 "War Dogs: Stoners and the War on Terror")
Much has been written and documented about the United States' relentless pursuit of war across the world, and especially about the "War on Terror". Noam Chomsky called it the "worst crime of this century". War Dogs adds some more damning evidence to an already enormous pile.
The movie, which is based on a true story, is a comic take on one of the most disgusting aspects of the American war machinery. The movie tells the tale of David Packouz (Miles Teller) and Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill), stoners from Miami in their 20s, who become arms dealers and land one of the biggest contracts, supplying ammunition to the Afghanistan army.
Packouz and Diveroli reacquaint themselves after a long time at a funeral. Packouz, a massage therapist, invests all his savings in his new business of selling bedsheets to old-age homes in Miami, which turns out to be a disaster. To add to that, he finds out that his wife is pregnant.
Diveroli comes to the aid of his distraught best friend and offers him a job at his firm. Diveroli discovers that the US government's policy of transparency in arms procurement, which means that all tenders are put online, allows people like him to benefit as gun runners, or war dogs as they are called.
The duo get hooked as they start netting small contracts. Things change, however, after they land in trouble with a deal to deliver Beretta guns to the Iraq police. As a result of their incompetence, they must fly to Jordan and get their consignment cleared and delivered to Iraq.
After this, they land the "Afghan deal", which they soon realise is a logistical nightmare. However, a notorious arms dealer, Henry Girard (Bradley Cooper), comes to their rescue. He agrees to supply to them all they need and at a fraction of the cost. They win the government contract based on this as their quote is half that of others.
The ammunition Girard sells to them, ironically, comes from Albanian stockpiles from the Cold War, which were stored in case of a war against the West. What Packouz and Diveroli don't realise is that the ammunition is actually of Chinese make, the use of which is banned for the US Army.
The first part of the consignment is repackaged and successfully sent to Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the relationship between Diveroli and Packouz breaks down, and they are eventually caught by the government for supplying Chinese equipment.
By making this story a comedy, director Todd Phillips manages to convey the absurdity of the "War on Terror". It seems ridiculous that more than a million civilians, according to some private estimates, were killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan using weapons provided by arms dealers such as these.
The film acknowledges this at the beginning, when Diveroli speaks about the war economy. In fact, there is nothing unique about a super power propping up its economy using wars; the Nazis only took this to its logical conclusion. But, of course, there can be no comparison between a regime that believes in "humanitarian intervention" and the most abhorred government in modern history.
Though the movie is a bold comedy, it sticks to many tropes of movies in the genre. Rock 'n' roll fit perfectly into Apocalypse Now's epic take on the war in Vietnam because it was contemporary to the period being documented. However, it simply does not fit in a movie on the "War on Terror". At worst Phillips comes across as a wannabe Martin Scorsese/ Francis Ford Coppola.
In fact, the innumerable scenes of bong shots and joints being smoked by the protagonists seem to come straight out of The Wolf of Wall Street. More so because Hill plays one of the lead characters.
