The Fourth War

Yes, stunning, as in stunningly silly. The only two saving graces were Tim Reid and Harry Dean Stanton. Even Roy Scheider couldn't save this. It's hard to believe John Frankenheimer was responsible for this mess.

Other than that it was great!

Jack Knowles serves in the army as a colonel on the German-Czech border. He not only fights in the Cold War, but also wages his own personal war with his Russian equivalent Colonel Valachev. Both are embittered and hardened by their war experiences and when the battle between the two breaks out, things go from bad to worse.

It is a bit of an unbelievable story, The film apparently tried to spice up the end of the Cold War that slowly bled to death in the mid-80s with a strange but interesting story about two alpha males who start a childish private war, it sounds a bit far-fetched but it is still a scenario that could have been done with something interesting, but lack of character development of both main characters is unfortunately the big shortcoming.

But still the mutual battle between Schneider and Prochnov is interesting enough for a reasonably entertaining hour and a half, nothing more, nothing less.

John Frankenheimer is an amazing director who has never been given the credit that he deserves. The Manchurian Candidate, Birdman Of Alcatraz, Seven Days In May and Black Sunday are among the great films that he has directed. This film deserves to be listed with them as well because it is a brilliant parable of what happens when two heroes only trained to fight in war have to live in a peacetime situation. Roy Schieder gives an awesome performance as a war weary colonel who just can't function in a peacetime setting. That very great character actor Harry Dean Stanton has a great scene where he chews him out. I think that the most chilling part of the film however is the one where Stanton quotes Albert Einstein when he was asked what kinds of weapons would be used in World War III and he replied that he did not know but that the fourth war would be fought with stones.

I frankly expected more from a Frakenheimer movie. Roy Scheider as Colonel Jack Knowles is okay as the hothead military iconoclast who's not been the same since the war in Vietnam. He is sent to the German-Czech border and wages a personal vendetta against the short-fused Russian colonel Valachev, played quite menacingly by Jurgen Prochnow. The end of detente and the last Cold War battle? Well, Scheider throws a snowball at Prochnow and the fourth war starts. basically that's how. The premise is good but we are treated to a long and meandering tit-for-tat between two Army colonels that borders on the childish and wanton. While occasionally funny, this is not an intelligent movie. You'd be better off watching Toy Soldiers if you want a more gripping story.

The plot is absurd, the logic is absent and the running back and forth across the east-west border is laughable.

BUT - it's one of the greatest movies ever made anyway. Why? Because it got a view through correctly adjusted binoculars right! As 1 circle. NOT 2 touching circles.

Million dollar movies, close to billion dollar movies from Hollywood, can't even get this simple fact right and it annoys me immensely. The annoying thing is that directors can get access to so much money and are not intelligent enough to get it right. If they spend a hundred dollars more they could buy a consultant to tell them things like that! But the directors are too dumb! Amazing.

So a big HOORAY for The Fourth War!! The ONLY other film I remember that avoids this Hollywood dumb cliché is The Bridge On The River Kwai.

And that's not all folks. The Fourth War lets the Russians speak Russian. I'm close to tears with enthusiasm! In the Hollywood world where Germans, Russians, Chinese and every alien from outer space speaks American this is groundbreaking. I know that most Americans are too dumb to read subtitles (or rather Hollywood think they are) but it renders authenticity in wast amounts to a movie.

The ridiculous script is totally forgiven on these two grounds!!