George Dzundza, Jason Patric, Steven Bauer, Stephen Baldwin. Dir. Kevin Reynolds, Columbia, 1988
Yesterday I sat down and watched all the action titles I picked up last week, many unknown to me, one unseen for 20-odd years. The results were mixed, which is what one hopes for, I suppose, and included one movie worthy of being culled and spotlit on its own merits. The movie never made it to bluray, has a small cult following, and gets around $8 on ebay, which isn't shabby for a used dvd these days. It's called The Beast, and it's as striking, peculiar, and thought-provoking a war picture as I've seen in some time.
Directed by Kevin Reynolds, who lensed one of Kevin Costner's first pictures, Fandango, then reunited with the star for the unfortunate popcorn picture Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and the utterly tragic Waterworld, one of the great flops of film history. Between these, he helmed his one terrific picture, The Beast.
Set during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan in the mid-'80s, the story concerns a Russian tank crew trying to reunite with their convoy while pursued by relations of the mujahadeen they slew. US actors Dzundzas, Patric, and Baldwin play three of the crew, and they speak flawless American. The mujahadeen, led by Bauer, a Cuban-American actor, speak only Pashton with subtitles. The American Russians throw things off, at first, but the story involved and engaged me sufficiently to forget it. I'd rather American actors just give good performances in their authentic accent than ruin a picture with a terrible one like Costner's in Robin Hood. Moreover, living in this age we know US troops have committed atrocity in Afghanistan and Iraq, or that they could, so the American accents add a layer to the film they might not in 1988.
In his fury to get away from the scene of his crimes, tank commander Dzundza steers himself and his crew into a blind canyon, the mujahadeen hot on their heels. As their situation worsens, the movie becomes a series of moral questions, choices, and outcomes, illustrated in the action of the film. Patric understands the fanatical Dzundza, a veteran of the Siege of Stalingrad as a child, will do anything he believes is right. The other crew members are so young they're not sure they have a right to question orders, no matter how destructive.
The crew's Afghan interpreter, who will be murdered by Dzundza, explains to Patric the people following them have three core values. One, revenge, dominates their lives until sated. Another, nawatai, or mercy, must be extended even to those upon whom you would do justice. At a certain point in the procedings, it becomes clear invoking nawatai is the only way they'll get out of the canyon alive.
What will people do for vengeance? What will they do to survive? Can you extend mercy to your worst enemy? Can you surrender without failing your country and your mission? Can you look the other way as people commit unspeakable acts? What is duty? What is honor? If it's utterly different from one group to another does it have value?
The Beast does a good job of allowing the characters in the story to answer for themselves without also answering for the audience. Setting the film in the midst of a conflict we sidestepped - then - allows Reynolds and the screenwriters to inject so much abstraction into a straightforward chase picture. It's the kind of subversive filmmaking we don't see as much of as I'd like. The cover says, "Standard war picture." The actual picture says, "Anti-war arthouse picture in disguise, fooled ya," but not in a way designed to send war movie fans away feeling shortchanged. There's plenty of tank vs. RPG combat sequences, and some nice stuff with an unfortunate Sikorsky transport 'copter.
As for the acting, Reynolds has a cast of younger hopefuls and an underpraised vet and gets the most from them. Dzundza, a Deer Hunter-alum, plays a man insane with his devotion to Mother Russia, intense, obsessed, humorless - not like the Good-Guy cop of early Law&Order days. Patric, a few years yet from Rush, his breakout performance, is young and earnest. Bauer, who speaks only Pashton with subtitles, gives a physical performance in which language is rendered irrelevant - we never don't understand what he's conveying as a new young chieftan unsure a life dedicated to vengeance is the life he wants for himself. Stephen Baldwin, mostly asked to gape with incredulity, does a convincing job of it. Still, the women of the village, officially excluded from the posse but determined to get theirs almost steal the movie. Safety tip: do not make Afghan women angry.
The Beast is not on bluray. It streams from a number of platforms, including Amazon Prime, and is available through Pluto TV. It currently enjoys an 87% Fresh rating on barometer-of-nothing Rotten Tomatoes. A friend and I are lobbying boutique labels like Indicator, which does a lot of old Columbia reissues, to give this a nice release. It's a cult movie deserving of a larger cult audience. It is also the kind of movie that makes collecting worthwhile, a real gold nugget amid the iron pyrite. You have to search a little more for The Beast than, say, Die Hard - also from '88 - but it more than rewards the effort. One of the coolest things I've seen this year.
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