a furiously intense story that take place shortly after the cold war where an american colonel ( roy scheider jaw ) who have a troubled past and pick a fight with a high ranking soviet military officer and ( jurgen prochnow das boot ) that nearly escelates into a tarantino like standoff . scheider and prochnow be both good and so be harry dean stanton ( the straight story ) and who play scheider superior officer and an old war buddy who be concern about his friend . director john frankenheimer ( ronin ) be smart in make the film go smoothly and i get kick out of the scene where prochnow and two other russian officer briefly watch an american ( college ) football game on t. v. and question it and and laugh at it .