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The Fourth War
Cold War adversaries Col. Jack Knowles and his Russian counterpart, Col. Valachev, are stationed on opposite sides of the German-Czech border. Both men are responsible for a group of troops in their remote settings, and both have been shaped by their combat experiences and a shared aversion to their superiors' ways of doing things. After a defector is killed, things escalate into a full-fledged battle with serious geopolitical ramifications.
| Release : | 1990 |
| Rating : | 5.5 |
| Studio : | The Cannon Group, Aurora Production, Kodiak Films, |
| Crew : | Art Direction, Construction Coordinator, |
| Cast : | Roy Scheider Jürgen Prochnow Lara Harris Harry Dean Stanton Dale Dye |
| Genre : | Drama Thriller |
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Reviews
That was an excellent one.
Powerful
This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
Throw out logic, and enjoy the absurdity of "The Fourth War". The acting by Roy Scheider, and especially Harry Dean Stanton is terrific. The snowy landscapes are photographed to best advantage. Now about the story. Scheider is a maverick Army Comanding Officer on a personal vendetta against the Russians across the Czech border. His wild jaunts into Communist territory provokes a Soviet Officer, Jurgen Prochnow to respond. Their personal battle eventually escalates toward an international incident that threatens to erupt into war. If you allow yourself to be drawn into the maniacal plot, while overlooking the implausibilities, there is dark humor, and a creative story to enjoy. - MERK
I was suckered into paying to see this movie in the theater because of the title and because I like the actors.For 19 years now, this movie has been my standard by which to judge all terrible films.There was no excuse for the distribution of this film.Plodding, meandering, insulting to the intelligence of the viewer, and not a sufficient allegory for the cold war to have made it worth seeing.The only reason to watch this movie is to see how truly awful a movie can be.
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.
The premise of this film is totally off the wall. Yet it's good entertainment as two hardened soldiers fight their own personal war across the iron curtain. Almost too bad that the cold war is over because they don't make movies like this anymore. Roy Scheider and Jurgen Prochnow give the capable performances one would expect of them but the outstanding performer is Harry Dean Stockton as the US general.He was top notch.It's really a silly idea for a movie. But what the heck. I enjoyed it!
