The Dogs of War | 
| Director: John Irvin
Actors: Christopher Walken, Tom Berenger, Colin Blakely, Hugh Millais, Paul Freeman
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $3.86
You Save: $11.12 (74%)
New (47) Used (22) from $3.86
Rating:  35 reviews
Sales Rank: 16182
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 102 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: MGMD1001826D
ISBN: 0792851323
UPC: 027616860965
EAN: 9780792851325
ASIN: B00005O06P
Theatrical Release Date: February 13, 1981
Publication Date: November 20, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Back before Christopher Walken became a caricature of himself, when he was still considered a rising actor based on his Oscar for The Deer Hunter, he made this graphic, exciting action film, about a group of professional mercenaries. Walken leads a band of soldiers of fortune, who are hired to overthrow a dictator in West Africa (think Idi Amin). But when their mission is compromised by political and monetary forces, Walken returns to the United States, disillusioned, battered, and not sure the high life of lawyers, guns, and money is really for him. Still, vengeance is sweet, as his partner, Tom Berenger, keeps whispering into his ear. A better film than it's generally given credit for, The Dogs of War features the kind of cool, detached performance Walken used to be capable of, before he began believing both the hype and ridicule about his over-the-top style. --Marshall Fine
Product Description
Mercenary paul shannon (christopher walken) on a reconaissance job to the african nation of zangora is tortured and deported. He returns to lead a revolution. Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 05/13/2008 Starring: Christopher Walken Jobeth Williams Run time: 119 minutes Rating: R Director: John Irvin
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| Customer Reviews: Read 30 more reviews...
Very Engaging, Great Cast April 18, 2009
Sienna (Highland Park, IL)
Wow Christopher Walken is so young and so amazing in this engaging war movie. I always enjoy him but I think here more than anything else I've seen him in. You've probably seen this plot portrayed in other films: mercenaries hired to do the bidding of multi-national corporate villians who of course view their hirelings as expendable...I won't give the rest away. Suffice it to say that the acting carries this and the filming and directing is also a class act. Get this if this kind of thing is your cup of tea. You won't be bored!
Great film...but what happened to the book??? March 22, 2009
Tuvan Uner (Virginia,United States)
I liked this movie, I really did. Christopher Walken was great in one of his earlier roles as was Tom Berenger. Also the supporting cast was well placed and the special effects of 1981 still hold up today. Unfortunately like all other Frederick Forsythe novels that are made into films, it just doesnt quite measure up to the book pound for pound. Walken's character gains an ex-wife in the film version while in the novelization he romances the daughter of the greedy Mining executive he was hired by. Also the film's ending is alot different than the book but despite this zinger I found it refreshing.
Despite the overall differences, I still enjoyed the movie and the acting was superb. If you've read the book and want to compare it with the film, by all means, this is 2 hours well-vested. However dramatic, be prepared to watch an alternate version of the novelization.
The Dogs of War January 20, 2009
J. Lindner (Gem Lake, MN United States)
This movie is about a group of mercenaries hired to overthrow a fictional mineral-laden African nation. The plot twists when the group's leader, played by the quintessential bad guy character actor Christopher Walken, decides to place his own hero in the president's chair of this nation. This doctor had aided Walken's character when he had been beaten during his scouting mission to this country. Walken's character must have been impressed because after the shoot 'em up scene, the movie ends with this doctor in charge of the country.
The movie is well written and well acted. Walken has that aura of cold-bloodedness about him that makes him a perfect choice for the lead role. I compare this movie to another mercenary flick called "The Wild Geese" which has some similarities. The Dogs of War is entertaining and action packed. If these kinds of movoes are your thing, I recommend it.
Damn good picture without any easy answers.... July 6, 2008
Grigory's Girl (NYC)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a great film, a film that hasn't dated and a film where you can watch Christopher Walken before he became a rather silly parody of himself. Walken plays a mercenary hired by a conglomorate/corporation to check out a 3rd world African country. The person that hires Walken has ties to investors who want to know how stable the country is, and whether they need to instigate a coup de tat to install a more "friendlier" leader. The corporation decides that a new leader is needed, but Walken and his crew have other things on their minds, leading to an unexpected (and believable) ending.
The best thing about this film is that it just shows the events without restorting to simplistic, "this is bad" tones that mar many Hollywood films. The film has no easy answers and poses no easy questions. It just shows you how coups occur, why they occur, and what happens after they're done. It's a neat little picture, perhaps a little cold, but very realistic, exciting, thought provoking, and it leaves an indelible impression.
 Cry havoc... February 16, 2008
Trevor Willsmer (London, England)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
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!
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