White Dog (1982)

People are voting emotionally.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Deemed too controversial by Paramount in 1982, Samuel Fuller's bare- knuckled study of the psychology of racism went virtually unseen for over two decades, playing sporadically at film festivals and private screenings until Criterion remastered and re-released it on DVD in 2008. Fuller was understandably devastated and perplexed by the decision, as it was incredibly well received in the countries that actually saw a limited released, but it was made in a time when serious and unblinking social commentary was favoured less than greased-up man-mountains wielding dual machine guns.From the very start, Fuller's movie is an exercise in resourceful simplicity, as young actress Julie Sawyer (Kristy McNichol) hits a white German Shepherd with her car, and takes the injured and seemingly innocent animal to the vets for a check-up. The dog's ferocity rears its head early on, as it takes down a rapist that breaks in Julie's house and restrains him until the police arrive. Its eagerness to attack is interpreted as protection of its owner, but when the hound starts savagely attacking black people, it soon becomes clear that this is no ordinary dog. Despite her boyfriend's pleas to put it down before it kills somebody, Julie believes that it can be cured of the affliction it was taught from a young age.The first third of the movie plays out like exploitation with the subtlest of satire running through the story, almost like the type of movie Larry Cohen used to make only without a flying serpent or mutant baby. The attacks are brutal and well-made despite its low budget, and the movie proceeds almost like a slasher (gnasher?) as the beast bares its teeth with its coat festooned with blood. The animal is truly terrifying, and makes for a chilling movie 'monster'. Yet you see a glimmer of redemption in those sad eyes, and Julie does too, taking it to animal trainer Carruthers (Burl Ives) who, like everybody else, warns her to kill the beast before it kills somebody. One of his workers, dog trainer Keys (Paul Winfield), recognises it as a 'white dog' - one conditioned from a pup to hate black people.It is a this point that White Dog becomes an enthralling and intelligent expose of racism, posing far more questions that it quite wisely fails to answer. The pure hatred bred into the animal rings true with humans; the kind of ignorant, confused and misdirected fury so prevalent in America. The film also asks whether or not this kind of conditioning is curable. Keys certainly tries, exposing more and more of his black skin to the dog as they gradually form a bond, but the German Shepherd remains unpredictable, managing one night to escape its confines and commit an act of pure savagery in the holiest of locations. The film highly suggests that you may remove the racism, but the hatred will remain, and it's a sobering thought. This is blunt, unflinching B-movie film-making that will have you on the edge of your seat as you watch, and reflect heavily on its themes afterwards.

How to take a sensitive issue that has never been put in film before and turn it into an emotionless drab of a movie? Just watch White Dog.Julie (Kristy McNichols)finds a lost white German Shepard and when no one turns up to claim him, she decides to adopt him. She soon finds out that it had been trained by its previous owner to attack black people. Determined to "cure" him, she takes him to animal trainers, Carruthers and Keys. The best thing about the movie is easily the titular white dog. He is fierce and definitely scary when he bares his large teeth. And the audience do get invested in him as the movie proceeds. But the sad thing is none of the characters seem to be. Most people keep advising Julie to put him down without so much as a flinch. Keys only looks at him as a symbol of racism rather than a living being. He seems to believe that "curing" this dog means taking away a weapon from white racists. He is, as far as the dog is concerned, no different from the previous owner; both of them are using him as tool. Julie looks like the Kristen Stewart of the 80's. In one scene she is defending the dog, in the next she is shouting at Keys to shoot him and then again she is hugging him, all with a poker face. And neither does the script give her any chance to show the transition between her emotional states.I read that the movie makers tried to promote it as a horror film about a monster dog. If they wanted to do so, it had to be a completely different story movie. All elements of racism should be kept out and the audience should not sympathize with the killer dog. Instead what we get is a film that has a few horror-like elements. People speak in short obtuse sentences like in horror movies, but here it is just lame. There are numerous irritating slow motions shots. Ennio Moricone was probably told to write a score for a thriller movie. It is grating on a story about likable dog helplessly brainwashed to do bad things. The editing is poorly done. A lot of time is wasted on pointless scenes like when a policeman comes to the training center asking for directions and when Julie meets the previous owner of the dog. It could have been instead utilized to develop Julie's character a little better.The dog is just that, a dog. The audience are concerned about him as a being. Turing him into a symbol of something larger, in this case racism, is not going to work because nobody looks at an animal and sees a symbol.

One night, an actress Julie Sawyer finds an injured stray dog. She decides to take care of him till the owner is found, not knowing that the dog is a "White Dog" a term used for dogs trained to attack black people. After the dog attacks an actress on the set, Julie decides to train the dog not to attack with the help of Keys, an animal expert. Will they be successful?Samuel Fuller's masterpiece has often been misunderstood by the audience as a racist film. Well, White Dog was surprisingly amazing yet very simple. Fuller created a thought-provoking film on racism through a strange medium: a dog. I have to admit that this film was very clever and the way it told the story was pretty impressive. With many close-up and slow-motion shots Fuller created a great film experience that was both shocking and thrilling. Ennio Morricone's score was great too and the screenplay was the best. And the way he ended the film really makes us think about the world we live in. Fuller attempts to give us an answer to the question: Can Racism be banished? His answer is yes and no. Well it is up to us to decide what path we want to choose. But nevertheless, White Dog is a highly underrated classic and thanks to Criterion Collection, we can see this film again which was banned some years ago. I urge everyone to see this film. It's just great. Highly Recommended...

This has to be one of the worst films ever made.Dumb concept poorly executed.Racist dog whose first attack is a white guy.The acting is simply horrible.It's directed like a TV movie and is is slow as mollasses.Aren't we sick of race baiting? It's sickening.I know this was made in the 80s, but come on folks.Stop the BS and get a life.Oh, and there's a reason Kristie hasn't done anything in 30 years -- she can act her way out of a paper bag.See the film if you want to prove how the media is crazy far left winged agenda driven.Otherwise, stay far away.