L'aigle rouge

They must have run out of dialogue with the ending. And why oh why cast an actor with a obvious thick British accent play an American. The only good thing about this flick was Tim Dalton.

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.

I always liked Dalton and still think he was much better as Bond than Brosnan. So I was very pleased when I first watched "Lie Down with Lions" - it reminded of Dalton as 007. It's not a typical action movie, it's plot is much more dramatic and full of many interesting characters played by such great actors as Nigel Havers, Omar Shariff and Jurgen Prochnov. It's more "down to Earth", especially for people like me who live in the centre of Europe or in Far East. Locations are just beautiful and it's true that sometimes they may remind of "The Living Daylights". I would recommend that film not only for men but also for women, I'm sure you won't be disappointed. My grade is 9/10 (only because it's not a cinema movie - and it's a pity).

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.

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.