Growing up in the 1980s, one could walk into the local grocery, go to the magazine rack, and, in addition to the usual mundane publications like Good HouseKeeping, Woman's Day, Woodworking Magazine, Redbook (not so mundane, more on the spicy side back then), and many others, one could find magazines like "Merc" and Mercenary, and other publications in the same vein. In black-and-white classifieds in the back of these magazines, one could find cryptic solicitations for unnamed "services", complete with equally-cryptic contact information.

With covers depicting various men (almost always American or European) off in the African bush, Central or South America, or sometimes perhaps Asia, hiring out their deadly expertise to the highest bidder.

With the end of the European colonial empires especially in Africa, from the 1960s through the 1980s one could find the African continent awash in French, Portuguese, British, Belgian, and American (this group still riding off their Vietnamese high) mercenaries fighting for various dictatorships and guerrilla factions. (There were also many Russians and Cubans, but in those cases they were usually actual soldiers of the USSR and Cuba advising and supporting Communist-leaning regimes).

Which brings us to 1980's "The Dogs of War", which takes place in that same year. Jamie Shannon (Christopher Walken), a Vietnam veteran who knows nothing else but how to fight, after just finishing an action in some unnamed Central American country (one would guess either El Salvador or Nicaragua), after failing at a brief attempt at a normal life, soon finds himself rounding up a group to take on a mission in the fictional African nation of Zangaro. It's him, another American (Tom Berenger), an Englishman (Paul Freeman), and a Frenchman (Jean-Francois Stevenin).

But this is no typical mercenary movie where the mercs simply show up at the target destination and start shooting away. This shows the gritty preparations, the long planning beforehand. Shannon first travels alone, incognito, to Zangaro to gather intelligence. Eventually the corrupt government there catches on, and he is mercilessly beaten before being deported. The scenes of Shannon's torture are hard to watch-- Walken, by the time they are finished with him, truly looks to be on the verge of death.

Reluctant to return but in need of cash, Shannon decides to take on the mission, at which point we see weeks of the difficulty of arranging clandestine shipments of illegal arms across various international borders during the process of getting his crew ready (who will also be joined by two dozen Zangaro exiles, who are supposed to do the bulk of the fighting; Shannon and his men are there only to guide and support).

Finally we get to the action, but it's not pretty, and the motives behind the men who have hired Shannon are not, shall we say, altruistic (which Shannon is well aware of). If anyone had any romantic notions of what mercenary work is truly like, this movie dispels them.

The Dogs of War (1980):

Gritty and Ugly.

7 out of 10.

Trivia: In brief appearances, fans will note a young Ed O'Neill (about 34 when this movie was made).