The Beast
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Actor: Don Harvey, George Dzundza, Jason Patric, Stephen Baldwin, Steven BauerBrand: PATRIC,JASON
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Chinese (Subtitled); Thai (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; Portuguese (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 111 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-05-15
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of The Beast
DVD Review: Afghanistan? Exactly 20 Years Ago The Soviets Left--
Summary: 5 Stars
The Beast is an excellent, little-publicized war movie about a lesser-publicized war. A small, tenacious band of CIA trained-and-backed Afghan Mujahedeen fighters (future Taliban and Al Qaida "terrorists") wage a cat-and-mouse battle with a Russian tank, armed only with a few AK-47s and a broken RPG. The opening battle scenes are some of the most harrowing and yet believable caught on film. When I watched the Soviet T-62 tanks smash a poor, remote mountain village, I immediately thought of our attacks on comparable Iraqi villages during both Desert Storm and Operation Iraq Liberation (OIL) as it was once called, by Pentagon planners. Two decades after the Soviets left Afghanistan, here we are again, with BHO about to escalate and add more US troops. Obviously, no lessons have been learned by our Pentagon war planners from this fantastic old movie--unless they are the wrong ones. One of the supreme ironies of "The Beast" is that it was shot on location in the desert of Israel. Not surprisingly, our strategy in the Middle East is lifted directly from that of the defeated Soviets and the brutal Israelis.
The Beast in the movie is a Soviet T-62 tank, driven with effective brutality by a Russian field commander named Daskal, portrayed by George Dzundza in an Oscar-worthy performance. Daskal has one mission: To literally crush the opposition. If you rent or buy this fine film, you will view an Afghan resistance fighter being purposely crushed to death beneath the tank treads--a frightening reminder of what happened to American Rachel Corrie in Israel. The Beast, you quickly realize, is both the bone-crushing Soviet tank and the bone-crushing viciousness of almost any military occupation.
Interestingly, the "hero"--in Hollywood terms--is a dissident Russian tank mechanic who opposes the brutality of his commander, Daskal. For his sentiments, Koverchenko, played by Jason Patric, is abandoned as a traitor to the elements and the vengeance of our former freedom fighters. Rescued by them, Daskal turns against his brutal Communist comrades and joins the hunt for the slowly disintegrating tank. I couldn't watch The Beast--a movie I've seen several times--without thinking that conquering armies learn very little from the examples of other defeated armies before them. The British and Soviets both followed the Greeks into disaster there, and we are the fourth superpower to try. The Afghans lost two million people in the ten year war with the Soviets but, thanks to the RPGs and a thousand Stinger missiles provided by the CIA, plus the training of such men as Special Forces Colonel Bo Gritz, they finally defeated the Russians.
Does disaster await us in the Middle East? Afghanistan resisted Alexander the Great and Obama is far closer to that bumbler Bush as a tactician than Alexander the Great. Do the Pentagon planners know the meaning of the word hubris? From almost all indications, they do not. Perhaps, on a slow afternoon, this movie might be studied, for clues and errors to avoid. But for the moment, I fear my country is like that wheezing Soviet tank, stalked by a relentless reckoning we've mistaken for terrorism while our economy collapses.
Thank you, for reading this review of a fine, five star film, from a USAF veteran of the Vietnam era and author of A Tale of Two AWOLS, Dubya and I.
Description of The Beast
Enemies join forces in a remote Afghan desert conflict to destroy an invincible tank and its brutal commander.Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 31-AUG-2004
Media Type: DVD
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