By Travis Johnson
Incredibly, this is based on a true story. David Packouz (Miles Teller) and Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill) were two ambitious young men who tried their luck at arms dealing and found out that the bidding process employed by the Pentagon was open to exploitation by someone who knew how to shave points off of every margin. Soon they were rolling in cash and neck deep in trouble, struggling to fulfill a$300 million contract to supply American allies in Afghanistan.
There’s a jaw-dropping article in Rolling Stone, but if you prefer your information delivered visually there’s also the upcoming film, War Dogs, from The Hangover director, Todd Phillips, who notes, “When you turn a five page article into a movie, you have to fill in a lot of gaps, and a lot of conversations that you weren’t privy to, so that just happens when you’re adapting an article.” So, expect truthiness to abound.
Jonah Hill describes the film as “…about people that kind of find these loopholes, which are very morally, some would say bankrupt, some would say questionable, you know. I’m drawn to people who really will do anything to succeed.” so at least it doesn’t appear to be lionizing what are, at base, a couple of war profiteers. Indeed, this sounds like it’s got more in common with The Wolf of Wall Street than The Hangover.
War Dogs hits Australian cinemas on August 18, 2016.
