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White Dog - Criterion Collection

1 rating: 5.0

Cult Movies movie directed by Samuel Fuller

Samuel Fuller's throat-grabbing exposé on American racism was misunderstood and withheld from release when it was made in the early eighties; today, the notorious film is lauded for its daring metaphor and gripping pulp filmmaking. Kristy McNichol … see full wiki

Tags: Movies, Cult Movies

Cast: Paul Winfield, Burl Ives, Kristy McNichol

Director: Samuel Fuller

Genre: Cult Movies

1 review about White Dog - Criterion Collection

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A very intelligent film about the stupidity of racism and hatred

Apr 4, 2009

by nateandersen
posted in Movie Hype

Rating:

Sam Fuller (The Naked Kiss, Shock Corridor, and The Big Red One) was never one to pull punches, and his films always manage to make his message clear. At the same time, his stories (usually B stories, always with an element of melodrama, and a heavy dose of pulp, and a low-budget vibe) always also manage to be unique and engaging. This film is no exception.

It is a film about Julie, a young, aspiring actress who adopts a dog and finds out it is no ordinary dog. It is a "white dog" trained from a young age to fear and attack people with black skin. Julie, convinced that the dog is not at fault for its training, finds an animal trainer willing to attempt a rehabilitation. What Fuller achieves by making the dog both Julie's protector and the perpetrator of violence is to generate both sympathy for the animal and anger at its behavior. Fuller's message, in a nutshell, may be to hate (and fight against) racism without at the same time hating the racist. While the dog's training is an obvious metaphor for racism - that aims to show its stupidity and insidiousness, it also, more subtly, makes clear that those who grow up racist inherit their prejudices unthinkingly and should therefore also be considered victims.

Sam Fuller's astonishing technique is to take a very blunt premise and weave it into a story that (however hokey it might seem if merely described) manages to be gripping, and somehow even plausible. Every character offers something unique and memorable, and I found myself thoroughly drawn in by the story. The dialogue works on multiple levels, with several conversations serving as both blunt and powerful lectures to the audience on the evil and stupidity of racism, and plausible conversations between characters that flow out of actual situations. Few directors could pull this off without it seeming hokey and heavyhanded. Sam Fuller manages. An exceptional film by one of the most consistently distinctive independent voices in American cinema.

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QUEENBFLIX October 04, 2010

This is going on my list. Have you seen BAXTER? It has a somewhat similar premise.

nateandersen October 05, 2010

I vaguely recall Baxter - I don't think I saw it all, but there was a French dog? I think this is quite different in style and tone, but I can see the similarities.

QUEENBFLIX October 06, 2010

BAXTER is about a pit bull who goes through one master after another until he finds the perfect fit in a young neo-nazi--and then all hell breaks loose. It is French.

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