The Beast of War

Nearly all the reviews here completely miss the point of the Russian characters speaking in English with an American accent. This is a clever and unique film device. It allows the American audience the film was made for to relate to the primary characters as though they were Americans. The device also allows the Afghanistan setting to seem like Vietnam to the American audience. This is not really intended to say that the two conflicts are identical, but rather serves as a tool to convey a broader anti-war message.

As the film begins, we are in an alien desert setting with the Russian tank crew speaking only in Russian and committing a series of terrible deeds. The camera tightly zooms into the speaking lips of one of the Russians whose native language seamlessly transforms into American English. The camera then zooms back out to the original framing. The audience soon begins to empathize with the Americanized Russians and begins to see many parallels between their conflict and our experience in Vietnam. Americans know very little of the Afghanistan war. This device, however, makes the war seem less distant. It helps the audience bond with the characters and better share their later suffering.

The film has the authentic and gritty feel of "Das Boot" with the tank filling in for the submarine. The detailed and realistic portrayal of the equipment lends greatly authenticity to the drama. I last saw the film about ten years ago, and yet its images and emotional impact stay with me much better than most of the films I've seen so far this year.

I give The Beast a 9.