I was suckered into paying to see this movie in the theater because of the title and because I like the actors.For 19 years now, this movie has been my standard by which to judge all terrible films.There was no excuse for the distribution of this film.Plodding, meandering, insulting to the intelligence of the viewer, and not a sufficient allegory for the cold war to have made it worth seeing.The only reason to watch this movie is to see how truly awful a movie can be.

The plot is absurd, the logic is absent and the running back and forth across the east-west border is laughable.BUT - it's one of the greatest movies ever made anyway. Why? Because it got a view through correctly adjusted binoculars right! As 1 circle. NOT 2 touching circles.Million dollar movies, close to billion dollar movies from Hollywood, can't even get this simple fact right and it annoys me immensely. The annoying thing is that directors can get access to so much money and are not intelligent enough to get it right. If they spend a hundred dollars more they could buy a consultant to tell them things like that! But the directors are too dumb! Amazing.So a big HOORAY for The Fourth War!! The ONLY other film I remember that avoids this Hollywood dumb cliché is The Bridge On The River Kwai.And that's not all folks. The Fourth War lets the Russians speak Russian. I'm close to tears with enthusiasm! In the Hollywood world where Germans, Russians, Chinese and every alien from outer space speaks American this is groundbreaking. I know that most Americans are too dumb to read subtitles (or rather Hollywood think they are) but it renders authenticity in wast amounts to a movie.The ridiculous script is totally forgiven on these two grounds!!

THE FOURTH WAR is a menacing movie. Director John Frankenheimer does a superlative job with this and films like the MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, BLACK SUNDAY and RONIN. The novel by Stephen Peters is good and so is the screenplay. Roy Scheider (JAWS) plays Col. Jack KNOWLES who won't give an inch to the Soviet commander Col. Valachev played by Jurgen Prochnow (DAS BOOT). The snowball fight could have happened. I was talking to a retired American Intelligence Operative in the Niagara Region of Ontario and by his tennis court he revealed that KNOLL EAGLE is the codename for the American Shadow President who he believed to be none other than President JACK KENNEDY. That would make President George W Bush the second in command of AMERICA. KNOLL EAGLE comes from the 1963 alleged JFK assassination and the grassy knoll where there had to be a second shooter based on the number of shots fired and their accuracy that could not be duplicated. I believe that snipers are cowardly and advocate non-violence. I would just like to say congratulations President Kennedy on winning the cold war. Jack Knowles sounds close to Jack Kennedy Knoll Eagle. Harry Dean Stanton has a fine performance as General Hackworth. When the Russians and Chinese attack America at the same time will they torture me for calling them cowardly and uncivilized? Hopefully America will hold out and I won't have to find out. My military Intelligence course prepared me for interrogation but not torture. I gave the FOURTH WAR a 9 out of 10 for mentioning the AMERICAN nuclear detterent so directly.

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.