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 (meaning "Roses war", or less literally, "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.

The Roses, Barbara and Oliver, live happily as a married couple. Then she starts to wonder what life would be like without Oliver, and likes what she sees. Both want to stay in the house, and so they begin a campaign to force each other to leave. In the middle of the fighting is D'Amato, the divorce lawyer. He gets to see how far both will go to get rid of the other, and boy do they go far.. Written by Rob Hartill