Based on a true story, War Dogs is the latest outing for director Todd Phillips. Best known for The Hangover trilogy, Phillips is also co-writer, the screenplay based on a book and Rolling Stone article by Guy Lawson. It’s hard to conceive of the film being a very accurate portrayal of the real life characters upon which it is based, but stranger stories have been told. War Dogs is a slick, rock-n-roll look at arms dealers as gangsters.
David Packouz (Miles Teller) is going nowhere fast. His job as a masseuse is not working out, many of his male clientele becoming too amorous. His big plan to sell luxury bed linen to retirement homes fizzles when he discovers no one really cares about the elderly. By chance David reconnects with his former best friend Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill) at a funeral. When Efraim invites David to join his business as a contract arms dealer for the US government, David initially refuses on moral grounds. When David’s girlfriend Iz (Ana de Armas) announces she’s pregnant, David reconsiders on financial grounds. Pretty soon David and Efraim are smuggling a truck load of Berettas across Iraq; not long after that they are repackaging embargoed ammunition to get past Customs. The pair are making millions, but how long can it last?
Miles Teller is admirable as David, and Jonah Hill is impressive as Efraim. The problem with this film is that it refuses to play hard ball (to use language akin to the film) with its own subject matter. War is shit, any way you look at it. The industry and economy of war is just as shit. The movie comments via David’s narration on the real dollar values, including the US military air-conditioning bill which is into the billions. It’s probably the equivalent of third world debt. War Dogs isn’t really interested in the ethical dilemma of David and Efraim’s pursuits, only in how dope they are (which is very, as they are most always stoned).
The only suggestion of morality within the film comes from David’s girlfriend Iz, who is badly drawn and under developed. She flip flops from taking a tough stand with David’s deception and the immorality of his chosen career path, to being apologetically sympathetic to his desire to ‘provide’. Gangster wives are not always fine examples of womanhood. But, whether taking the high moral road or, more likely, deciding to accept lavish gifts and turn a blind eye, the reaction of the loved one can be integral. Martin Scorsese has provided plenty of examples of women whose attitude to their husband’s lifestyle of violence is nuanced, subtle and essential to reading the text, with Karen Hill (Lorraine Bracco) of Goodfellas being one of the best. The moments where David and Iz are at odds, when David is emotionally conflicted by his need to repair his relationship, are when the film starts to show some depth. These are also the moments when the magnitude of the subject matter starts to become apparent. Unfortunately these moments, the relationship and Iz herself are treated one-dimensionally.
War Dogs isn’t bad as such, but it suffers from a sense of superficiality. Andrew Niccol’s 2005 film Lord of War is a similar venture, but far more sophisticated than Phillips’ attempt.
War Dogs is in cinemas from 18th August through Roadshow Films.
