The Dogs of War (1980)

 "He wants to be God. I want to be rich!"

I was expecting this film to be rather more similar to Day of the Jackal- after all, both films are based on Frederick Forsyth novels of a similar ilk, focusing on the fascinating process of organising an assassination and a coup, respectively. Yes, Forsyth is a reactionary old git, but I did enjoy reading his novels in my teens. Basic, functional prose, zero charactersation, all plot, but somewhat unputdownable as potboilers go.

It's fair to say that this film is a different beast from Day of the Jackal. It omits the best bits of the novel- the planning of the coup, the details of how the sausage is made- and is, more or less, whilea faithful adaptation on the whole, much more of a very straightforward action film starring a very young Christopher Walken and helmed by the future director of Raw Deal.

As such... it's fine. Walken isdecent, as ever, but I've  always found him to be precisely that- decent, competent, but lacking in anything deeper than that. Colin Blakely is rather good, but none of the supporting cast stand out, and the big action scene at the end is rather dull. 

I suppose the earlier scenes where Shannon, and the viewer, explore the realitiesof a poor African dictatorship, hold some interest but, well, are we perhaps in an area of rather dodgy stereotyping? This film is largely fine, it's decent enough, but a far better adaptation of the novel could potentially have been made.

Layer Cake (2004)

"England. Typical. Even drug dealers don't work weekends."

I'd wager this film was not entirely without influence in Daniel Craig winning a certain high profile role a couple of years later, but it deserves recognition for far more than that. The directorial debut of Matthew Vaught after producing Lock, Stock and Snatch, it superficially resembles them with its gangster subject matter and its fast, witty directorial style.

Except it’s more than this. Layer Cake is certainly a fast-paced gangster film with a complex plot full of layers upon layers of motives and double crosses in the dangerous, impossible to escape world of criminality. But it’s unnamed protagonist is deliberately different from the stereotype- middle class, educated, professional and unflashy, he’s only in crime because of the money to be made from the drugs trade, and intends to make his fortune and then retire. Naturally, he isn’t going to be allowed to do this for all sorts of reasons involving various British character actors.

It’s amusing to see the character of the Duke as a contrast; clearly intended as a piss-take of the typical British cinematic gangster, he’s a joke, out of his league and inevitably doomed. Our protagonist is different, right?

Over a riveting couple of hours we slowly discover that no, he isn’t really, in spite of his smarts and his apparent sense. This is not a world from which one can ever escape, or expect a long life to expectancy. However clever he is, however he may run rings round his many sudden enemies after an ecstasy deal gone wrong, this world will kill him- and it’s fitting that he should be killed over a girl, randomly, after he thinks he’s got out.

What adds even more depth, though, is that the film is about something. Once there was cops and robbers, then along cane the drugs trade. As the opening narration says, one day all this will be legal. But, for the past several decades, prohibition has spawned a shocking amount of unnecessary crimes and innocent victims. And that’s the moral of this film; prohibition has blood on its hands.