War Dogs

  The title refers to the low-scale scavengers who sell arms to the US military. It also evokes Marc Antony’s line in Shakespeare’s Julius Caeser: “Cry ‘Havoc!’ and let slip the dogs of war.” That is, declare a state of chaos then go brutal. (That’s the possibly unwitting mantra of Hamas.) Your declared chaos will excuse your savagery.

The film opens on hero David Packouz being beaten up by Armenia thugs — then goes back to trace how an ordinary, appealing young American massage therapist got into that predicament.

Skilled director Todd Phillips explains this true story on two levels. Psychologically, the young innocent was seduced into collaboration with a high school buddy, Efraim.  

Jonah Hill plays him with Falstaffian vaunt and void. He has a raging lust for wealth, admiration, food — concentrated in his needing a cocaine high. His sense of love is someone to exploit. His sex shrinks to hand- and blow-jobs. This in contrast to David’s disciplined and respectable profession of massage. Efraim can care for no-one else. He will eventually rub everyone the wrong way. His response to a crooked drug deal is not to recover his money but to show a violent face.

David is like Prince Hall charmed by that unyielding larger-than-life spirit. Their partnership provides David’s new marriage with a flashy Porsche and apartment — but both only parallel Efraim’s. David is no longer his own self. His new career compels him to lie to his wife — and to keep lying, until all trust is gone. 

The story’s psychological lesson is the destructiveness of Efraim’s unbridled greed. Our lads are set up for a $30million profit. Efraim blows it by irrationally wanting more. He’s angered by the revelation their bid low-balled the rivals by $53 million. Suddenly their windfall isn’t enough. He ruins the deal by trying to cut out his two key collaborators and by failing to pay the Albanian box-merchant who had saved their deal and even increased their profit. Piddling savings both, that doom the operation. And inexcusable — a reminder of the self-destruction and madness in unharnessed greed.

Larger than the psychological reading, though, the social translates that character flaw to the wider culture: the destructiveness of unbridled capitalism. Our “heroes” personify the self-destruction and irrationality of a social system that allows such dramatic excess in the society’s disproportionate distribution of wealth. The film’s truth applies to the economic structure as much as to our heroes’ character — and its loss. Aye, there’s the rub. A happy medium would be the better massage.