L'aigle rouge

Just read the Book: Lie Down with Lions written by Ken Follett. So this is the movie. Now I have to find it somewhere.

From other reviews it doesn't seem to follow the book as closely which outlines a lot of the Russian war with Afghanistan. But there is certainly enough plot, action, history, romance, deceit, and intrigue to keep you interested. Descriptions of the Afghan countryside, people, tribes and their inner conflict before Osama Ben Laden lets you know that not much has changed. Follett even mentions Bagram Air Force Base which we are using now.

A friend of mine is working in the South of Afghanistan and he says it is truly completely different from the Northern area where the book is set. The book really gives you a picture of what our troops are up against and why it is possibly a futile war, for a lot of reasons.

This is not a James Bond film! The only connection with the Bond series is the presence of Timothy Dalton in the main role, Jack Carver being his character here. Timothy Dalton, together with Sean Connery, are in my humble opinion the best actors who gave life to the famous secret agent 007. Along with Timothy Dalton, you will see the acting performances of some exceptional actors such as Omar Sharif, Jürgen Prochnow, Kabir Bedi, Philippe Leroy, Paul Freeman, Nigel Havers and, in the leading female role, Marg Helgenberger. It is the best film in which I have seen Kabir "Sandokan" Bedi. Omar Sharif and Jürgen Prochnow also play two special roles. So, if you want to see a good action movie, I guarantee it's not a waste of time. The film is very good, absolutely worth seeing.

I must admit, I started watching the movie only because I am from Luxembourg and I was curious about how and especially where they had done it. Well, after a few seconds I realized that it might not be what the description said. After an hour or so, I really wanted to stop watching it, but I could not turn off, still hoping that there might be one or two scenes coming that they shot in Luxembourg. So I really watched the entire movie, in which I found no Timothy Dalton to be called "Bond-like" and nobody else that could have saved the movie. So, whoever wrote the first comment, maybe he or she saw a different movie, as far as I am concerned, it was not worth the hours I spent watching it.

So a film 25 years ago about internecine and externally abetted intrigue in Nagorno-Karabakh, between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which has certainly been in the news recently.

With a love triangle plus baby worked in.

The topic reminds me of the 1994 Before the Rain or the equally excellent 1998 Savior about the Balkans but short of those.

The ending seems implausible.

From the beginning you start wondering who is the father of Kate's child. The answer eventually becomes clear but is never satisfactory. The real father almost denounces it, claiming he is only the biological father. It's an interesting love triangle with tremendous complications to an intimate companionship in the beginning getting all mixed up with her two men both being involved in politics - she is caught between two fires, one worse than the other, and one would think that the doctor would have some objections against killing people, while he just keeps looking on when the villain (Jurgen Prochnow) runs amuck with his sadism into inhuman atrocities. The weakness in this film is in the story. Ken Follett wrote some very good books, but here there are some very disturbing biases. There are no nuances to the cynical villain Jurgen Prochnow, the village imam is also depicted as thoroughly inhuman, the mercenaries are mercenaries and not human at all, while all the sympathies have to be with the mountain people and villagers. Timothy Dalton is always good, he was best as Heathcliff in the 1970 film of "Wuthering Heights", but then he was lost in the hard-boiled Bond business. The most interesting performance is maybe by Omar Sharif, although he appears late, but his role is outstanding. The music is also excellent, while actually my only objection against the film is in Ken Follett's book.