The Beast (aka The Beast of War) is a Columbia Pictures movie about a Soviet T-62 tank lost in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1981. The movie was released in 1989.

It was based off a Walter Mastrosimone play entitled Nanawatai .

It was directed by Kevin Reynolds , who later directed Waterworld.

It starred George Dzundza, Jason Patric, Steven Bauer, and Stephen Baldwin.

Plot summary

The Soviet T-62 is in Afghanistan attacking a village. The tank loses its radio during an attack by the women of the village and manages to get lost in a valley with only one way in or out.

Mujahadeen warriors, lead by Taj, declare that they will seek "badal" (revenge) and begin to pursue the tank and the people inside.

The Islamic tank log keeper and translator, Samad, teaches Koverchenko the Afghan word for sanctuary in which Islam demands that even if a man be an enemy, under sanctuary or "Nanawatai" (pronounced na-na-wah-teh) he must be "fed, clothed and protect[ed]".

Commander Daskal, known as "Tank Boy" during the Great Patriotic War (World War II) for destroying countless Nazi tanks in the Battle of Stalingrad, grows more psychotic as the movie goes on, even to the point of killing Samad after refusing to let him pray.

After forcing the two of the remaining four tank crew (Golikov and Kaminski) to tie up the driver, Konstantine Koverchenko to a rock to die, Koverchenko then has all the intent of stopping that tank.

Koverchenko and town khan Taj eventually become friends and Koverchenko agrees to do his best to disable the tank (which thanks to assistance by a Soviet helicopter has been refueled on Daskal's command instead of calling an air-strike on the tank and returning the crew back to their base).

Koverchenko and the Mujahadeen, armed with a rocket propelled grenade launcher, find the tank and are able to disable it.

In the end, however, Koverchenko decides to leave the freedom fighters and boards a helicopter for safety as Golikov and Kaminski run from the Afghanis and their vengeance.

Notable details

• The T-62 normally had a crew of four. In "The Beast" there was a crew of five.
• Several actual T-62 tanks were used in the film although the helicopter used in the film was not a real Mi-8. The tank in question in the movie is actually an Israeli modification of a captured Soviet T-62, redesignated as the TI-67. Many of these conversions were used by the Israelis during the 1972 war against Egypt.
• Throughout the entire movie, the only Russian accents were the ones heard on the music radio.
• The language spoken by the native Afghani was Pashtu.
• The character Moustafa wore Soviet medals, including the Order of Lenin, the Soviet Army 20 year service medal, the Order of the Red Banner, Order of the Red Star , and a couple of others, all of which were scavenged from dead Soviet troops.
• The tank shown on the poster isn't a T-62, but a T-55.

External links

• The Beast @ Amazon
• The Beast @ IMDb