The Dogs of War
Tags: violence, murder

Plot synopsis:
Having escaped from Central America, mercenaries James Shannon, Drew, Derek, Michel, Terry and Richard, get an offer from a British businessman, Roy Endean. He is interested in "certain resources" in the small African nation of Zangaro, which is run by the brutal dictator, General Kimba.
Shannon goes on a reconnaissance mission to Zangaro's capital of Clarence and meets a British documentary filmmaker named North. However, Shannon’s activities arouse the suspicions of the police and he is arrested, severely beaten and imprisioned. His wounds are treated by Dr. Okoye, a physician who was formerly a moderate political leader. North agitates for Shannon’s release and he is deported after two days of torture.
When Shannon tells Endean that there is no chance of an internal coup, Endean offers him $100,000 to overthrow Kimba by invading Zangaro with a mercenary army. Endean intends to install a puppet government led by Colonel Bobi, Kimba's greedy former ally. This would allow Endean to exploit the country's newly discovered platinum resources, an agreement guaranteed by Colonel Bobi. Shannon refuses the offer and instead proposes to his estranged wife that they start a new life in America. When she turns him down, he accepts Endean's offer on condition that he will have complete control of the operation.
Provided with a million dollars for expenses, Shannon contacts some of his associates from Central America and they meet up to plan the coup. The group illegally procures a supply of Uzi submachine guns, ammunition, rocket launchers, mines and other weapons from arms dealers. North encounters Shannon by chance and suspects him of being a CIA agent. Shannon asks Drew to scare North away without hurting him but instead North is killed by someone hired by Endean to follow Shannon and his crew. A furious Shannon kills the assassin in turn and leaves his body at Endean's house during a dinner party held for Colonel Bobi.
To transport the team to the coast of Zangaro, Shannon hires a small freighter and crew. At sea, the team is joined by a group of Zangaron exiles trained as soldiers by a former mercenary colleague. Once ashore, the mercenaries use their array of weapons to attack the military garrison where Kimba lives. Drew enters a shack in the barracks' courtyard and is killed by a young woman with a baby who shoots him in the back with a pistol. After the mercenaries storm the burning, bullet-scarred ruins of the garrison, Shannon blasts his way into Kimba's mansion. There he finds the dictator stuffing bricks of bills into a briefcase and kills him.
Endean arrives by helicopter with Colonel Bobi and they enter the presidential residence, where they find Shannon and Dr. Okoye awaiting their overdue arrival. Shannon introduces Dr. Okoye as Zangaro's new president and silences Endean by shooting Bobi when he protests.
Shannon, Derek and Michel load the body of Drew onto a Landrover in line with the toast they drank on planning the operation, "Everyone Comes Home". The scene finishes with the mercenaries driving through the deserted streets of Clarence.

Review: It concerns a military coup in an African country and stars Christopher Walken and Tom Berenger , though he has said in interviews that around half of his role was omitted from the final release print .
It deals with mercenary James Shannon (Christopher Walken) , on a reconnaissance job to the African nation of Zangaro, is tortured and deported .
As various soldiers of fortune (Tom Berenger , Paul Freeman , among others) , used to be the best of friends give a toast : ¨Long live death, long live war, long live the cursed mercenary" (this is an adaptation of the original Foreign legion toast) and all of them battle side by side in hellhole Africa .This war film packs adventures , large-scale blow-up , thrilling plot , and lots of action for the most part , but also contains too much dialogue .
Fine support cast who realize professionally competent interpretations , some of them with no more than a line or two to say such as Colin Blakely , Paul Freeman , and brief interventions from JoBeth Williams , Robert Urquhart , Ed O'Neill , Jim Broadbent , Jean Pierre Kalfon , Victoria Tennant , Pedro Armendariz Jr and first cinema film of David Schofield.Good cinematography by Jack Cardiff , who also shot a movie about mercenaries in Africa titled ¨The mercenaries¨, it was filmed on location , as African and Central America sequences were filmed in Belize City, Belize in Central America .
Shannon (Christopher Walken) is a mercenary war who accepted for the sum of 15,000 dollars to fly to a fictional country in West Africa on a survey mission to procure military information concerning the stability of a dictator's regime, his position strength, and if there is any chance for a coup?
Posing as an American naturalistespecially in native birdsShannon landed in Zangaro and gathered all the facts he needed but after suffering a brutal beating from the guards for taking pictures of one of the mistresses of the dictator's in front of his compound When he's offered a large amount of money to gather a well-equipped mercenary force and go back to Zangaro and lead a military takeover, he reluctantly assents The assault has authority, power and unexpected...
The problem with this though is that the info tend to hold up the narrative which makes a Forsyth novel difficult to successfully translate to screen and to be honest the original THE DOGS OF WAR novel isn't really a book that will appeal to a cinema goer who's into no brain action shoot them ups .
I can just imagine a disappointed Arnie/Bruce/Sly fan slagging the movie off for having only two battle scenes , one at the start of the movie and one at the end , so let me point out that if you're expecting to see DIE HARD IN AFRICA it's maybe not you're kind of movie If there's a problem with the movie it's mainly down to the structure of the novel with much of the running time taken up with planning the coup , getting the equipment , hiring the boat etc .
Lean, pared down to action, efficiently told story of a mercenary band with a code of honor worthy of Hemingway's life maxim "grace under pressure." Walken's performance is truly riveting, simply acting the truth without embellishment, this is professional soldier whose purpose --- loyalty to his fellow soldiers and dedication to his task --- is clean and spare: get in, win, get out, come home has been rarely topped in movies.
Christopher Walken fans will love this one as he occupies the camera for about 98% of the film and does an admirable job playing ringleader to a small band of mercenaries hired by London's Enron branch to take down some dude with a Gucci sword named Kimba, the benevolent ruler of Okka Bokka Boo. The pace is a little slow for my tastes but they threw in my favorite girl next door, JoBeth Williams, as Walkens ex-wife just to keep me occupied while the guns were being shipped in from Switzerland or somewhere.
Sent to checkout the political situation in the Africian nation of Zangaro, Shannon (Christopher Walken in a solid performance), a tireless and money-hungry American mercenary, get caught spying by the president's secret police and nearly beaten to death before sent back to the States.
John Irvin directed this film, starring Christopher Walken as war veteran mercenary who gets a job by government to travel to Africa and inform the situation that is pretty hot in there.
He does it, and sees the violence that takes place there, and when he returns to US and tells about the evil dictator that dominates there, the new job for him is to travel there again and wipe out the incarnation of evil..This film isn't any action film as many seem to have expected - me included - but this is pretty sophisticated, but still also little slow moving (dir.
So I recommend the director's cut of the film as it is the directors original version.Dogs of War is pretty intelligent and interesting depiction of power and dictatorship, and also very nostalgic in its atmosphere and scenery.
One point in the film in order to make money Walkens character Shannon takes a contract to do a "Recon" mission on a country.
Many recall his work in ' The Deer Hunter.' In this story Christopher Walken is James Shannon an experienced soldier of fortune and Mercenary for hire.
This film tells the story of a group of greedy but traitorous wealthy financiers who hope to stage a Coup d'etat to overthrow president Kimba (Illario Bisi Pedro) of Zangora and replace him with Col Bobi (George Harris) an equally despicable character.
A Great Adventure of War and Moral Code of a Man. Paul Shannon (Christopher Walken) is a veteran soldier and presently a mercenary, invited by a former contact to visit the fictitious African country of Zangora, which is rich in platinum, and check its political situation.
Nice to see this movie has it's fans, especially as it seems to get such a rough ride from the critics, it's in MY top ten of films I never get tired of watching, even more so when I discovered some ten years ago on VHS tape the longer version with scenes cut from the original release.
It boasts one of Walken's best performances, an emergent Berenger gets a significant part, and Blakely is dead on as the British journalist trying to learn more about what he suspects will be a coup in West Africa's imaginary country Zangaro.Cardiff's photography is very competent, within the above-mentioned obvious budget limitations, direction very effective, screenplay also very to the point and insightful about the ripples caused by a dictator solely intent on staying in power.
The sequence at the airport, when Shannon arrives in Zangaro, is also exceptional dark comedy, because it is so close to the reality of many African countries in the 1980s.It shows how much corruption can erode society, leaving it with no values - apart from survival at any cost.The way that the mercenaries go about obtaining weapons, and those weapons' capacity for destruction, reveals the ruthlessness of men with a mission.
I guess the Wild Geese (1978) is the best comparison because it is a movie of the same era with a somewhat similar story - "good" mercenaries fighting a cruel dictator in some poor African country.
However, when the Wild Geese is filled with stars, here we have only one - but he happens to be Christopher Walken.Not only Christopher's but most of the actors' performance is good, the plot is rather realistic, the movie does not feel like a cheap copy made during the mercenary/vigilante movie boom, and the length is optimal, less than two hours.
This one stands out because it has an actual plot to it leading up to the big action scene at the end, and that alone makes it more original than 99% of the guys-on-a-mission type films that came out in the 1980s.Christopher Walken, twitchy and solemn, stands out in this early role as the hard-ass mercenary who's seen plenty of conflict over the years.
His trip to the made-up African nation of Zangora is fraught with peril and tension, and yet seems real throughout in the same way that a film like BLOOD DIAMOND had the ring of authenticity to it.The violence that follows is expected yet none the less shocking for it, and even the character building exposition scenes back in the West are handled in such a way that you never lose interest in the proceedings.
The Dogs of War was a techs and specs special ops novel by Frederick Forsyth before it was adapted into this film starring Christopher Walken.The adapting screenwriters made an interesting choice to depart from the book in one central way.
When Walken's Shannon finally assembles his multi-national strike force, a group action romp in the tradition of The Great Escape or Force 10 From Navarrone begins to build, but again, the director and producer leave all too little time for what the viewer expects will be the film's main course.
The minor paucities in the overall sweep of the movie aside, Walken creates the character of mercenary Jamie Shannon in a way that Forsyth's book never gets around to doing--so busy is it with measuring ship cargo space and counting grenade pins..
It all begins when Shannon gets an offer to do a re con mission from a mysterious representative of British mining interests in the small, fictional, African country of Zangaro.
Christopher Walken plays the role of the mercenary very well as does the other cast members, such as Tom Berenger as his long time brother in arms.
I could never believe that Walken was a hardbitten mercenary anymore than I could believe that a tinhat dictator would be so easily overthrown, or so given to fits of cowardice.And the battle scenes all seemed to be exactly what a movie version of war would look like.
I really wanted to like this film, and it had a lot going for it with a strong cast (Christopher Walken, Tom Berenger, Paul Freeman, JoBeth Williams, and a young Ed O'Neill) and a solid premise from a Frederick Forsyth novel about mercenaries overthrowing an African dictator for a British executive wanting a more friendly of government for his business interests there.
In the film's favor, it was shot by ace cinematographer Jack Cardiff, who's shot everything from "The African Queen" to "The Red Shoes" to "Rambo," and director John Irvin certainly knows his way around an action scene.
Christopher Walken plays ruthless mercenary Jamie Shannon, who is hired by a British mining company to lead a revolution in an African nation to overthrow the dictator, so that they can install their own leader, who is friendly to their interests.
Things go wrong and Shannon is captured and beaten, though manages to escape, and vows to return, seeking vengeance, though again this doesn't go as planned either...Based on a novel By Frederick Forsyth, this adaptation falls short of his other two films("The Day Of The Jackal" & "The Odessa File").
It has a simple yet interesting plot with something of a twist to the ending that isn't contrived or relied upon to validate or prop up the rest of the film like some other movies.The plot revolves around a group of mercenaries recruited, organising, preparing and carrying out the overthrow of an African despot dictator.
This is something undoubtedly attributable to the writer of the book Frederick Forysth and in keeping with the earlier film adaptation of another of his works 'Day of the Jackal'.Rambo this isn't and as stated by no shortage of people it isn't wall to wall action and may move a bit more slowly than many might expect, an acquired taste perhaps and possibly something of a letdown for some given the very title of the film.Walken isn't outstanding in the film but he is very adequate all the same and the film certainly doesn't hinge on the dramatics.When I can't decide what I want to watch, this is one of the films I fall back on and one of the reasons I've seen it quite a few times.
It's not a nice movie.Christopher Walken stars as Jamie Shannon, whose otherwise empty life sitting in a Manhattan apartment watching John Roland and the Channel 5 newsteam on a snowy television screen is relieved only by the occasional assignment to gather up some equally dissolute comrades and blast their way through some far-away trouble spot for a few thousand bucks.
With nothing much to live for, Shannon agrees.Walken is the central reason to watch "Dogs Of War".
There's also a visit Shannon pays to his ex-wife, which features some nice acting from Walken and JoBeth Williams but establishes nothing other than the emptiness of Shannon's life, about which we already know.Joining action and character is the hallmark of any good war movie, and this "Dogs Of War" fails to do.
After get respect from Deer Hunter Waken surfing in new project as mercenary leader on a Forsyth's novel adaptation,however the picture take a ride from Wild Geese's formula,it's measure how is short the vision of those producers in that time,even so could be better in little details which they didn't noticed,but a sharp eye realize,souless the movie ain't certanly,have good fresh moments.a few actually,but as entertainment works spent along the picture,some clichés were unnecessary as is former wife Jobeth Williams,but it's a old formula,the action is good,and the final is very predicable!!!Resume:First watch: 1999 / How many: 2 / Cable TV-DVD / Rating: 7.
Jamie Shannon (Christopher Walken) and his men including Drew Blakeley (Tom Berenger) and Terry (Ed O'Neill) are soldiers of fortune.
Walken plays the perfectly stoic aging mercenary who's beginning to wrestle with the moral aspects of his profession, and in the end decides to do the "right" thing instead of just what he's been paid to do............Well worth watching.
The violence is matter of fact, only stylised in one particular brief scene of torture with a shard of glass that this viewer found to be one of the most painful from any film.The ending is certainly worth the wait as Walken's small fish turns the coup at the heart of the overall plot into a coup of his very own.
A huge step forwards for a man who when not paid to kill perfect strangers spends his time watching mundane television and playing computer chess (a great performance from Christopher Walken, a man seemingly dead inside but who actually defies our expectations by doing the right thing).
Unspectacular, but tough and lean slow pot-boiler anti-war feature sees a stoic Christopher Walken on reconnaissance, before leading a group of mercenaries to push out the tyrant dictator of the African nation Zangora.
They make movies like this all the time.A mega corporation wants the mineral rights in an African country ruled by a ruthless dictator.
The Dogs of War, based on the novel by Frederick Forsyth, is an entertaining film that takes its time to get to the action.
SPOILERS: The film follows mercenary Jamie Shannon from his defeat in Central America to the execution of a contract to stage a coup in West Africa.
**SPOILERS** Action and intrigue on four continents, North and South American Africa & Europe, with mercenary leader Jamie Shannon, Christopher Walken, getting together a group of fellow soldiers of fortune.
Kimba's brutal regime.Wall to wall combat fills the movie "Dogs of War" final fifteen minutes with Shannon and his men taking on the entire Zangorien military as they fight their way into Pres.
The Dogs of War is a familiar but rock-solid early take on the international mercenary-led political coup before it became bastardized by a generation of pulpier Rambo knock-offs (including Christopher Walken's own McBain in 1991).
The setting was different, the characters' back stories were different but then the movie started chopping down everything, skipping on incredibly important elements of the story - the entire thread of the discovery of precious metal reserves worth over $10 billion, leading to corporate interests in overthrowing President Kimba of fictitious country Zangaro in West Africa, was reduced to a 10 second telephonic conversation.The sub-plot with the ex-wife was an unnecessary deviation as well and it was probably done to give a more 'human' face to mercenary Jamie Shannon.
James Shannon is an American mercenary hired by a mining concern to perform a reconnaissance mission in the fictional West African nation of Zangaro; his task is to determine whether or not it would be possible to depose its current president, a psychotic megalomaniac called General Kimba.
Combine that with the top notch planning and execution of the coup by Shannon and his men, and you have a thriller worthy of Forsythe.Despite this, the movie tells the mercenaries' side of the story very well, showing the tension and problems involved in organizing a coup in West Africa.
The view we get of the country during Shannon's reconnaissance visit really shows how it has degenerated since "independance" and being taken over by the dictator.Christopher Walken is perfect in the role of Shannon, he's an incredibly talented actor.I just wish that the movie had been an hour longer, and had included some of the corporate side of things.
Recap: Jamie Shannon, a mercenary, is hired by a company to go on a information gathering mission to Zangora, an African country ruled by a unstable dictator.
Plot: A team of mercenaries are hired to overthrow an African dictator.Adapted from the Frederick Forsyth novel (or 'how to' guide depending on your tastes in fiction), this is a superior thriller from that wonderful moment in the 1970s (well, 1980 in this case) when low-key realism and humanity were so important.