The Beast

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...