The Dogs of War
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Movie Reviews of The Dogs of War
Movie Review: Dogs of War
Summary: 4 Stars
Item arrived ahead of schedule and in excellent shape. One of my favorite movies, with a plot that reminds me so much of the 1950-60's Africa. Very good.Movie Review: Cry havoc...
Summary: 3 Stars
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!
Movie Review: An exciting story of a coup d'etat in Africa
Summary: 3 Stars
This film is (loosely) based upon the novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth. Christopher Walken plays mercenary Shannon, who is employed by a Western mining company to stage a coup d'etat against the brutal dictator of a poor West African country. Walken turns in a good and believable performance that highlights is not-inconsiderable talent.
This story is only loosely based upon the Forsyth novel. Almost all of the storyline is different from the novel, although the main theme, the staging of the coup, is still the central axis of the story. The details are all different. No matter; this one holds the viewer's interest and is particularly engaging with its workmanlike portrayal of the details of planning and staging a coup. The action is very good. If this one had stayed closer to the novel's storyline I think that it would have been better, but that is just my opinion.
A very watchable film. RJB.
Movie Review: The Dogs of War
Summary: 3 Stars
I am a big fan of Christopher Walken. However this movie was almost a
verbatim remake of "The Wild Geese" from a few years before. I would
not recommend this movie as a purchase item to anyone else, but it
would be nice to rent "both" DVD's. Then anyone could make an informed
choice as to whether to purchase either,or both movies.
Movie Review: not worthy of the book
Summary: 1 Stars
If you've read the book, Dogs of War, then you will be really disappointed with this movie. It tries to follow the book but does a really poor job. It skips over details of the operation and of the plot from the book. I find it hard for anyone who hasn't read the book to really understand this movie. It's as though they've taken every 35th page and made a scene in the movie with it. It felt kind of disjointed. I would love to see a remake of it though. The book is fantastic for those who are really into the details of setting up an operation of this magnatude.