The Dogs of War (1981)

Quite interesting...

Shannon (Christopher Walken) is a mercenary war who accepted for the sum of 15,000 dollars to fly to a fictional country in West Africa on a survey mission to procure military information concerning the stability of a dictator's regime, his position strength, and if there is any chance for a coup?

Posing as an American naturalist--especially in native birds--Shannon landed in Zangaro and gathered all the facts he needed but after suffering a brutal beating from the guards for taking pictures of one of the mistresses of the dictator's in front of his compound...

When he's offered a large amount of money to gather a well-equipped mercenary force and go back to Zangaro and lead a military takeover, he reluctantly assents...

The assault has authority, power and unexpected... consequences. So don't miss it!

August 7, 2008

Damn good picture without any easy answers....

This is a great film, a film that hasn't dated and a film where you can watch Christopher Walken before he became a rather silly parody of himself. Walken plays a mercenary hired by a conglomorate/corporation to check out a 3rd world African country. The person that hires Walken has ties to investors who want to know how stable the country is, and whether they need to instigate a coup de tat to install a more "friendlier" leader. The corporation decides that a new leader is needed, but Walken and his crew have other things on their minds, leading to an unexpected (and believable) ending.

The best thing about this film is that it just shows the events without restorting to simplistic, "this is bad" tones that mar many Hollywood films. The film has no easy answers and poses no easy questions. It just shows you how coups occur, why they occur, and what happens after they're done. It's a neat little picture, perhaps a little cold, but very realistic, exciting, thought provoking, and it leaves an indelible impression. July 6, 2008

Cry havoc...

The Dogs of War is part of that subgenre of war movies that briefly blossomed in the late-sixties and seventies but found little favor in subsequent years, the story about the ageing mercenary who suffers a crisis of conscience (Dark of the Sun, The Wild Geese, Savior etc). It was also the last significant attempt to turn Christopher Walken into a mainstream leading man in the Brando mould on the back of his Deer Hunter Oscar, with the trailer and marketing almost ignoring co-stars Tom Berenger and, despite delivering the film's best performance as a cynical documentary filmmaker, Colin Blakely. Certainly Walken takes a beating as convincingly as Brando, though the public weren't biting in 1981.

Frederick Forsyth's novel gained much notoriety due to the excessive lengths he went to in researching it - few writers would actually invest in a hastily abandoned African coup d'etat to get the inside details right, though it seems Forsyth did just that. As a result, the film goes to great lengths to stress its veracity, with director John Irvin, still hot after the success of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, adopting the stripped-down near documentary style that served Fred Zinnemann so well with The Day of the Jackal. Irvin's subsequent work would sadly mark him out as one of the flattest action directors in the business, but here - perhaps leaning on the experience of cinematographer Jack Cardiff, who also directed Dark of the Sun - he delivers the goods surprisingly effectively. Underneath all the gritty pseudo-realism it's a very familiar story (Winston Ntshona practically plays the same role here as an imprisoned deposed president that he did in the more Boys' Own The Wild Geese three years earlier), but it's well told - or at least in the two-hour European cut of the film which, perversely, is only available on DVD in the US, and there in a version with dodgy synchronisation in the early scenes: Europe has to make do with the cut US version shorn of 16 minutes. Geoffrey Burgon's score makes good use of A.E. Housman's Epitaph On An Army of Mercenaries while among the familiar faces in the supporting cast can be spotted Paul Freeman, Ed O'Neill, Jim Broadbent (as one of Blakely's film crew), Victoria Tennant and an unbilled Helen Shaver, though aside from Blakely, the standout performance probably comes from Hugh Millais' cold-fish middle man.

Once again, bear in mind that the US NTSC DVD is the uncut European version of the film, while the UK PAL DVD is the cut US version! February 16, 2008

Fascinating movie

This is a great video. Christopher Walken plays a mercenary who plans to carry out a coup in a an African country on behalf of a multinational corporation, and he plays it very well. Walken plays a convincing psycho in just about anything he's in. The story is believable and the plot moves along very well in this film. Of course, there's much more to the story in the book but overall the movie is faithful to the storyline.

By the way, look for an early appearance by the actor who plays Al Bundy in Married With Children. November 26, 2007

Cry Havoc and Buy `The Dogs of War'

`The Dogs of War' is a cold warrior classic forgotten.

I still remember the frightening sight of the VHS cover, a painting of Walken's frightening face gripping a revolving grenade launcher, greeting me at the video store. I never saw it, always assuming it was merely Vietnam War backwash resulting from `The Deer Hunter.' I was completely wrong, sand deeply regret missing `The Dogs of War' all these years.

Based on Fredrick Forsyth's best selling cold warrior novel of the same title, `The Dogs of War' focus on a single great raid battle with wide reaching elements of drama. Mercenary Shannon (Christopher Walken) is hired by British industrialists to overthrow a stereotypical African dictatorship. 75% percent of the film involves the planning of a single great victory. The planning is filled with excitement as Walken and co mercenaries, including Tom Berenger and Ed O'Neal scavenge Europe of equipment. Their arsenal includes Uzis, rocket launchers, claymores, and new unique on unforgettable revolving grenade launchers. An advanced weapon still only now 27 years later making it to the battlefield.

The climactic battle is one of the most memorable blitzkriegs in movie history.

Christopher Walken's performance takes us back to when his frightening face and demeanor were used for fear, not comedy. Yes, some comedians like Walken and Leslie Nielson started out as action heroes.

`The Dogs of War' effectively combines Walken's acting, cold warrior cloak and dagger, and all out modern action.
July 17, 2007

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