“The Dogs of War” is a movie by John Irvin
(“Hamburger Hill”, “When Trumpets Fade”) based on the novel by John
Forsyth. The movie was filmed in Belize
and is set in a fictional African nation of Zangaro. It is a story of an attempted coup by
mercenaries on behalf of a British corporation that wants mineral rights in the
country. It stars Christopher Walken,
two years removed from “The Deer
Hunter”.
The movie begins with our anti-heroes fleeing from a
botched rebellion in some Central American nation. Their leader, Cat Shannon (Walken), returns to
his seedy apartment in New Jersey and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife. He wants to settle down and move to Wyoming
or some such place. She and the audience
say “sure!” Oh well, back to work. Shannon gets a job from a shady character
named Endean (Hugh Millhis). His boss is
the CEO of a large corporation which wants a crazy African dictator named Kimba
overthrown because the tycoon wants to spread democracy. Just kidding, he wants the mineral rights so
he can add that next billion to his wallet.
Being a mercenary, Shannon takes the job and reunites the band. First, he has to reconnoiter the capital of
Zangaro. Two things of significance
happen on the scouting expedition. He
meets a comely African lass who turns out to be Kimba’s mistress. The second thing is that because of the girl
he gets tortured by Kimba’s lackeys. In
prison he meets a kindly doctor who lost the election to Kimba. Upon return to America, Shannon begins
preparation for the coup. After
acquiring the necessary weapons (including a bad-ass gun called a XM-18) ,
Shannon and his four buddies take a freighter to Africa. They are joined by some Africans who will
serve as cannon fodder. The plan is to
assault the Presidential compound with extreme prejudice and then Endean will
bring in an equally repulsive African general to become the new Idi Amin. Except this monster will be in corporation’s
pocket.
“The Dogs of War” is one of the more famous mercenary
movies. It bears closest resemblance to
“The Wild Geese” and is part of a subgenre that continues with the recent
“Expendables” movies. “Dogs” is an above
average entry in the soldiers of fortune milieu. Like most of them, it is low budget. And the cast is actors who are either going
to be famous, or more likely, on the downside of their careers. Usually these movies are ensemble pieces, but
“Dogs” is really a one man show. Walken
dominates with his smoldering intensity.
He must have intimidated the editor because his second in command Tom
Berenger got left mostly on the cutting room floor. The rest of the cast is
blah. And we don’t care because there is
virtually no character development.
Technically the movie is average.
The cinematography is nothing special.
Irvin is not trying to stand out from typical merc flicks in his first
feature film. The action sequences are
pedestrian. The tired, but trusted trope
of good guys firing randomly to create fireworks. The one outside the box move was to include
the XM-18 which is a multi-barreled assault weapon that can fire a variety of
ordinance such as fragmentation, grenades, anti-tank, and anti-personnel. It really livens up the party.
The plot is predictable and cliché-ridden. Shannon is a war –weary warrior who only
knows how to do one thing. Naturally he
loses his wife over his avocation. He
may not be a lover, but he is a killer with a heart of gold (or in this case,
platinum). Endean represents the evil, greedy tycoon who is more powerful than
any politician. The movie includes some
twists that the average mercenary movie fan will be surprised by, but the
average viewer will see coming from a mile away. (Oops, I think I just questioned the
intelligence of merc movie maniacs. Sorry. Don’t get your panties in a bunch. Oops.)
It would have been nice if the dialogue was a little tongue in cheek
(like “Expendables”), but this is the young Walken, not the SNL Walken. In fact, the funniest moment comes when the
four mercenaries enter the compound and pose for a kick-ass movie poster with
guns a blazin’. The big action set piece
is entertaining in a mindless way, but the buildup is boring.
As I have
mentioned before, my theory is that any competently made movie based on a book
should be better than the source material.
The only excuse is if the technology or budget is not capable of
replicating scenes from the book. There
is no excuse for the plot to be worse than the book. In this case, the plots differ in substantial
ways. The book is in many ways a
tutorial for anyone who wants to overthrow an African dictator. Forsyth was familiar with mercenaries, arms
dealers, and African coups. He spends
the vast majority of the book showing off his insider’s knowledge. Thankfully the movie just alludes to all the
details that go into overthrowing an African government. I found all the jetting around by the various
team members to put all the pieces together to be tedious. Maybe if I wanted to be a soldier of fortune
someday, but the truth is that I could care less about an “end user”
certificate.
Where the book is superior to the movie is in the
set-up and pay-off. The novel gives the
background that the movie is obtuse about.
Forsyth covers the geologist discovering the platinum at a mountain in
Zangara and Marson’s subsequent efforts to get a monopoly on the site. We also learn how Shannon finds out that the
mission is wealth dominated. Part of
this knowledge comes from an affair with Marson’s sluttish daughter. The book does not have the wife subplot. (We get Jo Beth Williams instead of Bo
Derek.) The battle is also quite
different, but ends up in basically the same place. It is more realistic tactically than the film,
but not as entertaining. The aftermath
of the coup is better in the book.
MOVIE =
C
BOOK
= D
