Journalist Guy Lawson in a Rolling Stone magazine article entitled The Stoner Arms Dealers: How Two American Kids Became Big-Time Weapons Traders and later in the book Arms and the Dudes that became a bestseller in 2015, recounted some events that occurred during the Bush administration, and that were related to the world of arms sales. This is the basis on which the filmmaker and screenwriter Todd Phillips have been inspired to shape War Dogs, the film that I will talk about today.
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Year: 2016 Category: Biographical, Dark Comedy, Crime. Director: Todd Phillips Cast: Jonah Hill, Miles Teller, Ana de Armas, Bradley Cooper, Kevin Pollak, Patrick St. Esprit, Shaun Toub, JB Blanc, Gabriel Spahiu, Barry Livingston, Eddie Jemison, David Packouz, Wallace Langham.
Plot
In 2005, David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli, two young people between 19 and 23 years old, try to grow a company dedicated to the international sale of arms and ammunition, making the government its main customer. Three years later they were accused of conspiracy to sell ammunition manufactured in China to the Afghan Army. Diveroli was sentenced to four years in prison and Packouz to seven months of house arrest, the film tells his story.
Opinion
The film shows David Packouz being a masseuse with little money, that's where Efraim Diveroli appears, who takes advantage of the old friendship he had with Packouz to drag him into the vortex of greed, luxury and the dark side of the American Dream. Diveroli, unlike his friend, is the kind of heartless and greedy person who would sell his own mother to get a gun sale contract.
The film basically shows us something we have seen before, and that we know perfectly well in today's society: the unscrupulous who are willing to do anything to fill their pockets of money have a good chance of succeeding.
The film has a good interpretive work, Jonah Hill does a great job as Efraim, and Miles Teller does a good job as a narrator and an acceptable acting job. Bradley Cooper, plays a small role but with enough importance to contribute something to the development of the film. As for the female characters, the actress Ana de Armas does a job that goes under the radar. The soundtrack, on the other hand, is composed of themes by Pink Floyd, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Iggy Pop, The Who.
War Dogs works for several reasons, Todd Philips and his usual cinematographer Lawrence Sher have narrative chemistry, they make a combination between the visual and the plot using the tools they have available with effectiveness. The film decides to play it safe, maintaining a classic structure in terms of the characters, situations and outcome, however, the strong point of the film is the rhythm of its dialogues.
The problem of the film is presented when the story is stabilized, presenting some flaws of the script, in addition to the film has no memorable sequence that remains recorded in our memory. However, we can stay with the interesting data it provides about the business that war involves and those who take advantage of it without caring about the lives that are at stake. Luckily, the story is interesting enough so that the viewer is always aware of the development.
The movie is so painfully true that it makes you question its truthfulness. Who would think that two young people in their twenties in Miami could get rich by bidding for military contracts? But that is what was happening in the mid-2000s during the Bush and Cheney invasions in Iraq and Afghanistan. They just had to know how to exploit it, and that was precisely what they both did.
Trailer
Score
7/10
While watching the film, it was impossible for me not to think about Lord of War, the film written and directed by Andrew Niccol and starring by Nicolas Cage, which addressed the illegal sale of weapons without concessions. And although War Dogs is in the shadow of that great movie, I think those who saw it can have an entertaining and reflective moment too.
