Battledogs (2013)

The military in America is a respected institution.  They fought for the freedom of Americans.  They stopped terrorists and kept the Nazis from taking over the world.  It was the American army that got rid of the British rulers and fought back against the Japanese who attacked Pearl Harbor.  Any veterans deserve the respect of the nation.  If they fought in a war, any war, they are a hero to the people of America and shouldn’t be besmirched.

This comes as a complete contrast to the wariness of Americans with their government.  The powerful people who make and execute the laws have become the enemy of the common person.  They’re allowed to do whatever they want whether it is working with Russia, grabbing women by their nether regions, or worshipping cows made of butter.  There are no repercussions for their actions.  Then they make laws that deny abortion and force immigrants into a new generation of concentration camps.  The average person feels betrayed by a government that was democratically elected to be their representatives.  There are a few lights in the darkness, but most of the government has become an American villain.

Each of these points of view have become big details in the film world.  The military is frequently glorified, coming to help with any major disaster or conflict in action movies.  The Transformers films had alien robots duking it out on Earth to see if the resistance could overcome the oppressors.  Who joined in the battle?  The American military.  In Independence Day, who fought the aliens the hardest, and lost Harry Connick Jr. in the process?  The American military.  In Battleship, who put their ships up against the aliens who showed up near Hawaii?  Everyone’s military, but mostly the American military.  You get the point.

Then there are the movies with an evil government.  The most notable of these recently is The Purge.  Specifically, the sequels dove into the government aspect of it.  The Purge: Election Year was all about trying to end the purge by getting rid of the government that had been enforcing it for decades.  The First Purge showed how that government put it in place and their reasoning behind doing such a thing.  Even the second film, The Purge: Anarchy, touched on the government aspect with their transport trucks.  The franchise is about an event held by an evil government and the people that fight against it.

So, as you can see, movies play into each of these outlooks.  They will worship the military to the point of having a bunch of veterans operate a World War II battleship in a fight against aliens.  They will also vilify the government, making them an all-white group of men trying to oppress and kill anyone who isn’t as white or wealthy as them.  It seems a little strange that the two tend to so often land on opposite sides of the spectrum.  The military is a government organization.  The department of defense runs the military.  The government funds the military.  How come the military isn’t as evil as the government?  Well, sometimes they are.

Filmmakers like to have their cake and eat it to.  There are many movies where the military are the good guys and the bad guys.  The easy one to notice is when two countries go up against one another in a war.  Military on military action in wartime makes one military good and one military bad.  Then there are the times when the American military is both the protagonist and antagonist.  It is in this area that you would find a movie like Battledogs.

The Asylum released Battledogs in 2013.  There was a werewolf outbreak in New York City.  The military came in to take control by quarantining the infected people.  President Donald Sheridan (Bill Duke) put Lt. General Christopher Monning (Dennis Haysbert) in charge with Captain Falcons (Wes Studi).  Major Brian Hoffman (Craig Sheffer) was also brought in for the investigation into what happened.  He discovered that Monning and Falcons were trying to weaponize the virus for the military to use against enemy forces, and he teamed up with Dr. Ellen Gordon (Kate Vernon) to stop them.

Battledogs had one of the most common ways to make the military both the hero and the villain of a movie.  The higher ups wanted to do something that would endanger civilian lives.  They wanted to weaponize the werewolf virus.  Having the virus exist at all was putting the American population in danger.  An outbreak could quickly spread throughout the nation, creating a country of werewolves.  Brian Hoffman was the one soldier who saw that it was wrong and fought back against his superiors, court marshal be damned.

Lt. General Christopher Monning and Captain Falcons were the main face of the bad side of the military in Battledogs.  They took over the quarantine from Dr. Ellen Gordon so that they could try and harness the werewolf virus.  When Major Brian Hoffman and Max Stevens (Ernie Hudson) figured out what happened to cause the quarantine, Monning and Falcons attempted to kill them.   They tried to kill Donna Voorhees (Ariana Richards) because she was the patient zero and had a dog tooth that could be used to create an antidote.  They were really focused on killing people when they didn’t need to.

Major Brian Hoffman and Dr. Ellen Gordon were the good guys in the movie, the small lower-level military fighting back against their superiors.  They weren’t afraid to share their thoughts about how boneheaded the idea of weaponizing werewolves was.  Dr. Gordon was just trying to do her job by studying and rehabilitating the infected.  Their lives were put in danger to try and stop the rest of the military.  They were the military heroes that the movie needed to counterbalance the military villains.

One of the more mainstream, recent examples of the military being good and bad all at once is in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Captain America: The Winter Soldier came out in 2014.  It was the first Captain America movie that would deal with his rejoining the military in the present day after being trapped in ice for so long.  The movie was a cold war action thriller wrapped up in Marvel packaging.  Captain America was the soldier, working with a select few other characters to fight back against the SHIELD agency that had been infiltrated by HYDRA.

Think about it for a second.  The military higher-ups were represented by Alexander Pierce and his underling, Brock Rumlow.  They wanted to use the Winter Soldier and a trio of Helicarriers to get rid of anyone working against Hydra.  Captain America represented the soldier fighting against his bosses.  He worked with Black Widow, Falcon, Nick Fury, Maria Hill, and Sharon Carter to try and take down the Hydra infiltration.  There was the added layer of an outside force coming into the American agency, but in the end, the basic story was still the same.  A few soldiers risked their lives to save many people from some weaponization that their organization had been planning.

These were only two of the many examples of the military being the good guys and the bad guys in the same movie.  Many other movies have tried this same sort of storytelling.  Some of them were the actual American military.  Others were militarized forces.  Jurassic World had one of the militarized forces, as the security of the new park wanted to weaponize velociraptors.  Sometimes the conflict isn’t over weapons.  In the case of the film TAPS, the conflict was that some military school students were fighting the higher-ups to try and keep their school open.  Whatever the case, the people behind some of the biggest movies have utilized the military as a protagonist and an antagonist, many times in the same film.

Two things that people from abroad think of the United States of America is that the people living there think that their government is a villain and that their military are heroes.  Movies have helped perpetuate these perceptions by putting out all the cold war thrillers where the government was the villain and war movies where the military are heroes.  Sometimes both happen in the same film.  But the perception will always be the same.  America will be America.

Not a great ending, but let’s follow it up with some notes:

• Battledogs was the fourth Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance for Ernie Hudson.  He had previously appeared in Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 (week 70), Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3: Viva La Fiesta! (week 70), and God’s Not Dead 2 (week 230).
• Debbie Rochon returned this week after appearing in Poultrygeist:Night of the Chicken Dead (week 84) and Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV (week 110).
• Benjamin James was in 2-Headed Shark Attack (week 7) before showing up in Battledogs.
• Battledogs saw A.J. Verel come back to the Sunday “Bad” Movies after popping up in Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (week 84).
• This was Bill Duke’s second Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance.  He could first be seen in Exit Wounds (week 93).
• Did you notice Brian Stapf in Battledogs?  He was in Fant4stic (week 172).
• Jason John Beebe is a returning Sunday “Bad” Movies actor, appearing in both Battledogs and Sharknado 2: The Second One (week 190).
• Street Fighter (week 280) featured Wes Studi before he showed up in Battledogs.
• Two actors from Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus (week 300) were in Battledogs.  They were Ashley Carr and Darin Cooper.
• Finally, Cameron Gordon was in both Battledogs and Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark (week 300).
• Have you seen Battledogs?  Were my stereotypes inaccurate?  Do you like when one soldier goes up against the military in a movie?  Share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter.
• You can let me know what movies I should be checking out by telling me on Twitter or in the comments section.  Any suggestions are welcome because they help me find new movies I might not have known otherwise.
• Check out the Instagram account for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.
• Now let’s talk about next week.  Two of the series that I’ve been watching since early in the Sunday “Bad” Movies run are coming together for the next post.  Charles Band has put out a lot of properties that would fit into the Sunday “Bad” Movies repertoire.  Evil Bong and The Gingerdead Man are two of them.  I’ve watched three movies in each franchise, and next week I’ll be checking out Gingerdead Man vs. Evil Bong.  I’ll see you soon with a post.