 2014 movie "Fury" I would strongly suggest "The Beast" as another and I would say superior film about claustrophobic, brutal warfare centered on one tank crew left to fend for themselves in hostile territory, much like in Fury.
I liked this movie far better than Fury which has too many Hollywood restrictions on it to be credible, especially the more Fury unfolds, the more BS they incorporate."The Beast" takes place during the decline of Soviet power in Afghanistan and the military is bugging out but this crew is still on patrol and has their commands to follow.
Well filmed story from the Afghan-Soviet war.
"The Beast" is one of the best war films, showing what it is really like to be a tank crew member.
It is the only war movie covering that time, 1981, of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan to shore up their puppet government in Kabul, that I have ever seen or know of.
I'm not sure where the film was actually shot, but it looks convincing enough to be Afghanistan.The only real criticism I have of the movie is the Afghani subtitles are displayed a little too quickly for me to read them; however, the storyline is simple enough that one can guess at what they said anyway..
Dvd really gave justice at the great Douglas Milsome's Cinematography and camera work;that story ,about crudelity of war, is telled with  great sense of reality and each time that I watch this film I hate George Dzundza Crazy Real Bastard's  role,a great performace!
A surprisingly excellent war film about the Russian invasion of Afghanistan.
The film very realisticly portrayed the war itself, but the people in the movie acted too "American".
Soviet soldiers do not act like the actors did, but I guess it can be forgiven since the movie was made for an American audience.
Very realistic war film about Soviet tank and Afghan mujahideen fighters chasing it, seeking revenge for the destruction of their village.
More complex and intense than it might sound, not like typical Hollywood war films.Filmed in Israel, perhaps at the Negev desert and it has the most detailed tank action in movie history.
Probably the only American made war story about the ex-Soviet Union's own Vietnam- Afghanistan.
I rate this movie very highly for several reasons; 1) It is the only film I know of that deals with the Soviet invasion directly instead of as a backdrop, 2) It depicts the Afghan people's culture as simultaneously hard and unforgiving as well as compassionate and civilized, a dichotomy that explains why Westerners have such a hard time understanding foreign customs 3) It represented the communist Afghan aspect of this war as well as the racist contempt the Russians had for the people they supposedly were fighting for (shades of another superpower debacle!)4) the battle and chase scenes were harrowing 5) It showed the important role the Afghan women played, albeit in perhaps a Hollywood-hyped fashion 6) It showed that revenge, morality and conscience sometimes make uncomfortable bedfellows and finally, 7) the acting was very good, especially Stephen Bauer's convincing portrayal of a Pashtun-speaking Afghan tribal leader.
The movie charts the struggle between a Russian tank commander, whose crew manages to get lost in the desert during the soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the Afghan fighters against him who want to blow up the tank.
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.
In a nutshell it's a movie about a Russian tank crew against a bunch of Afghan Mujahedeen.
That happens all the time, especially with lowly trained, poorly educated people such as the afghan fighters during the soviet war in Afghanistan.I'm sure there's a bit of cold war propaganda thrown in the mix (mostly thinking about the tank commander here, can't say much more without spoilers), but ultimately, what's interesting is that the soviets in this aren't all "bad" guys, by far, neither are necessarily the Mujahideens- if I'm not mistaken, the United States supported those during the Soviet Afghan war, yet this movie depicts some bad guys among those as well.
The tank gets lost in the desert.American movies often tackle various American wars.
The bad thing about owning a tank is all your friends want to borrow it when they invade a country.However, the invading vehicle in this action movie is on loan from the Soviets.During their invasion of Afghanistan, a Soviet tank - lead by Commander Daskal (George Dzundza) - loses its bearings following a raid on an Islamic radical village.When pacifist Taj (Steven Bauer) finds his father murdered by the communists, he's forced by the village to retaliate.In pursuit, he encounters a tank crewman (Jason Patric) jettison by his crewmates (Stephen Baldwin, Don Harvey) for mutiny.In exchange for sanctuary, the crewman must repair Taj's anti-tank gun.Despite little attempt at masking their American accents, the manly cast of this underrated and action-packed adaptation of the stage play manages to convey the message of mercy during wartime.Incidentally, isn't the national symbol of Russia an invading tank?Green Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca.
Stress and tension keeps rising between the tank crew.Very little-known anti-war movie.
The film is compelling on many levels, and it will stick with you for a long time after you see it.The film centers around a five-man Soviet tank crew hopelessly lost in Afghanistan after taking part in a vicious raid on a tiny village.
"The Beast" is the DVD title, but this movie is also known as "The Beast of War."  This film revolves around the story of five Russians whose tank is separated from the others when the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan in 1981.
Kevin Reynolds's "The Beast" tells the story of an Mujahadeen group with a mission: to capture and destroy a Soviet war tank or as they call "The Beast".
But it's a very original film with action scenes and a political criticism (little things), and also a story about how mankind acts in times of war.
And that's how he was saved and he learned to trust his old enemies.Desite the cruelty shown at the beginning (the scene involving the tank and the guy crushed by it was very impressive) it's a excellent movie, easy to sit through, very entertaining for audiences who like war films and a thought provoking film for those who enjoy a good criticism about honor, cruel commanders, loyalty and wrath of gods.
Overlong but memorable war movie follows a seemingly doomed Soviet tank crew during that country's invasion of Afghanistan.