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Research References: Johnny Mad Dog Review


This film along with was a great source of information to gain a greater understanding of the life of a child soldier.

Johnny Mad Dog (2008) directed by Jean-Stephane Sauvaire follows a group of 15 rebel, child soldiers at the end of the Liberian civil war 2003. It shows them terrorising, intimidating and interrogate civilians involving rape and death. It not only shows the damage they commit but also how they themselves are manipulated to  believe that they are doing what needs to be done by older soldiers. The phrase, “You don’t wanna die, don’t be born,” is repeatedly used and they are told they with be shot if they mention their families, at one point, one of the soldier says, “My weapon is my mother and my father.” This shows how detached they are from their lives before becoming and child soldier. The lead character ‘Mad Dog’, doesn’t even remember his real name.

Although detached from their family they still have a strong sense of unity between each other, when one of them dies, after only being abducted just a short while before, he is still giving a kind of memorial, showing their respect. Scenes like this show another side to the soldiers, their vulnerability and naivety which is what the older soldiers take advantage of as they manipulated them to become killers, but some of it still remains. We see one child soldier, No Good Advice, struggle to accept that they need to kill a pig to eat that he got off an old man, they appear to have killed a pig before but for some reason he has an attachment to this pig showing that they are not completely detached from all emotions.

The Making Of...

The actors are in fact ex-child soldiers and the director took their experiences to help make the film realistic, changing aspects if the children said that it would not of happened that way. Being part of the film helped the ex-child soldiers with their recovery of their experiences. Months were taken to prepare them for filming which was like therapy to them. For them it was a way of showing themselves and their communities, who have exiled them, that they did not know what they were doing and they didn’t have a choice but know they are a different person.