The teenage rebel Johnny Mad Dog leads the small group of younger boys commanded by the older General Never Die, who feeds them cocaine.[1] The film follows the group's march towards the capital Monrovia, and follows them in a gritty realistic manner as they move through a series of towns and villages, where they terrify and often execute the population. The soldiers are depicted as almost feral, committing acts of pillage and rape, with scant regard for even their own lives. They wear a variety of outlandish outfits – including butterfly wings and a wedding dress – and have nicknames such as No Good Advice, Captain Dust to Dust, and Chicken Hair... "Johnny Mad Dog" is a French/Liberian war film directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire and based on the novel Johnny Chien Méchant (2002) by the Congolese author Emmanuel Dongala. It tells the story of a group of child soldiers fighting for the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebels in 2003, during the latter part of the Second Liberian Civil War. It´s tragic, dramatic, authentic and emotional. A force of nature showing the tragic side of civilwar and child soldiers. "Johnny Mad Dog" is well made, but the storyline is a bit scattered and the focus is a bit everywhere. Plus you have no sympathy for the main characters as they have no empathy for no one.

This movie was terrible, simply put. There is 0 plot, the acting is horrible, and the sound effects are even worse than the acting. It is very uncomfortable to watch. I don't know what the producer/director was trying to achieve, but he landed way below the mark. Don't even waste your time.

I came across this movie last night and...OMG. Genuinely, it was raw. But at the same time, as a woman, I could not take my eyes off the screen until it was over. Rewinding several times. It was so real. I am telling the truth - I had to get up and turn the light on. It was around 2 in the morning and I was uncomfortable. The music, the colors, the energy. Everything felt right, true. Real. I was all about it, yet the subject matter is so not right. I haven't been able to unthink this movie in the hours since I first watched it. I will be talking about and recommending this one for quite some time to come (to those I know can appreciate/handle it.) I will be watching again. The end for me was completely deep but I can't talk about it so... //////////////////////////////////// SPOILER ALERT IF YOU SCROLL DOWN All I will say about the end is simply that it is brilliant. After all the killing and fighting and taking... Life continues. Makes me think of the words, "and the meek shall rise." Pardon any typos. Dictating to iPad. What a trip.

Brutal and honest.... Watch it!

Dramatization of African Politics turns this in to a basic popcorn drama. 25/01/2014

Orrible kids on the rampage, doing horrible things that include killing and rape. Very real grim stuff. During the movie i was trying to guess which country this was set in and guess Liberia

Very powerful and sad movie about child soldiers in Liberia during a war. This movie was really filmed in war torn Liberia so it had the look and feel of a bloody tribal war.

I'm not at all sure how to give this film a star rating. I think it fits into the 'one-timer' category. It's an important piece of work that I admire and appreciate, but I certainly don't want to see it again. Brutal and kinetic from the opening seconds, it follows a platoon of mostly child soldiers in an unnamed West African state as they maraude through the countryside, villages and take on the capital in their bid to... well, that's never really understood. The cast seem to be mainly 'non-actors' and their natural performances are all the more chilling as they brutalise, rape, humiliate and murder virtually everyone they come across. Screaming savage chants it's as though they have been drugged, and all vestiges of their previous childhood have been excised from their souls. Swarming down shattered streets in all manner of looted and pillaged costumes, jewellery and adornments (but with automatic weapons almost as big as they are) they look like a twisted bunch of trick or treaters. There's no easy ending here, no hint of redemption or hope for anyone. Everyone is dehumanised, broken and left to scavenge for their life. The UN are virtually absent, meekly defending a hospital where they can, but even within refugee camps the atmosphere is scarcely any better than mob rule. It doesn't make any explicit political comment, but surely any human being watching this can only find it shocking and wrong in every way possible.

I don't know what to say. I'd have to see it to believe it...

It's a scramble of destruction and inhumanity, but it shows what state these child soldiers have to get their minds into in order to kill at will. The haphazard way of filming emphasises the reality of war. It's messy, it isn't a clear picture, it is brutal and leaves you trying to catch a breath and catch up with what is happening. The unnamed African country seems to be Liberia, but so easily could be Ivory Coast, Uganda, Congo or similar.

Hard movie to digest.

It puts you directly in the front lines of destroying our child like innocence and finding redemption.

Cuanto dolor en la Tierra... Este filme habla de la tragedia de los ninyos soldado (como otras peliculas que se sumergen en nuestro mundo real de secuestros, torturas, enfermedades incomprensibles, accidentes, hambre, violencia, carcel...), y por eso, por ser necesaria, por ser cuasi-documental y vibrar los corazones con lagrimas autenticas, es una cinco estrellas, y, francamente, no siento que importe mucho el "rating" a nivel estrictamente cinematografico... El quid de la cuestion en esta en concreto es como todo el mundo es victima: el pueblo que bastante tiene con buscar para comer... pero tambien (y esto el lo importante de esta cinta), estos ninyos atrapados en el "juego-locura" de la guerra, sin escapatoria, sin medios, sin suerte, con mas que una tragedia a sus espaldas y que, maldita sea, tienen el mismo derecho que yo, que escribo esta critica, a la educacion, la salud, en fin... Un mundo sin sentido? Puede... O puede que no: la pelicula tiene la enorme virtud de sacar la esperanza en una chispa elegante en un final enorme, no con enganyos o manejos edulcorados, sino mostrando la realidad plena de esa esperanza, la de los dos encuentros de los dos protagonistas, la de por que en el primero guardan silencio y el segundo es de palabras... ambos de plena comunicacion humana.

Picture hell and a thousand little Hitlers running about and you have this film.

A very disturbing film, once again highlighting the wests failure to act when they stand nothing to gain. Johnny Mad Dog is a story of humanity gone insane. An army of child soldiers, more brutal and cold than their grown up counter parts. I don't really understand what the point of the film was, other than to show the depravity and brutality of a rebel army. Not a film for everyone, but all the same it was worth the watch.

very intense and extremely brutal....a very realistic view on child soldiers..

One of the best movies I have ever seen. Period.

"If you don't wanna die.....don't be born".

Cannot recommend this enough. Brutal and beautiful all at the same time.

A Liberian City of God. There've only been a handful of the thousands of movies I've seen in my lifetime which push my buttons. This is one of them. A highly emotive, confronting movie about child soldiers during the civil war in Liberia. We see children as young as 8 yrs old with AK47's and rocket launchers, mindlessly terrorising, murdering and raping adults, and the only thing that comes to mind is exterminate these twisted souls. We see the adults who kidnapped these children and dehumanised them to turn them into killing machines, and my thoughts are, exterminate.