Review of White Dog (1982) by Alberto M — 14 Jun 2009

Hard-hitting, simple and tragic--just the way Fuller was said to have liked it. White Dog tells the story of exactly that, a white dog. After an aspiring young actress hits a dog with her car, she claims the wounded mutt as her own, forging a friendship with what she later discovers to be quite literally a racist dog: an animal that's been trained to attack and kill black people.

And from there it starts cooking with gas. Co-penned by L.A. Confidential helmsman Curtis Hanson, this short but vicious little fable doesn't tackle racism in the same way that most bleeding heart narratives tend to do.

There is no sense that the consequences of racism stem from nor are a part of a 'white man's burden' but rather a two-way street in which prejudice can be learned but possibly never unlearned.

With a cool, upright performance from Paul Winfield, the film doesn't let the raw emotional impact of its horrors take a backseat to the action--the disturbing nature of the dog's psychology brings it all boiling to the surface in a way that feels almost like a horror film.

Think of it like Cujo with a strong social imperative that has aged exceptionally well. Look into it.