War Dogs is a 2016 biographical crime film based on Arms and the Dudes, a book written by Guy Lawson detailing the true story of three kids who were given a government contract to supply guns for the military.
Arms and the Dudes Book
The full title of the book source for the film War Dogs is Arms and the Dudes: How Three Stoners from Miami Beach Became the Most Unlikely Gunrunners in History.
In January 2007, three young stoners from Miami Beach were put in charge of a $300 million Department of Defense contract to supply ammunition to the Afghanistan military.
Instead of fulfilling the order with high-quality arms, Efraim Diveroli, David Packouz, and Alex Podrizki – the dudes – bought cheap communist-style surplus ammunitions from Balkan gunrunners.
The dudes then secretly repackaged millions of rounds of ancient Chinese ammunition and shipped it to Kabul—until they were caught by Pentagon investigators and the scandal turned up on the front page of the New York Times.
At least that’s the “official” story.
The truth is far more explosive. For the first time, journalist Guy Lawson tells the thrilling true tale. It’s a trip that goes from a dive apartment in Miami Beach to mountain caves in Albania, the corridors of power in Washington, and the front lines of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Lawson’s account includes a shady Swiss gunrunner, Russian arms dealers, Albanian gang- sters, and a Pentagon investigation that impeded America’s war efforts in Afghanistan.
Lawson exposes the mysterious and murky world of global arms dealing, showing how the US military came to use private contractors like Diveroli, Packouz, and Podrizki as middlemen to secure weapons from illegal arms dealers—the same men who sell guns to dictators, warlords, and drug traffickers.
The book was first published by Simon & Schuster on June 9th, 2015.
War Dogs Film
War Dogs is a heavily fictionalized and dramatized version of the story and follows two arms dealers, Efraim Diveroli and David Packouz who are given a US Army contract for $300 million to supply ammunition to the Afghan National Army.
They are eventually charged for fraud when they repackage and supply the army with cheap Chinese ammunition.
Lawson’s book was adapted for the screen by Stephen Chin, Todd Phillips and Jason Smilovic and the film was directed by Todd Phillips.
The movie stars Jonah Hill as Diveroli, Miles Teller as Packouz as well as Ana de Armas and Bradley Cooper.
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