The Beast
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Genre: War film, Drama
Year: 1988
Country: United States of America
Language: Pashto language, English Language
Starring: George Dzundza, Jason Patric, Steven Bauer, Stephen Baldwin, Erick Avari, Don Harvey
The Beast (also known as The Beast of War) is a 1988 American war film directed by Kevin Reynolds and based on a William Mastrosimone play Nanawatai. The plot concerns a Soviet T-55 tank lost during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The movie has enjoyed a cult-favorite status in spite of its low box-office statistics.
The film is prefaced with a quotation from the poem "The Young British Soldier" by Rudyard Kipling:
When you're wounded an' left on Afghanistan's plains
An' the women come out to cut up your remains
Jus' roll to your rifle an' blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
In 1981 Afghanistan, a Soviet tank unit viciously attacks a Pashtun village harboring a group of mujahideen fighters. Following the assault, one of the tanks, commanded by the ruthless Commander Daskal (George Dzundza), gets separated from the unit and enters a blind valley. Taj (Steven Bauer) returns to discover the village destroyed, his father killed and his brother martyred by being crushed under the tank of the retreating Soviet forces. As the new khan, following his brother's death, Taj is spurred to seek revenge by his cousin, the scavenger Mustafa - and together they lead a band
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Internet Movie Database