The Beast of War (1988) - DVD

During the war in Afghanistan a Soviet tank crew commanded by a tyrannical officer find themselves lost and in a struggle against a band of Mujahadeen guerrillas in the mountains. This is a unique look at the Soviet "Vietnam" experience sympathetically told for both sides.



I give The Beast of War a solid 72%

I caught part of this movie years ago on a cable channel but never saw it all. The other day I picked it up at Walmart for $5.50 because I remembered liking it. I wasn't disappointed. It was worth the small price.

Now what I liked most about this movie is the mental game played by the tank commander. The movie builds to where you see the commander being sadistic and he is going insane. He begins to kill off his own crew and when he abandons his tank driver merely for having a conscience and questiong his orders, he has created a new enemy for himself.

The biggest problem I had with this movie is that there is no pretense about the Russian tank crew only speaking very American English and using very American profanity. That was the biggest problem I had. There were other continuity issues as well. In many ways, this was a mediocre attempt at making a film about the Soviet military. But looking past that, this was a thought provoking look into that very poorly handled military operation by the Russians.

Another thing that attracted me to this movie was that it seems that in today's political climate, there is a tendency to beat up America for taking military action. Even by the Russians. And there are far too few people I find, even my age, who remember that the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December of 1979 and occupied it until 1989. That military operation really was the Soviet Union's "Vietnam" experience.

My favorite quote:

Korvechenko: Sorry sir, not much of a war. No Stalingrad. How is it that we're the Nazis this time? How is that?