A former Special Forces weapons man describes Frederick Forsyth’s The Dogs of War as Staging a Coup for Dummies — although international arms transfer policies have changed enormously since 1974.
The 1980 film simplifies the story immensely and adds a lot of Hollywood-style action — but it does start off with a rather authentic depiction of a Third World country:
Shannon’s arrival in and reconnaissance of Zangaro are a high point of the film. Yes, his tradecraft is for the birds (pun intended) and he completely fails to be the grey man. But the setting is pure gold. SF guys who have been on missions to some of the world’s naturally-fertilized garden spots will recognize the petty corruption, civic decay, and cult of personality. (To us it was redolent of Bouterse-era Suriname).
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The battle scenes are typical 1970s war film stock, with a lot of gasoline explosions and even more full-auto hip-shooting. Weapons are depicted as magically accurate in skilled hands, however casually those hands operate the weapons; most every shot hits and every hit produces instant collapse and death; the stricken fall and lie still, usually without a sound. No one seeks or uses cover, or approaches an enemy position with the slightest sophistication. In 1980, no one was putting actors through a couple days of “this is how soldiers act” training, as made famous by Marine vet Dale Dye. And it shows.
That might actually be accurate behavior for a number of Third World armies, but even they — particularly soldiers of an embattled and unloved dictator in the twilight of his reign — show a normal human interest in self-preservation.
The most “Hollywood” element of the film is the so-called XM-18 grenade launcher:
The weapon was actually a Manville Machine Projector in 26.5mm caliber. This 20-shooter flare revolver, made mostly of aluminum, is assigned nearly supernatural properties in the film, but in its heyday in the 1920s and 30s was used mostly by riot police and prison guards to launch tear gas. (In the movie, they made it go bang by making alloy chamber inserts in 12 gauge, which hold 12-gauge blanks). The movie never shows the extremely fiddly loading process of this weapon, which you can see on this rather poorly converted-from-VHS video. The actual movie gun is on display in Long Mountain Outfitters, Dan Shea’s dealership in Nevada, which bought the stock of a movie rental company some years ago.
In the 1970s or 80s, a company did try to revive a 40mm variant as a 12-shot weapon called the Hawk MM-1, which featured an improved loading process that doesn’t require the operator to disassemble the gun. But even though the excellent world.guns.ru says it was used by US Special Forces, it wasn’t, at least beyond, perhaps, a tryout. The problem with any kind of 40mm repeater has always been the bulk and weight of weapon and ammo, particularly when the operator needs a second weapon for close-in self-defense.
Loved the book. Hated the movie.
If you read The Dogs of War and The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress you’ve covered Insurgency 101.