‘Dogs of War" hit the screen

Press, 20 August 1981, Page 2 (Supplement)

‘Dogs of War" hit the screen

Although not quite children's fare. “The Dogs of War," which .starts at the Odeon tomorrow, will supply action and excitement for the parents during the school holidays.

Based on Frederick Forsyth’s novel, the dogs are mercenaries — the professional soldiers of fortune who roam the globe selling their services to the highest bidder, often impervious to the morality of the assignment and its political integrity. Ever since Forsyth’s book hit the best-seller lists in 1974, film-makers have been eager to translate it to the screen, but unlike the two adaptations of his novels — "The Day of the Jackal” and "The Odessa File" “The Dogs of War” proved -peculiarly elusive.

There were progressive

scripting difficulties which led -to re-writes and inevitable postponements. Above all . was the, problem of the locations.

The story is set in a fictitious West African state, not quite fictitious enough for any country in that ten-sion-wracked area of the world to allow a film crew in.

Besides, with the political situation about as predictable as the weather during an English summer, no producer with any sense would consider going there. When executive producer, Norman Jewison, and United Artists decided to try one more time to get the project off the ground in 1979, Jewison entrusted the task to his long-time production supervisor, Larry De Waay.

The 37-year-old american met up with the British TV director, John Irvin, on the strength of the polished work Irvin had done on bringing John Le Carre’s complicated espionage novel, “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.” to the small screen. But, more than that, De Waay had discovered Irvin’s history as an award-winning documentary director.

He . had worked with mercenaries — in Africa.

It was a meeting of minds seldom equalled in the transient world of movie-making. Barred from the African continent. De Waay and Irvin turned their restless eyes westward for location possibilities, toured some 14 Caribbean countries and even ventured into the Indian Ocean before eventually making landfall in the tiny British colony of Belize, formerly British Honduras, and

now maintaining an uneasy grip on the irregular coastline of Central America. As soon as De Waay and Irvin picked their way carefully across the scorched tarmac and bumped their way into town across roads with potholes deep as shellcraters they had only to stare at each other in smiling wonderment to realize that — provided the locals were

friendly — they had found their fictional West African

state of Zangaro. And the locals were friendly, indeed eager. So were the authorities, aware of how a prosperous film company might aid the lacklustre Belizean economy. And in many other ways was Belize ideal. A predominantly black population, a coastline simply made for the climactic scenes when the mercenaries slide ashore under the cover of darkness.