The Fourth War

My review was written in February 1990 after watching the movie at a Manhattan screening room.

Events in Eastern Europe have overtaken "The Fourth War", a well-made Cold War thriller about private battling that might escalate out of control. Foreign prospects are better than U. S., for thai John Frankenheimer effort.

Opening title sets the tale in November 1988 on the border of Czechoslovakia and East Germany. Roy Scheider is well-cast as a hardline colonel who's caused nothing but trouble in his career and is now stationed at a post near the border by his general, Harry Dean Stanton.

Soon after taking his new post, Scheider witnesses the murdr of a fleeing defector through no man's land. He rightly blames the Soviet colonel (Jurgen Prochnow) for this dastardly deed and even throws a snowball at him in anger.

From this minor act of outrage ensues a man-to-man feud of Laurel & Hardy proportions, involving blowing up Scheider's jeep and singlehanded invasions of each other's country by the worked-up colonels. Scheider's second in command, Tim Reid, brings a note of sanity to the proceedings, but even his reports to Stanton and Stanton reading the riot act to Scheider fail to halt the hostilities.

Things finally come to a head when Lara Harris, as a Czech working in West Germany who needs help to return home to her child, comes between the two Cold Warriors.

Tightly directed by Frankenheimer with an eye for comic relief as well as tension maintenance, "The Fourth War" holds the fascination of eyeball-to-eyeball conflict. It's not exactly "Hell in the Pacific" but with the shading provided by Scheider and Prochnow on their surface-unsympathetic characters, the film holds its grip.

Problem, as with another Cold War tale "The Hunt for Red October", is simply that an audience can no longer readily feel the imminent danger of WW III in a period of thaw. The chills of a Frnakenheimer classic like ""Seven Days in May" can't be generated by such an outlandish fable. Instead, one can vicariously enjoy a battle of dinosaurs, hardliners (and there are plenty of them still with us in both East and West) who still view the world in simplistic us versus them terms.

Besides the two stars, Reid is very effective as the man on the spot (his commanding officer is out of control), and Harris is convincing as a duplicitous femme fatale. Gerry Fisher's lensing (on Calgary-area locations adequately subbing for Europe) is fluid and especially striking in night scenes, while Bill Conti's rousing score keeps one's pulse running.

Title refers to an Albert Einstein quote: the third world war may involve nuclear weapons, but the fourth will be fought with stones.

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!!

It's November 1988. Col. Jack Knowles (Roy Scheider) is newly assigned to a base in West Germany. He is a hardened warrior frustrated with the lackadaisical attitude of his soldiers. Most want him to relax his intensity as relationship with the Soviet Bloc warms up. He grows angry as a defector is shot dead by men under Czech Col. Valachev (Jürgen Prochnow) right in front of him at the border. He decides to go on his own infiltration mission into enemy territory.

This movie is obviously diffused by real world events. The Berlin Wall literally fell four months before the release of this movie. That's why an opening text was added to place this movie in 1988. The movie retains its logic in that sense but it loses its reality to the audience of its day. There was a few similar cold war thrillers that became out-of-date by the time they got released. It's not their fault but it cannot be discounted.

As for the movie itself, it has great potential as a dive into the psychology of an obsessed warrior but it becomes a clown crossed with Rambo. It's too silly and serious while being unrealistic all at the same time. The only action I truly love is the helicopter landing. The helicopter is hovering around with real intensity like it's going to hit the ground. The movie closes by paraphrasing Albert Einstein, "I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." It misunderstands the quote by trying to tie it to that final fight. It's obviously an important theme for the movie which makes the flawed understanding a little problematic. All in all, the movie has problems and struggles to compete with real world events.

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.