Disc Reviews

White Dog Review

• 30th Mar 2014

On its original release in 1982, White Dog was faced with a whole load of accusations about it being racist and offensive, both here and in the United States. As a result the film bombed and showed very poorly everywhere. Even before the film was released the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) were up in arms claiming that the film was racist. As a result of this the NAACP called for the boycott of the film and leading Paramount Pictures becoming very reluctant to release it, shieing away from any promotion or distribution. However, in viewing it today these accusations are unfounded. It did for legendry director Sam Fuller what Peeping Tom (1959) did for Michael Powell and pretty much destroyed his career. He came into White Dog having had the critical success of the war film, The Big Red One (1980) in a genre Fuller felt comfortable in. The director was very hurt by the reaction and the unfounded and misguided attitude towards his film. I would go as far as to say that White Dog is the opposite of racist in that it tackles racism as a stupid, ill-educated and dangerous ideology.

It opens with a  white German Shepard dog being run over by an out of work actress, Julie Sawyer (Kristy MacNichol) and taking the dog to the vet (who seem a pretty mercenary bunch). If the dog is not claimed in three days she can keep it for herself. Over those three days she rather hopes that no one does claim what seems to be a loving animal, especially after she is attacked by a potential rapist in her home and is saved by the dog who savagely attacks the intruder causing her to have a practical need for the dog as well as a loving pet. One day the dog escapes and wanders the streets whereupon he then attacks a black man. The viewer is getting the impression that there is something not quite right about this dog. He then viciously attacks a fellow actress friend of Julie’s and begins to realize that she may have a racist dog and is warned that this is a ‘white dog’ – a dog trained specifically to attack black people. She wants to re-programme or re-train the dog and is told by a dangerous animal trainer that this is near-on impossible but rises to the challenge. The trainer/tamer is black adding extra grist.

Viewing the film on Blu-ray, it does look very grainy and some of the acting by some (apart from veteran actor and folk singer Burl Ives) very amateurish. The acting does reduce the film to being akin to a Roger Cormon production – namely being a very interesting and intelligent film with some stiff acting. I can think of The Intruder (1961) being a good case in point about a racist bigot (William Shatner) stirring up racial tension in the Deep South, one of those rare cult films always worth re-addressing and re-evaluating. This leads this writer to question Eureka’s Masters of Cinema series and if this was the right choice. For the most part this series of DVD/Blu-ray releases is of iconic and master filmmakers (which does and should include Fuller) but maybe another film of Fuller’s could have been included such as his early war films, The Big Red One or House of Bamboo (1955) and that maybe White Dog would have been an ideal choice Arrow Films classic cult film releases which perfectly serves the function of releasing forgotten or cult films ripe for re-evaluation. Never the less it is great that the film has finally been released and hopefully will be the subject of more serious study.

Chris Hick