White Dog (The Criterion Collection)
by Samuel Fuller
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Christa Lang, Kristy McNichol, Vernon WeddleDirector: Samuel Fuller
Brand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-12-02
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Criterion Collection
Movie Reviews of White Dog (The Criterion Collection)
Movie Review: A very intelligent film about the stupidity of racism and hatred
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Summary of White Dog (The Criterion Collection)
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 stars as a young actress who adopts a lost German Shepherd, only to discover through a series of horrifying incidents that the dog has been trained to attack black people, and Paul Winfield plays the animal trainer who tries to cure him. A snarling, uncompromising vision, White Dog is a tragic portrait of the evil done by that most corruptible of animals: the human being.SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
New, restored high-definition digital transfer of the uncut version, approved by producer Jon Davison
New video interviews with producer Davison, co-writer Curtis Hanson, and Sam Fuller s widow, Christa Lang-Fuller
An interview with dog trainer Karl Lewis-Miller
Rare photos from the film s production
PLUS: A booklet featuring new essays by critics J. Hoberman and Armond White, plus a rare 1982 interview in which Fuller interviews the canine star of the film
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