The War of the Roses is a 1989 American black comedy film based upon the 1981 novel of the same name by Warren Adler. The film follows a wealthy couple with a seemingly perfect marriage. When their marriage begins to fall apart, material possessions become the center of an outrageous and bitter divorce battle. This is the third film to co-star Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito, after Romancing the Stone and its sequel, The Jewel of the Nile. DeVito directed the film, which also had producer James L. Brooks and actor Dan Castellaneta working on a project outside of The Simpsons. In both the novel and the film, the married couple’s family name is Rose, and the title is an allusion to the battles between the Houses of York and Lancaster (English Civil War) at the end of the Middle Ages. In German-speaking regions, since the film’s release, the word Rosenkrieg (meaning “Roses war”, or less literally, “War of the Roses”) has come to denote such a bitter fight for material possessions, as depicted in the film (and often also for custody of the children) with most speakers completely unaware of the word’s origins.
