13th Review: War Dogs
Plot Summary: After working as a massage therapist and failing to become a sheet salesman, David Packouz (Miles Teller) learns of the high profitable arms business from his childhood friend Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill).
Full Cast: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2005151/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm
There were a few things that I did not like about this movie, but they do not overshadow the good things. First of all, the filters on applied on different shots are very extreme. For example, the movie looks very yellow for shots in Iraq and then very blue for shots that take place in Albania. This is a nitpick, but it was definitely something that stood out to me. Another thing was that Jonah Hill’s character was kind of a massive jerk. I’m 99% sure this was done on purpose to have a good portrayal of the character, but it did not make him any less of an asshole.
There are a lot of things to like about this movie. First of all, I liked the style in which the story was told. The movie starts in medias res (a fancy Latin term meaning that the first scene is actually from the middle of the story), and then is narrated by Packouz for the rest of the movie. Sometimes I find it annoying when movies use this method of story telling, but I found that it worked for this movie, giving it sort of a Goodfellas feel to it. Speaking of Goodfellas, this movie is also loosely based on a true story. In fact, the real David Packouz makes a brief appearance as a guitar player in the movie. The whole resold arms business that the two main characters was pretty interesting in my opinion, so the “based on a true story” aspect made it even more interesting.
Perhaps the best part of this movie is how exposes the military industrial complex in an easily consumable way. Packouz and Diveroli start out by buying guns from police auctions so that they can resell them to the military. By being middlemen, the two make a lot of money on small arms deals for the military. As their business grows, the two start taking bigger and bigger contracts, leading them to start working with Henry Girard. Henry Girard was a Swiss business man who was banned from making deals from the US government. After learning how Girard is ripping them off, Packouz and Diveroli friendship sours. When one of them forgets to pay one of their workers, the worker takes revenge by reporting the business’ illegal dealings with Henry Girard to the US Federal Government. The two receive some pretty light sentences (I think Packouz only got a few months of house arrest) and the movie ends.
Overall, this is a pretty good movie with a somewhat interesting plot. If you ever need to put a movie on for a group of friends, this movie works pretty well. 7/10 not a must watch, but you won’t regret watching.
I really enjoyed the comedic ridiculousness of this movie that inevitably follows any film with Jonah Hill involved. I also appreciated the realism of the film. Arms dealers live in luxury, but at what cost? This movie offers a nice view into the “legal” arms trade, as opposed to the illegal arms trade explored in movies like Lord of War. I also couldn’t help but cringe at the level of assholery displayed by Jonah Hill’s character in this movie. If you are making millions of dollars off of the backs of Albanian workers repackaging ammunition, the least you could do is pay them!
I found Hill’s character simultaneously hilarious and vehemently dislikable. As easy as it is to blame Packouz and Diveroli for their unscrupulous dealings, the film went further to show how broken the military industrial complex is. The real loser in this story is the American taxpayer, whose dollars are invariably sent through shady, convoluted systems of bureaucracy that result in very little that actually benefits them. Also, I found it interesting how the actions of Hill’s character make you question who you can really trust. It seemed that Diveroli and Packouz were quite close from the time they were children, yet when it all fell to pieces, they could not rely on each other.
I recently rewatched this movie with some friends, and I thought that it was excellent. I know that you said that you don’t necessarily like the filters that they apply to the different countries in the movie, but I found while I was watching it that it made me feel as though they were outside of their safe environment and needed to be more careful. In addition to this, I absolutely love the story progression from start to finish, from seeing his old friend at a funeral to having him stab you in the back over a small fortune. I always like when movies end up coming full circle at the end, and the Albanian man not getting paid being the thing that finally catches them was something that I really enjoyed when I saw it. Great post!