A grizzled American general, feeling useless after the fall of the Berlin Wall and his being put to pasture as the commander of a military base on the German/Czech border, begins a largely unprovoked, but quickly reciprocated, one man battle against his Russian opposite on the other side of the border. It slowly becomes more and more likely that, as their, frankly, stupid feud escalates in personal animosity, their respective countries, still mired in Cold War politics, will be drawn back into outright hostilities.

Though made in 1990, the contemporary parallels in the Russian invasion of Ukraine are probably a little too obvious to make this film as enjoyable as it may once have been, particularly with regards to the ‘will cooler heads prevail’ question as, so far in 2022, there is unlikely to be as neat a conclusion as this film offers.

A grizzled American general, feeling useless after the fall of the Berlin Wall and his being put to pasture as the commander of a military base on the German/Czech border, begins a largely unprovoked, but quickly reciprocated, one man battle against his Russian opposite on the other side of the border. It slowly becomes more and more likely that, as their, frankly, stupid feud escalates in personal animosity, their respective countries, still mired in Cold War politics, will be drawn back into outright hostilities.

Though made in 1990, the contemporary parallels in the Russian invasion of Ukraine are probably a little too obvious to make this film as enjoyable as it may once have been, particularly with regards to the ‘will cooler heads prevail’ question as, so far in 2022, there is unlikely to be as neat a conclusion as this film offers.