It’s
based on a stage play, but it has a bunch of explosions. When adapting his play
Nanawatai for the big screen, William Mastrosimone could fully explore the
horrors of war, while still focusing on the Pashto principles of sanctuary
(nanawatai) and revenge (badal). Yet, the 1980s were such a rich movie decade,
the resulting film was unfairly overlooked during its initial release.
Fortunately, Mill Creek Entertainment just rereleased the Kevin Reynolds’
Afghanistan war drama The Beast (trailer here) on DVD today.
It
really is a vintage Soviet tank Commander Daskal’s crew drives, thanks to the
Israelis, who liberated it from their belligerent neighbors. Daskal, a.k.a.
Tank Boy, would definitely not approve of the tankers who abandoned their ride,
but he couldn’t fault the film’s authenticity. The grizzled tank commander has
only one speed, charging full speed ahead. We see the brutality he brings to
bear on a village suspected of harboring mujahedeen. However, his wanton
savagery, including one prisoner crushed under the tank’s track, will drive the
village’s new khan, Taj, as he tracks Daskal’s tank in hopes of badal. More
ominously, the village’s freshly minted widows follow behind Taj’s men, looking
for an opportunity to vent their fury.
Daskal
might just give them the opportunity. Thanks to the damage done to their radio
and charts, the commander takes a wrong turn into a canyon cul-de-sac. He will
blame their local translator Samad, a Party member in good standing, but he and
Konstantin Koverchenko, the highly-educated tank driver, know better. With
their fuel and provisions running low and the mujahedeen remaining in hot
pursuit, Daskal starts to exhibit Captain Queeg symptoms, except he is never
indecisive. However, his greatest mistake will be leaving the almost
insubordinate Koverchenko to die in the desert, after learning from Samad the
proper meaning and pronunciation of nanawatai and badal.
Frankly,
Koverchenko’s “hey tank boy” taunts, referring to Daskal’s childhood Stalingrad
exploits should have been an 80s catch-phrase up there with “I’ll be back” and
“there can be only one.” Although it shares some surface similarities with the
Dolph Lundgren guilty pleasure, Red
Scorpion, The Beast is much
deeper and classically archetypal. It also has the superior warfighting
sequences, hands down. Frankly, it was probably the best film at depicting
armored warfare tactics and maneuvering until Fury came along.
Jason
Patric was and still is the film’s biggest star, but instead of a Hollywood star
turn, he plays Koverchenko with quiet, slow-burning intensity. His work is
excellent, but the instantly recognizable character actor George Dzundza is the
one who really deserved award attention. He is harrowingly intense to watch as
Daskal, the martinet who is starting to lose his grip, along with cherished
Soviet world view. Israeli Erick Avari also gives the film tragic resonance as
the bullied Samad.
To
be fair, Cuban-born Steven Bauer has the commanding bearing and presence for
Taj. Granted, there are fewer Afghan cast-members in The Beast than there are now Asians on Hawaii Five-O, but we should remember the country was still under
Soviet occupation while the film was in production, making it difficult to
recruit local talent. Instead, Reynolds largely relied on Israeli and Indian
thesps, the former of whom surely enjoyed sticking it to the Russian bear.
Perhaps
it was just bad timing. By the time The
Beast opened in theaters, the Soviets had begun to withdraw from
Afghanistan with their tails between their legs. Nevertheless, it remains a
powerful portrayal of the horrors of Communist aggression and the clash of two
radically dissimilar belief systems. Very highly recommended, The Beast is now available on DVD from
Mill Creek Entertainment.