War Dogs is a movie about greed, corruption and stupidity which always go hand in hand. The easier the money seems to be the greater the possibility for crime, screwing over other people, corruption, and stupid mistakes. The success and all that money go​ to your head and many people actually become stupider the easier it seems to make money. This certainly was true during the glory days of the internet bubble in 1999 and the first 3 months of 2000. All the things that seemed to work so perfectly for so long very quickly stop working and then you start to lose money, very quickly. The saying goes, “If it seems to good to be true, then it probably is”. This is true of the stock market bubble in 1999 and it was definitely​ true of the story behind the film War Dogs.

Jonah Hill and Miles Teller star in this very good movie about the true story of two young men who get involved in finding and selling weapons to the United States Government based on a simple website where a list of many thousands of Government Weaponry supplies are available for any company to bid on. The Government website open bidding process was a new law made available by the Bush Administration in 2004 to potentially lower the cost of the purchase of Government weapons and thereby giving more companies a chance to make money to stimulate the economy.

The mastermind of using the Government website to bid and provide weapons to the US Military was the idea of Efraim Diverolo, played by Jonah Hill and later David Packouz, played by Miles Teller. They form a company called AEY – nothing more than a series of 3 letters that according to Efraim stand for absolutely nothing. Very soon the very simple and brilliant idea of “searching the website for crumbs that nobody else wanted” got out of control and before long the money and the risks became greater than either Efraim or David ever thought they would; including​ driving into Baghdad from the country of Jordan to illegally run guns into IRAQ while the IRAQ war was currently being fought. Due to the many Government regulations and restrictions, each new deal that Efraim and David tried became more difficult, causing them to take bigger risks that not only risked their precarious business but even their lives. The irony here is that if they both stuck with the original business plan of only getting involved with the small contracts that no other big vendors wanted then none of the criminal activity and risks would have occurred, giving them all the money they would ever need. As it often does, greed and easy money makes you want more and makes you stupid as soon as you think you are smarter than everyone else and you learn the obvious lessons the hard way. I found the very short prison terms of Efraim, 4 years and David, 6 months house arrest, extremely low amounts of time considering their crimes. Somewhere in this film, I thought their small prison terms should have been explained. At the end of the movie, we also find out that AEY could sell arms to the US Government again in 2022.

There is also a very good back story concerning David Packouz and his attractive wife played by Ana De Armas and David’s struggles to make a living by selling bed sheets to retirement homes and as a massage therapist. What makes their lives​ even more complicated is David’s lying to his wife about the gun running and they have a baby. Bradly Cooper also has a small role in this movie, playing another gun runner who gets involved in the biggest and most dangerous gun deal in the film.

This movie was very well done and I highly recommend it.

A common theme involving a poor town and two brothers in a depressing part of Texas and bank robberies has certainly been done before, probably in many other movies in the past. So a new twist in a story like this is necessary and for the most part, this movie is successful in creating a compelling interesting story from very familiar ground. Jeff Bridges is very convincing as a small town Sheriff who with his partner is determined to track down two bank robbers who have been robbing banks in the area for relatively small amounts of money. Chris Pine is equally convincing along with his brother, played by Ben Foster in playing the desperate bank robbers who are motivated​ by more than just the money they can easily steal from small banks in the area but they are also motivated by revenge against the bank who has been trying to take away their deceased​ mothers property for many years.

One of the best lines in this film as far as I was concerned was, “how can anybody make a living here”, referring to the flat, hot, poor and depressing areas that this movie is based from. Chris Pine describes being poor as a “disease that lasts for generations” and I can confirm that depressing reality from first-hand​ experience. This story behind “Hell or High Water” is a very simple one, but very often in good or great movies the more simple the main story the better, but this movie takes the simple story several levels higher.

I highly recommend this movie.

Fargo, which was released in 1996 is another one of those rare movies, like Ordinary People and perhaps High Fidelity in 2000 where just about everybody in the cast was enjoying the best part they ever had in their entire career and then, lightning​ never struck ever again for any of them, not even close. Francis McDormand won the best actress Academy Award for her portrayal of a pregnant police officer, by far the best acting job of her entire career. William H Macy was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar​ and he should have won. One of the many great things about Fargo was it that it was a movie that for the first time in my memory of films I have seen that it showed what it was like to live in the cold desolate area like South Dakota in the dead of winter. One had to wonder while watching this great movie why anyone would ever want to live there as the surrounding areas in that city are just about as depressing as any I have​ ever seen.

The story of Fargo was loosely based on an actual criminal cases from years earlier that involved kidnapping and murder and while watching this amazing film you wondered how a crime this insane could have actually happened. The other great thing about this classic film is the emphasis on the strange dialects of the people in that area, which was a source of humor throughout the movie.

Fargo was written and directed by both Joel and Ethan Cohen arguably the best ever team of writer-directors in movie history and in my opinion Fargo has been their best effort of their careers. Steve Buscemi has never been better or more convincing in any role in his career and in my opinion he should have been nominated for an Academy Award. Fargo won an Academy Award for best picture in 1996 and the Coen brothers won for best original screenplay.

If you have not seen this great movie you owe it to yourself to see it. Its one of the all time greats.