Verdict
Summary
Amazingly underrated and mostly ignored, Men of War is undoubtedly one of Dolph’s best films as well as an incredibly bloody action / war film from screenwriter John Sayles. It has a rich, epic scope, and it’s criminal that it wasn’t given a theatrical release in the U.S.
Plot:
Mercenaries take a mission that changes their worldview … and they switch sides.
Review:
A washed up mercenary named Nick Gunar (Dolph Lundgren) is approached by some businessmen to undertake a mission in far east Asia. Reluctant at first to take the job, he eventually decides to do it with the proviso that he can recruit his own team. Assembling a motley crew of expendable soldiers cobbled from his past, they travel to this exotic island far removed from modern civilization. Gunar and his men are meant to persuade the islanders into signing over their island for money, but the islanders have been through it all before – they have no interest in money and they’re willing to die fighting to keep anyone from taking their island away from them. It turns out that the island has a valuable natural resource (something about bird excrement), and it comes to the point when Gunar’s men turn against each other when they realize that they won’t get paid if they don’t just kill the islanders already. Gunar ends up taking up a cause by siding with the natives, and his team divides in half – those who will fight with the natives, and those who’ll fight to kill them. The final battle is bloody.
Amazingly underrated and mostly ignored, Men of War is undoubtedly one of Dolph’s best films as well as an incredibly bloody action / war film from screenwriter John Sayles. It has a rich, epic scope, and it’s criminal that it wasn’t given a theatrical release in the U.S. Fans of Lundgren’s will note that he plays a mercenary named Gunar here. He also plays a similar (but somewhat more degraded) character named Gunnar in The Expendables. His cohorts and compadres in Men of War include Tiny Lister, B.D. Wong (who steals the movie), and Trevor Goddard, amongst others. It was directed by Perry Lang. Interestingly, indie filmmaker Robert McGinley was offered a chance to direct this after his video hit Shredder Orpheus, with Willem Dafoe in talks to star.
Men of War arrives on Blu-ray for the third or fourth time, but this edition from MVD Visual is an improvement over previous multi-pack budget releases that sometimes had the incorrect aspect ratio. This edition has the correct aspect ratio (2:35:1), and has some bonus material, including a new video intro by the director, as well as deleted scenes, an archival featurette, a mini-poster, a slipcover, and the trailer.
