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The Beast of War (1988)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writer:
William Mastrosimone (play) (screenplay)
Release Date:
29 September 1988 (West Germany)
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Tagline:
War brings out the beast in every man. more
Plot:
During the war in Afghanistan a Soviet tank crew commanded by a tyrannical officer find themselves lost...
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Awards:
1 win
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NewsDesk:
User Comments:
Moby Dick, with Ahab in the whale...
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Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| George Dzundza | ... | Daskal | |
| Jason Patric | ... | Koverchenko | |
| Steven Bauer | ... | Taj | |
| Stephen Baldwin | ... | Golikov | |
| Don Harvey | ... | Kaminski | |
| Kabir Bedi | ... | Akbar | |
| Erick Avari | ... | Samad | |
| Chaim Girafi | ... | Moustafa (as Haim Gerafi) | |
| Shoshi Marciano | ... | Sherina (as Shosh Marciano) | |
| Yitzhak Ne'eman | ... | Iskandar (as Itzhak Babi Ne'Eman) | |
| David Sherrill | ... | Kovolov | |
| Moshe Vapnik | ... | Hasan | |
| Claude Aviram | ... | Sadioue | |
| Victor Ken | ... | Ali | |
| Avi Keedar | ... | Noor |
Additional Details
Also Known As:
The Beast (USA) (video box title)
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Parents Guide:
Runtime:
111 min
Country:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Filming Locations:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
When the film was made at Columbia, David Puttnam was head of the studio. By the time the film was released, Puttnam was out and 'Dawn Steel (I)' was head of the studio. As a result, the film was released in a small number of theaters under the title "The Beast".
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Goofs:
Continuity: The searchlight on the turret and the canvas around tank main gun change back and forth from damaged (from nighttime Molotov attack) to undamaged several times.
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Quotes:
Movie Connections:
Featured in Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 (2001)
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Soundtrack:
STREETCAR HEADED EAST
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This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (69 total)
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This neglected and largely unknown anti-war film, ranks as one of the best of the genre. Since other posters have commented extensively on this movie, I'll limit myself to a few comments about those elements others have not addressed.
In it my understanding from material I read at the time the movie was in release (I saw it in Los Angeles when I was living there in the late 80s) that the actors who portrayed Afghanis learned and delivered their lines phonetically. The fact that the "Russians" sound like Americans, and the Afghans are speaking the language without subtitles is a brilliant dramatic device. Virtually no one is going to understand what the Afghanis are actually saying, but it is possible to get the gist from the context and from body language. This has the effect of alienating the viewer from the freedom fighters and making them tend to identify with the Russian tank crew. 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. The commander is as monomaniacal as Ahab, but instead of pursuing the whale, he is it's animating spirit.
There are a lot of layers to this movie -- it will definitely repay repeat viewings.