The War of the Roses (film)

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The War of the Roses

Directed by	Danny DeVito Thomas Lofaro (1st Ass't)
Produced by	James L. Brooks & Arnon Milchan
Written by	Warren Adler (novel) Michael Leeson (screenplay)
Starring	Michael Douglas Kathleen Turner Danny DeVito
Music by	David Newman
Cinematography	Stephen H. Burum
Editing by	Lynzee Klingman
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	December 8, 1989
Running time	116 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

This article is about a film. For other uses, see Wars of the Roses (disambiguation).

The War of the Roses is a 1989 American motion picture based upon the 1981 novel The War of the Roses by Warren Adler. It is a dark comedy about a wealthy couple with a seemingly perfect marriage. He is a successful lawyer and his wife is building her own catering business. When their marriage begins to fall apart, material possessions become the center of an outrageous and bitter divorce battle.

In both the novel and the movie, the married couple's family name is Rose. At the same time, the title of the book/film alludes to the battles between the Houses of York and Lancaster at the end of the Middle Ages (see Wars of the Roses). In the German-speaking world, since the release of the movie, the word Rosenkrieg (a literal translation of "War of the Roses") has come to denote such a bitter fight for material possessions (and maybe also for custody of the children) as depicted in the film, with most speakers completely unaware of the word's origins.