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.
Similar titles
Reviews
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.
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!!
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!
