Customer Reviews

White Dog (The Criterion Collection)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

In 1982, Samuel Fuller's "WHITE DOG" created a storm of controversy that resulted in a limited theatrical release with no follow-up video until now.

What was falsely labeled an incendiary racist film that could provoke real life violence is instead a bold anti-racist parable about how racism is learned or taught. In the movie the metaphor is a dog that has been trained to attack people with dark skin.

The origin of the story is a harrowing true incident Romain Gary wrote about in Life magazine.

The movie story is simple. Julie Sawyer (Kristy McNichol in her first adult role) is a young actress who, while driving one night, accidentally hits a white German shepherd on a mountain road. She takes it to a vet and tries to find the owner. In the meantime, Julie grows attached to the dog. One night it saves her from a intruder who attempts to rape her. Later, the dog runs away and comes home bloody. On a movie set with Julie, the dog attacks a black actress. Julie realizes the dog has been trained as an attack dog so she takes it to "Noah's Ark" an animal shelter and training facility hoping the dog can be deprogrammed in some way. She is told that the dog is a "white dog," one trained to attack black people. At the facility, Keys (Paul Winfield), a dog expert sees this as an opportunity to see if racial prejudice can be unlearned.

This low-budget film is sometimes heavy-handed but is immensely watchable and the restored uncut widescreen transfer is, as with all Criterion editions, made from the best elements available and is very crisp and clean.

Kristy McNichol has a natural, winning charisma on screen. Her top billing is justified and she has an easy, believable chemistry with the dog (actually five dogs were used).

Paul Winfield dominates the latter half of the film. His performance is focused and intense. I was reminded of a superb dog story in which he starred, 1972's "Sounder."

The great Burl Ives has a small part as the co-owner of "Noah's Ark." It is great to hear that singular voice even if it is only in spoken words.

Director Sam Fuller had a reputation as a tough, cigar-chomping sometimes over-the-top, story-teller. He has been called "the tabloid poet." Fuller did not shy away from controversial issues and in fact helmed other films with racial conflict as a theme. He died in 1997 at the age of 85. This was his last film.

There's a wonderful featurette containing new interviews with producer Jon Davison, co-writer Curtis Hanson ("L.A. Confidential") and Fuller's widow Krista Lang.

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film

White Dog is one of the most controversial films of the 1980's and was suppressed due to it's controversy.

The film, loosely based on a true story is about an actress who adopts a stray dog and later discovers that the dog had been trained by to attack and kill black people. African-American actor, Paul Winfield, plays the role of an animal trainer who attempts to rehabilitate the dog.

The film follows both the case of a real actress who this happened to and to the real incidents in the South where racists trained dogs to do such horrific acts.

The film also stars Burl Ives in one of his few film roles.

I liked the film and saw it as a message on how racism is taught, and not inherent. The film was misunderstood and not widely released and this edition is it premiere on home video.

The DVD includes an interview with director Sam Fuller's widow, Christa Lang-Fuller, the film's producer Jon Davison, co-writer Curtis Hanson, and dog trainer, Karl Lewis-Miller. The DVD also includes behind the scenes photographs.

This is a film you won't soon forget.

This is an illegal bootleg DVD. Criterion is working on a legitimately licensed version, which is sure to have lots of great supplements and a top-notch transfer.

This is one of those rarely seen, much talked about, "legendary" films that has never been released on home video, and has been rarely screened. Until now, of course.

This film was made for Paramount Studios in 1984, but they never gave it a theatrical release. The plot, about a stray dog taken in by Kristy MacNichol that is a "white dog", a dog trained to kill and maim black people, was considered too hot for them, and the film ended up being a legendary, unseen work. It ended up being the final film of the great Sam Fuller (who directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Curtis Hanson, the director of L.A. Confidential). Is the film great, or is it a disappointment? Well...

The film is mixed. When it works, it's very, very good, and when it doesn't, it's slightly embarrassing (which may have been another reason why Paramount didn't release it in the States). It's never cringe inducing or creaky, but there are notable flaws here. There is bad dialogue (some of which sounds dubbed in, and it's bad dubbing), overacting, some bad camera moves, sledgehammer music cues (especially during an early attack scene), and boring, arbitary secondary characters (Kristy MacNichol's boyfriend and a policeman, for example). The first third of the film is a bit dull. But when Paul Winfield enters the film (he's the trainer that attempts to cure the white dog of its racism), the film is much better. Winfield is great here, playing an entirely believable, passionate person who really wants to cure the dog of its hatred of black people. There are some powerful moments, like when Kristy goes to the pound to look for her dog. We see in long shot a dog placed in a chamber that puts him to sleep. We don't see the dog pass away (Fuller isn't exploitative), but he shows a close up of the chamber, which is powerful and sad. After that, Kristy becomes determined to cure her dog.

Fuller comes up with some excellent camera work (especially in the cage where the animal is retrained), great performances by the dog (there were five dogs portraying the white dog in the film), some funny humour directed at R2D2 (yes, the Star Wars robot), and a very powerful and memorable ending. Overall, it's a mixed bag, but its positives outweight its negatives. If you like Fuller, you should check this out. It's not perfect, but it's a memorable film. It was silly of Paramount not to release the film, but Criterion has done us all a favour. Not a perfect film, but still a good one.

This a great film, but you wouldn't know it from this presentation. It is indeed 1.33 and from what looks like a VHS source by the smearing and oversaturated and bleeding colors. The film itself is riddled with speckles and marks; the sound is blurry and full of pops and clicks. During the titles, the music is distorted and sounds like it came from a scratched LP. I wish I had done my homework on this. Please be patient and wait for the Criterion release about which I learned too late.

WARNING; Partial spoiler, though does not tell the end. As soon as the dog attacked the lady he should have been put down. Sorry I love dogs a lot, but if he had been put down right then a terrible tragedy would have been averted. It was crazy for someone to want to "cure" him when he was a potential threat. This is not a child's movie, especially not for a black child.

***1/2 1982. Based on Romain Gary's White Dog, this motion picture was co-written and directed by Samuel Fuller. A young actress takes care of a dog she accidentally hit. She discovers soon that he's a white dog, a dog trained to attack black people. Interesting but depressing film about the impossibility to eradicate racism. Recommended.

Awful images and sound for this DVD release not much better than the quality of a VHS. Furthermore, it's a full screen copy while the correct aspect ratio of WHITE DOG is 1:85. Scandalous.

The troublesome Televista bootleg dvd is totally gone in amazon. Because Televista product is too disappoint to collect. Most of customers(collectors)complain Televista released dvd. But I've seen UIP issue dvd(Made in U.K.)& It's really great. Region Free(ALL)and perfect quality(Cover Art & Disc & Chapters & Screen & Sound). It include Bonus Features(Posters & Lobby Card & STAFF Profile)so it's suitable for collectors. Forget Televista bootleg DVD and get legal UIP product! UIP(United International Pictures). Now, you can purchase it in amazon list!

I don't know if this title falls in the public domain or not. I,m sure when the Criterion dvd becomes available Teleavista will receive cease and desist
letters, If they havn't already. This is from wikipedia:

There are hundreds of movies, cartoons and television shows that have fallen into the public domain. Some of these movies are considered classics such as Night of the Living Dead, House on Haunted Hill starring Vincent Price, and The Kid starring Charlie Chaplin. The copyrights to many of these movies were either not properly registered initially or were not renewed and therefore the content is now in the public domain.

Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988
Section 12. Works in the Public Domain.
Title 17, United States Code, as amended by this Act, does not provide copyright protection for any work that is in the public domain in the United States.

Now do I believe in bootlegging, absolutely NOT!! But I do believe Televista is doing a service for people who don't want to wait for a title to come out legit.

* ADDENDUM * 10-16-2008:
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Well, better late than never!!! Criterion is FINALLY releasing White Dog December 2008!!! Not in Blu-ray but that's okay, this will be the best release ever available in any format to date. Highest Recommendation!

* ADDENDUM * 08-28-2007:
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Well, apparently Televista releases mostly VHS quality rips without any thought to quality, so this release of White Dog may turn out to be a real dog after all. Too bad. I'd change my rating but it doesn't appear to be an option.

Hopefully Criterion will release White Dog soon.

* Original review * 08-26-2007:
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DISCLAIMER: I don't believe in rating an item that hasn't even been released yet, but since Amazon insists on a rating before allowing a post and since several people to date have already rated it ONE STAR without actually seeing the product, I can only in all fairness give it FIVE STARS in an attempt to balance out the inequity at play.

Why does the Televista release of White Dog get slammed (before it's even released) and not the only other version currently listed on Amazon - which does seem to be a bootleg (search on 'white dog' to see it) and has 5 stars based on 1 review from the vendor themselves.

The Televista is advertised as uncut but the 1.33:1 aspect ratio disturbs me a little since the film was 1.85:1. At any rate, I haven't seen any *official* word from Criteria as to a release date for White Dog, and the last thing I did see was the following response by them to a member of the Criterion forum: "We do hope to get to 'White Dog' at some point, but there isn't a release date scheduled at this time."

Searching the Internet on 'Televista' reveals a checkered past with several hits and misses, but it seems legit and then searching on 'White Dog' and 'Televista' together gets a lot of hits of the title currently being available for pre-order on *many* reputable sites in addition to Amazon. I'd say the Televista should be worth a rental, at least, and that Criterion should jump on releasing White Dog ASAP given the Samuel Fuller 'revival' and all the great Fuller releases that have been coming out lately.