Of arms and the men who deal them.
War Dogs
Grade: B-
Director: Todd Phillips (The Hangover)
Screenplay: Phillips, Stephen Chin (Another Day in Paradise), Jason Smilovic (Lucky Number Slevin), based on Guy Lawson Rolling Stone article. Arms and the Dudes
Cast: Jonah Hill (Moneyball), Miles Teller (Whiplash)
Rating: R
Runtime: 114 min
by John DeSando
“Let slip the dogs of war.” Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
If you come to War Dogs expecting a comedy from Hangover director Todd Phillips, then you made a wrong turn somewhere around Albania. You should have stopped in Portugal because there are no military arms deals I know of there. Or you could watch Lord of Arms (2005) starring Nicholas Cage as a dealer, a film in which there are fewer laughs.
Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill) and David Packouz (Miles Teller) go from some humorous sales of bed sheets for nursing homes to brokering a $300 million deal with the US Army for 100 million rounds for AK-47s. What begins as late twenty something guys scamming turns into serious arms dealing not only illegal but also extremely dangerous.
The conflict between legitimate sales and the black market store is effectively paralleled in the rocky relationship of the partners and in David’s marriage, both sets suffering from a lack of trust where that is more important than money. In one of the duo’s early arms deals, they travel through Jordan to Iraq to deliver Berettas to the troops; later they’re involved in a big negotiation problematic because of banned defective Chinese ammunition.
Nothing much unexpected happens, so the heart of the film is relationships that reinforce truisms like “honor among thieves,” “greed is the root of evil,” and “honesty is the best policy, Although Efraim is recognizably a borderline personality, shifting his persona to fit the situation, David is a bland nice guy, whose major dilemma is lying to his wife about how he makes money. Yet, he does have to deal with the danger of international arms dealer, Henri Girard (Hangover’s Bradley Cooper), who makes David look like a milquetoast.
War Dogs is not exactly Shakespeare, but it does offer an insight into the shenanigans of the Bush-Cheney debacle. And it’s funny.
“There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed.” Mahatma Gandhi
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
