La quatrième guerre

Yes, stunning, as in stunningly silly. The only two saving graces were Tim Reid and Harry Dean Stanton. Even Roy Scheider couldn't save this. It's hard to believe John Frankenheimer was responsible for this mess.

Other than that it was great!

My review was written in February 1990 after watching the movie at a Manhattan screening room.

Events in Eastern Europe have overtaken "The Fourth War", a well-made Cold War thriller about private battling that might escalate out of control. Foreign prospects are better than U. S., for thai John Frankenheimer effort.

Opening title sets the tale in November 1988 on the border of Czechoslovakia and East Germany. Roy Scheider is well-cast as a hardline colonel who's caused nothing but trouble in his career and is now stationed at a post near the border by his general, Harry Dean Stanton.

Soon after taking his new post, Scheider witnesses the murdr of a fleeing defector through no man's land. He rightly blames the Soviet colonel (Jurgen Prochnow) for this dastardly deed and even throws a snowball at him in anger.

From this minor act of outrage ensues a man-to-man feud of Laurel & Hardy proportions, involving blowing up Scheider's jeep and singlehanded invasions of each other's country by the worked-up colonels. Scheider's second in command, Tim Reid, brings a note of sanity to the proceedings, but even his reports to Stanton and Stanton reading the riot act to Scheider fail to halt the hostilities.

Things finally come to a head when Lara Harris, as a Czech working in West Germany who needs help to return home to her child, comes between the two Cold Warriors.

Tightly directed by Frankenheimer with an eye for comic relief as well as tension maintenance, "The Fourth War" holds the fascination of eyeball-to-eyeball conflict. It's not exactly "Hell in the Pacific" but with the shading provided by Scheider and Prochnow on their surface-unsympathetic characters, the film holds its grip.

Problem, as with another Cold War tale "The Hunt for Red October", is simply that an audience can no longer readily feel the imminent danger of WW III in a period of thaw. The chills of a Frnakenheimer classic like ""Seven Days in May" can't be generated by such an outlandish fable. Instead, one can vicariously enjoy a battle of dinosaurs, hardliners (and there are plenty of them still with us in both East and West) who still view the world in simplistic us versus them terms.

Besides the two stars, Reid is very effective as the man on the spot (his commanding officer is out of control), and Harris is convincing as a duplicitous femme fatale. Gerry Fisher's lensing (on Calgary-area locations adequately subbing for Europe) is fluid and especially striking in night scenes, while Bill Conti's rousing score keeps one's pulse running.

Title refers to an Albert Einstein quote: the third world war may involve nuclear weapons, but the fourth will be fought with stones.

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.

I frankly expected more from a Frakenheimer movie. Roy Scheider as Colonel Jack Knowles is okay as the hothead military iconoclast who's not been the same since the war in Vietnam. He is sent to the German-Czech border and wages a personal vendetta against the short-fused Russian colonel Valachev, played quite menacingly by Jurgen Prochnow. The end of detente and the last Cold War battle? Well, Scheider throws a snowball at Prochnow and the fourth war starts. basically that's how. The premise is good but we are treated to a long and meandering tit-for-tat between two Army colonels that borders on the childish and wanton. While occasionally funny, this is not an intelligent movie. You'd be better off watching Toy Soldiers if you want a more gripping story.

A furiously intense story that takes place shortly after the Cold War where an American colonel (Roy Scheider - "Jaws") who has a troubled past, picks a fight with a high-ranking Soviet military officer, (Jurgen Prochnow - "Das Boot") that nearly escelates into a Tarantino-like standoff. Scheider and Prochnow are both good and so is Harry Dean Stanton ("The Straight Story"), who plays Scheider's superior officer and an old war buddy who is concerned about his friend. Director John Frankenheimer ("Ronin") is smart in making the film go smoothly and I got kick out of the scene where Prochnow and two other Russian officers briefly watch an American (college) football game on t.v., question it, and laugh at it.