Review of A Boy and His Dog (1975) by Caesar B — 12 Jul 2013

A Boy and his Dog is quite a strange film and has a brim and blank look at the future, but it's played into the story realistically even as it charters into strange territory which it fails to handle well.

To put it blankly, the entire aspect of a telepathically communicating dog was handled in an unconvincing manner and seemed very strange to me. Although I can't blame the filmmakers since the film is nearly 40 years old, it's just mainly that the main feature of the element was mere footage of a dog with little physicality in its actions while it spoke through dubbing which sounded like it had too much echo. Although this can be played off as being the echo going on inside Vic's head, it just served as a notable technical issue to me. But the main problem is that it took me a while to figure out that Blood was communicating to Vic because the fact of the matter wasn't clarified for a long time in the film, so it leaves things confusing.

On top of that, A Boy and his Dog features a rough visual quality which makes comprehending what's going on in the distant ground difficult to achieve from time to time, and the lighting is poor as well.

And at times, A Boy and his Dog seems like it doesn't know what to do with itself or where to go, and so it becomes lead into territory it doesn't understand and so on the surface A Boy and his Dog features a telepathic talking dog and an underground dystopia where everyone wears whiteface as they follow tight rules and tie up a teenage boy while they drain his testicles while a hillbilly robot destroys a 3-person rebellion. It's a tight wire the story walks on, and at times it doesn't seem to balance itself perfectly.

But still, A Boy and his Dog does view the future in a strong and realistic manner since it displays the dry wastelands of an empty world after the events of WWIV which is an issue I haven't seen covered before since the main focus is constantly either The Cold War or WWIII. It does have a predominant western theme in it and plays out a theme of brotherhood between man and animal which doesn't separate them as different creatures but rather connects them as living creatures. The fact is, it creates a sense of connection between two beings in a future where there is no real trust, and yet a boy like Vic has come across a communicating dog named Blood which has become his source of connection, yet he lusts for sexual activity as a boy normally does.

Vic is a complicated character with a simplistic upbringing, and he's portrayed by Don Johnson very finely with a sense of being a boy and being a man portrayed with a fine line between them. Its great to see him making use of his charisma really early on in his career from before his Miami Vice breakthrough.

Plus, Tiger, the dog who Portrayed Blood was good.

And the film had a great ending because despite it being a massive shock and an unexpected dynamic, it did feature a sense of how Vic had developed as a human being and has adjusted to the horrible future he must live out in, and it was quite a surprise to get that.

Basically, A Boy and his Dog is messed up in good ways and bad ways, but is entertaining and snuck satire into the story.