The Fourth War

The Fourth War (1990)

Two proud heroes with no one left to fight... But each other.

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.

Date of release
1990-01-12
TMDB
5.3 / 10 (50)
Runtime
1h 31m
Genres
Drama, Thriller, War
Director
John Frankenheimer

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: $1.3M
  • Budget: $14.5M
  • Earned 0.1× its budget

The Fourth War is a 1990 American cold war drama film directed by John Frankenheimer. It is set in West Germany of the late 1980s, and was filmed in Alberta, Canada. It stars Roy Scheider and Jürgen Prochnow as two military men whose personal dispute threatens to escalate into a larger conflict.

Production

The story was based on an original concept by a Los Angeles writer, Stephen Peters. The script was rewritten and updated by Kenneth Ross, who had previously worked with Frankenheimer.

The title comes from a famous quote by Albert Einstein: "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." Frankenheimer and Scheider, both antiwar advocates, were not happy with the film's title, and other titles such as Game of Honor and Face Off were discussed.

Filming took place in Alberta, Canada. It was shot over ten weeks, in locations near where the 1988 Winter Olympics had been held. After unusually warm weather in 1988 there were concerns that the snow would not hold and they would need to create artificial snow instead. During filming in February, temperatures in southern Alberta dropped to 40 below zero which caused some difficulties.

During a fight scene, Scheider cracked a rib and Prochnow dislocated his knee.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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