Dogs Of War
Coming off his star making, Oscar winning performance in 1978âs The Deer Hunter, Christopher Walken for a few years after was considered to be the next great acting sensation of the 20th century and with his Supporting Actor Oscar in the bag, he proceeded to field a number of leading roles, some of which (Dead Zone) were great while others not so much before Walken finally found his true niche as possibly the coolest character actor who ever lived.  This 1980 vehicle was one of his first starring roles, an unusual war drama about mercenaries based on a novel by Frederick Forsyth that purported to be some sort of an inside look at their lives and business dealings but mostly is just Walken carrying the movie and most of the dramatic weight as well. Heâs the American leader of an international team of mercenaries whose fellow American members include Tom Berenger (who saw over half of his screen time hit the cutting room floor and he was reportedly VERY displeased about it) and Ed (Al Bundy) OâNeill. After attending a baptism as godfather for a baby of a friend whom it was said he had deserted in Vietnam (but him being godfather for the kid was still his friendâs last wishes) and then afterwards being told by the babyâs mother to never show his face around her again, he is approached by a shadowy European representative to basically go on a simple recon mission for good money to a fictional African country in order the gauge the stability of the government which is run by an evil Fascist dictator who has put himself in a pseudo godlike position among his people and his military. Walkenâs trip to this country (masquerading as a nature photographer) takes up nearly half the movie as he witnesses the atrocities being dealt out first hand and even befriends a British news journalist (Colin Blakely) with his own camera crew who imparts some valuable information to Walken while also telling him point blank that he obviously isnât really who he says he is. Eventually the dictatorâs goons get word on Walkenâs activities, imprisoning him before also beating and torturing him as well. Walken is deported and makes it home alive, where the same European go between makes him a new offer to assemble a team and go in to oust the dictator so that a new leader can be installed (one who is willing to do business with the billionaires paying Walkenâs salary) and the country can now be mined and harvested for its natural resources. Walken agrees and gets his team together, but angers his employers and their new puppet leader (a former political ally turned rival of the current dictator) by refusing to divulge any and all details of the impending coup, keeping them instead on a need to know basis as now we have another very large portion of the movie dedicated to the planning  stages of this operation as Walken and Berenger meet with various arms dealers to get the weapons and ammo needed to essentially take over an entire country. The film spouts the not all that unfamiliar credo that most wars in this day and age are only about money and little else (no matter what might get reported in the news) and that many of the evil bastard, despotic dictators in this world are also those who refuse to do any kind of international business with outside parties looking to invest in what their countries have to offer, which would be commendable in some ways if it wasnât for the ironic fact that these same dictators really do sanction human rights abuses such as torture, murder and sometimes outright genocide on their own people. It makes one wonder just which side has the higher moral ground when it comes to these conflicts.  Forsyth himself as the original author even pretended to be organizing an entire staged coup just so he could get to meet and interact with actual international arms dealers and mercenaries, even stating for the record that the arms dealers (usually shady types who have mastered the art of keeping a low profile) were amongst the most frightening people whom he has ever encountered in his entire life and the unfortunate reality which is revealed here that war (especially in the 80s where there were very few conflicts that could be promoted as noble causes) is big business indeed, so much so that there really doesnât seem to be many âgood guysâ left in the world (unlike World War II where Hitler and his compadres made for ideal, clear cut bad guys) even as types like Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden were trotted out by the media as being supervillains we could all love to hate and root for our own forces to bring them down. But is it really that these types are no less bloodthirsty than the rich and powerful who seek to bring them down because they wonât come to the table and make a business deal? And if they did, would a blind eye be turned to their atrocities? And is there anyone in the world currently with this sort of arrangement who spills the blood of others on a daily basis? All of these are valid questions and none of the answers are supposed to mean anything to the mercenary who is expected to take the money, keep his mouth shut and then go out and do the dirty work in combat so that the wealthy people can get the forced outcome that they so richly desire. And that is the situation that Walken finds himself in as even though he openly despises the people that heâs working for, heâs also aware that moneywise this is a big score for himself, Berenger (who only accepts the job because his wife is pregnant and he âdoesnât wanna watch her get fatâ) and the others. As far as the character development for Walken, itâs pretty interesting, depicting him as the type who keeps guns in all of his drawers and even his refrigerator (hey you never know) even while he still carries a candle for his ex wife (JoBeth Williams) who doesnât even deny still loving him even as it is explained that she was essentially forced to divorce him by her rich, drunken father after a falling out between the old man and Walken. He does have a soft spot for kids though as shown by him befriending a (possibly homeless) little black boy whom he actually takes into his apartment and even leaves him in charge of the place when he goes off on his mission. After a nearly endless series of scenes in the second half showing the mission being set up (including dealers trying to back out of their agreed upon arrangements and a spy / assassin tailing them who actually works for Walkenâs employers since Walken wonât give out any details of the mission to them), we finally get to the actual coup itself, the last twenty minutes of the film (and the only time that we get anything even resembling actual action scenes) and the clever twist at the end with Walken turning the tables on everyone (and the much feared and very often talked about dictator when he finally appears onscreen turns out to be nothing more than a sniveling coward who grovels in front of Walken practically throwing stacks of cash at him in exchange for sparing his life) but still driving home all too well the point that the explosions and loss of human life over something like financial interests in a region is really a pointless endeavor indeed (itâs explained that the new puppet leader differs from the one being overthrown because HE has no aspirations of being worshipped as a deity by his own people despite being just as ruthless simply because he has already signed off on having all of the business interests ransack his country for natural resources with him as their de facto partner getting rich and fat) but thatâs just the way that the world really works it seems with the evils of politics dividing people taking a backseat to the evils of money and those equipped to continue making it in order to grow their power base. The pacing issues definitely hurt this movie quite a bit (as is cutting out a large portion of a Tom Berenger performance) but Walken in the singular starring role manages to carry this just barely over the top with his trademark âhauntedâ acting style and line delivery combined with the cynical notion that helping rich people achieve their goals through bringing death and destruction onto a nation that is too primitive to even comprehend knowing how to properly fight back is a proper career for those who have served as soldiers in wartime and actually LIKED it enough to continue doing so on an independent contractor basis, but to each their own even as they become more dead inside the more that they do itâŚ
7/10