Review of White Dog (1982) by Maccewill Y — 20 Dec 2008

I just watched the Criterion DVD two nights ago. I had never seen the movie before, but my dad caught it on cable years ago and said it was "required viewing.".

I will try not to get into any spoilers here, for those of you who are interested in seeing this, but I'll give you my overall impression.

This is one of those movies where the visceral impact of the story and the subject matter far outshine the actual film itself. It's not a well-made movie. The acting is pretty mediocre, with a few "good" moments from the three leads (McNichol, Ives, and especially Paul Winfield). It's very low-budget too, meaning that you can SEE the fact that it's low budget on screen. The "attacks" from the dog, while disturbing, are almost laughable in execution because (assumably) the budget wasn't high enough to do more takes, or to create some of these moments using more sophisticated methods (even for 1981) like mechanical dogs, etc.

One of the things that holds this movie together throughout, however, is the score. The music is by Ennio Morricone, who gets my vote as the most under-appreciated film composer alive today. His music is haunting in "White Dog." And it keeps you going, just when you think you've had enough---watching the actors clunk their way through this heavy-handed movie.

But the story itself is what kept me from turning it off and walking away. I personally can't see why it was banned (or shelved, depending on who's talking) back in 1981. This is not a story that promotes racism. It's a story of a small group of people who try to "untrain" a dog that is trained to attack and kill black people. They try to decondition the animal, and that is a fascinating subject matter. It clearly shows us that racism is learned. That we (as human animals) are "trained" to hate, to attack, and to destroy. And it raises the questions, "Can we be reconditioned? Can we undo the training of a trainable animal? Can we undo this training in ourselves?".

And without giving away the ending, let me just say that (as much as I thought this movie wasn't all that well done) I have not stopped thinking about the final moments of it for the past couple of days. And even though the direction was clumsy at many points in the film, those last few shots were and are incredibly powerful. They have stayed with me.

I would recommend it to all of you. But if you're looking for a "really good, well made" movie, see something else. If you're looking for barebones, often crude, but unusually powerful filmmaking, see this one. You won't soon forget it.