The movie War Dogs is a criminal comedy-drama that is based on the true story of Efraim Diveroli and David Packouz. The two are the main characters played by Jonah Hills and Miles Teller (Phillips, 2016). The character of Efraim is the charismatic young adult that never finished his high school education and coerced David into following him to the arms market. Efraim has an excessive personality that is focused on his greed for money. One of the scenes depicts him trying to buy marijuana from unknown thugs in Los Angeles (Phillips, 2016). However, they just wanted to scam him and press him to give up on the money, to which Efraim pulls out a rifle and starts shooting in the air in the middle of the street (Phillips, 2016). In the movie, characters have varying views on Efraim. Some consider him a devoted Jew, a reliable weapons dealer, and a misogynistic idiot. Nevertheless, most of the characters view him positively because of his ability to communicate with others.
It is possible to apply various theories to explain the behavior of Efraim, one of which was introduced by Hans Eysenck. Eysenck offered a psychological theory that explained that extraversion could be a precursor to deviant behavior and crime (Hagan, 2020). It is reasoned that in comparison to introverted personalities, extroverts are less responsive to conditioned anxiety reactions (Hagan, 2020). For Eysenck, conformity stemmed from the fear of punishment and acquired internalized conscience (Hagan, 2020). In the film, it was told that Efraim has a poor relationship with his parents, who perhaps were not able to facilitate the acquisition of moral values within him. As was previously discussed, Efraim has strong communication skills and the ability to convince people to favor him. The primary illustration could be David, who decided to follow Efraim despite seeing the difficulty of his behavior and his true nature of a man that prefers scamming people and using drugs. Efraim is an extravert without moral conscience; his personality, reinforced by insatiable greed, led him to the crimes he committed, which are related to fraud, forgery, conspiracy, and other felonies.
This psychological theory could be complemented by the social control perspectives. Social control theory designates criminal behavior as the result of crumbling social bonds (Hagan, 2020). For example, Reckless’s Containment theory offers a perspective that individuals have different social restraints that act as a deterrent from pressuring factors leading to criminality (Hagan, 2020). These factors vary and may include poor economic conditions, close contact with individuals from bad companies, feelings of inferiority, mental conflicts, and personality contingencies (Hagan, 2020). Simultaneously containments refer to the conventional behavioral values and social bonds such as family and near support systems that strengthen conventionality (Hagan, 2020). However, Efraim does not have any such containment, or at least they were portrayed in the film.
In the film, Efraim has no real feelings of belonging and intimacy with anyone. Some of such feelings could be traced in David until he sees David having a dinner party with friends to which Efraim was not invited.
References
Hagan, F. E., & Daigle, L. E. (2020). Introduction to criminology theories, methods, and criminal behavior (10th ed.). SAGE.
Phillips, T. (2016). War Dogs. Warner Bros.