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The Dogs Of War [1981]


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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

Based on the novel by Frederick Forsyth, The Dogs of War is an uneasy mix of espionage and combat that never really succeeds in either role. Based around the character of Paul Shannon, the film follows events in the fictional African state of Zagaro. Hired on a reconnaissance mission by a nameless multi-national corporation, Shannon is captured and tortured before his release, only to return to the country to lead a small band of mercenaries (the dogs of the title) in a bloody coup.

The first section of the movie works best, building a real sense of tension and unease, not least through a typically understated performance by Christopher Walken as the paranoid loner who keeps a pistol in his fridge (watch too for a brief appearance from a young Jim Broadbent). There are obvious references to the by-then obsolete school of Vietnam filmmaking in the second section, with the Asian enemy replaced by an African one. The gung-ho mentality of the soldiers is, however, so two-dimensional that the viewer develops little empathy for their plight. The action is slow and drawn out, with the seemingly endless pregnant pauses operating as a means for enabling the film to achieve a reasonable running time.

On the DVD: little is on offer here aside from the usual scene selection, audio and subtitle options and original cinema trailer. --Phil Udell


Welcome to Zangaro
Review date: 2008-05-25 Rating: 10 out of 10

Christopher Walken plays the sentimental but tough mercenary in this film of Fredrick Forsyth's novel. Forsyth, who coverered Biafra, knows whereof he speaks on mercenary warfare especially of this era before the large corporates got involved. The Republic of Zangaro is a mixture of a number of African states under a Big Man before the era of Hobbesian chaos that you'll find in Blood Diamond. Although this is not a film with a message it nevertheless demonstrates how unpleasant such places are, especially as our hero falls into the hands of the Army and gets a spell in jail. Backed up by a number of excellent character actors this film stays firmly rooted in a ruthless but pre-Rambo realism.

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Reviews


Cry havoc...
Review date: 2007-11-10 Rating: 6 out of 10

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!

Don't bother
Review date: 2007-08-17 Rating: 2 out of 10

This film felt like it was the longest I'd ever watched, or more accurately, endured.

If you have read the Frederick Forsyth book 'The Dogs of War', upon which this film is apparently based, DON'T watch the film as you are in for a SERIOUS disappointment.

Even if you haven't read the book, do yourself a favour and avoid the film.

It's simply terrible, and probably the worst film I have ever seen, which is a shame as I was looking forward to seeing it - the book was good though.


Soldier of Fortune
Review date: 2002-07-13 Rating: 6 out of 10

I can't recall a film in which Walken gave a bad performance and this film is no exception. The story is simple but ultimately very satisfying (particularly the last sequence), and generally revolves around a band of mercenaries who are hired to carry out a coup in some African state. There is a slightly cliched presentation of African politics although you can't expect Hollywood movies to be intelligent too!
Ultimately, it's a good 'war' movie with decent effects and a plot.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Hugh Millais
Colin Blakely
Christopher Walken
Paul Freeman
Tom Berenger

Creators:
Christopher Walken (Primary Contributor)
Tom Berenger (Primary Contributor)
Larry DeWaay (Producer)
Norman Jewison (Producer)
Patrick J. Palmer (Producer)
Frederick Forsyth (Writer)
Gary DeVore (Writer)
George Malko (Writer)
Michael Cimino (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: MGM Entertainment
Manufacturer: MGM Entertainment
EAN: 5050070007657
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen,
Release date: 2002-02-18
Number of discs: 1
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 113 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1981-02-13
Language: Danish (Subtitled)
Language: Dutch (Subtitled)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: French (Subtitled)
Language: Italian (Subtitled)
Language: Norwegian (Subtitled)
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)
Language: Swedish (Subtitled)
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: French (Dubbed)
Language: German (Dubbed)
Language: Italian (Dubbed)
Language: Spanish (Dubbed)

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