The Beast

To the depths of wartime madness along a Conrad-style journey to the parched, vast horizon and beyond. It is mainly Isham’s background music that is fascinating; it’s like straight out of a creepy horror movie from the 80’s which together with wide-angle shots of the awe-inspiring stony desert create a captivatingly and disturbing atmosphere that helps us to understand the impulsive (and often also illogical) behavior of the characters balancing on the edge (and in some cases dangling over the edge) of sanity. The only criticism maybe just the thick American accents in the mouths of the Soviet heroes and the first third of the movie after an excellent prologue which is standard to the extent that it borders on dullness. (2014.08.11)