Career military man Colonel Jack Knowles (Roy Scheider) has a reputation as a hard edged war hawk that has lead to him being bounced around various posts in the U. S. Army with Knowles' old commanding officer General Hackworth (Harry Dean Stanton) doing what he can to help him having had his life saved by Knowles many times in Vietnam when he was under his command. Knowles is put in charge of the border guards on the West Germany/ Czechoslovakia as it's hopefully a low excitement position that Knowles can ride out his career with Lieutenant Colonel Clark (Tim Reid) keeping Knowles' confrontational personality in relative check. During a patrol lead by Knowles a Czech defectator attempts to make a run for the West German border only for the Soviet border patrol under the command of Colonel Valachev (Jurgen Prochnow) to shoot the defector in the back on the neutral territory. Angered by the actions, Knowles throws a snowball at Valachev with Valachev responding in kind with the two men motivated by stubbornness and pride to wage their own private grudge match with one another that threatens to spill over into a larger conflict.
The Fourth War comes to us from noted thriller filmmaker John Frankenheimer, written by Day of the Jackal screenwriter Kenneth Ross based upon a treatment by Stephen Peters who had previously written the HBO thriller The Park is Mine. Produced around the same time as Frankenheimer's Dead Bang, The Fourth War was intended by Frankenheimer and star Roy Scheider as a satirical anti-war film which boils the concept of war down to a festering and escalating feud between two soldiers on opposite sides. While titled The Fourth War by the distributor, this title was at odds with the intention of the filmmakers with alternates such as Game of Honor and Face Off rejected for one reason or another. Upon release the film received slightly mixed but positive reviews with many complimenting the performances by Scheider and Prochnow as well as the direction by Frankenheimer while many felt the film's premise was a bit too outlandish. The movie also had the misfortune of being released during the thaw in US/USSR relations that was a prelude to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War so when the film was released it was largely ignored by audiences at the box office making just over $1 million against its $14.5 million budget. Upon reflection The Fourth War is an entertaining character study of two men driven by arrogance and pride into carrying out an increasingly destructive feud.
Both Schneider and Prochnow are very good as Knowles and Valachev respectively, and there's not really a "Good guy/bad guy" dynamic here as these are both career military men and it's made clear from the beginning that Valachev did not approve of his men killing the Czech defector that serves as the impetus for the feud. The movie isn't heavy on plot as it's really a series of escalating attacks carried out by Knowles and Valachev against each other that have no real objective other than to cause embarrassment, damage, and inconvenience with the only death in the film being the Czech defector. Harry Dean Stanton and Tim Reid are very good as General Hackworth and Lieutenant Colonel Clark respectively who are both trying to act as some element of sanity be it for Knowles himself or the situation in general as they try to contain Knowles' destructive maelstrom as best they can. The sequences by Frankenheimer are well directed and both impactful and filled with tension and there's seldom a moment where something isn't happening. I guess the biggest hurdle in enjoying this film will be in the farfetched nature of the story but given this is supposed to be satirical of the escalating nature of warfare I was willing to give it a pass on that front. There is however a subplot involving a second Czech named Elena played by Lana Harris and I didn't feel this element worked all that well and it feels like a hurdle that the third act struggles to integrate.
The Fourth War is an entertaining character study of two proud and stubborn men and their escalating feud with each other as it turns into larger scale consequences. While the plot will be a little hard to swallow for one reason or another and certain subplots don't work as well as they should have I can say this is well worth your time.
The Fourth War comes to us from noted thriller filmmaker John Frankenheimer, written by Day of the Jackal screenwriter Kenneth Ross based upon a treatment by Stephen Peters who had previously written the HBO thriller The Park is Mine. Produced around the same time as Frankenheimer's Dead Bang, The Fourth War was intended by Frankenheimer and star Roy Scheider as a satirical anti-war film which boils the concept of war down to a festering and escalating feud between two soldiers on opposite sides. While titled The Fourth War by the distributor, this title was at odds with the intention of the filmmakers with alternates such as Game of Honor and Face Off rejected for one reason or another. Upon release the film received slightly mixed but positive reviews with many complimenting the performances by Scheider and Prochnow as well as the direction by Frankenheimer while many felt the film's premise was a bit too outlandish. The movie also had the misfortune of being released during the thaw in US/USSR relations that was a prelude to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War so when the film was released it was largely ignored by audiences at the box office making just over $1 million against its $14.5 million budget. Upon reflection The Fourth War is an entertaining character study of two men driven by arrogance and pride into carrying out an increasingly destructive feud.
Both Schneider and Prochnow are very good as Knowles and Valachev respectively, and there's not really a "Good guy/bad guy" dynamic here as these are both career military men and it's made clear from the beginning that Valachev did not approve of his men killing the Czech defector that serves as the impetus for the feud. The movie isn't heavy on plot as it's really a series of escalating attacks carried out by Knowles and Valachev against each other that have no real objective other than to cause embarrassment, damage, and inconvenience with the only death in the film being the Czech defector. Harry Dean Stanton and Tim Reid are very good as General Hackworth and Lieutenant Colonel Clark respectively who are both trying to act as some element of sanity be it for Knowles himself or the situation in general as they try to contain Knowles' destructive maelstrom as best they can. The sequences by Frankenheimer are well directed and both impactful and filled with tension and there's seldom a moment where something isn't happening. I guess the biggest hurdle in enjoying this film will be in the farfetched nature of the story but given this is supposed to be satirical of the escalating nature of warfare I was willing to give it a pass on that front. There is however a subplot involving a second Czech named Elena played by Lana Harris and I didn't feel this element worked all that well and it feels like a hurdle that the third act struggles to integrate.
The Fourth War is an entertaining character study of two proud and stubborn men and their escalating feud with each other as it turns into larger scale consequences. While the plot will be a little hard to swallow for one reason or another and certain subplots don't work as well as they should have I can say this is well worth your time.