White Dog (1982)

A trainer attempts to retrain a vicious dog that's been raised to attack black people.

Director:

Samuel Fuller

Writers:

Romain Gary (story), Samuel Fuller (screenplay)

Stars:

Kristy McNichol, Christa Lang, Vernon Weddle

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kristy McNichol	...	Julie Sawyer
Christa Lang	...	Nurse
Vernon Weddle	...	Vet
Jameson Parker	...	Roland Grale
Karl Lewis Miller	...	Attacker
Karrie Emerson	...	Sun Bather
Helen Siff	...	Pound Operator (as Helen J. Siff)
Glen Garner	...	Pound Worker (as Glen D. Garner)
Terrence Beasor	...	Pound Driver
Tony Brubaker	...	Sweeper Driver
Samuel Fuller	...	Charlie Felton
Marshall Thompson	...	Director
Paul Bartel	...	Cameraman
Richard Monahan	...	Assistant Director
Neyle Morrow	...	Soundman

Storyline

Deprogramming a dog who kills Blacks is the ultimate challenge for an unorthodox African-American trainer. When a young Hollywood actress finds the injured stray, she nurses it back to health, not knowing it's a "White Dog" trained by a racist to attack only Blacks. Julie's appalled when the otherwise gentle, white German Shepherd breaks out, then returns from his nighttime foray dotted with human blood. Julie desperately races from trainer to trainer, advised to kill her pet, until the top Hollywood canine expert refers her to his former protégé, Keys.

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Plot Keywords:

racist | climbing downhill | climbing uphill | car | pantyhose | 

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Taglines:

When man's best friend becomes his fiercest enemy...

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Genres:

Drama | Horror

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Certificate:

PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film is based on a true story. While she was living in Hollywood with her husband, writer Romain Gary, actress Jean Seberg brought home a large white dog she had found on the street that seemed friendly and playful. However, when the animal saw her Black gardener, it attacked him viciously, injuring him. Afterward, the couple kept it in the backyard, but one day, it got out and attacked another Black man on the street but no one else. After this happened a third time, they realized that someone had trained the dog to attack and injure only Black people. Gary wrote a magazine piece about it for Life in 1970, which eventually became a fictionalized full-length book.

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Goofs

(at around 11 mins) While at the dinner table, platter of vegetables is across table from girl, then next to her at closeup, then back across the table again at next cut.

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Quotes

Roland Gray: You got a four-legged time bomb!

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Connections

References Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

User Reviews

I thought I lived in the United States.

Where are all the protesters who gather whenever some idiot tries to censor artwork or expression that is contrary to American culture? None of them seem to have shown up when this great work was put on the shelf, then later chopped up. Europeans, with an open eye to American society (only due to the benefit of being distant), were able to see this film with honesty. I say this because that's where it was shown uncut and critically acclaimed.

The truth is that it is a statement about and against racism, completely misunderstood by the civil rights groups and the others who opposed it. It is a good, hard look at the way racism is propagated in America, through the training of not only this one single dog, but of young people by racist adults and peers as the young people mature into adulthood. It tackles the subject with an honesty that is sadly missing in the statements of most anti-racist organizations.

Most groups prefer to gloss over the true causes of racism with platitudes, and a few often have a political agenda that promotes socialistic ideals, so they really don't give full attention to the true causes of racism. Everybody now is so afraid of offending anybody else, that everything becomes a watered-down, grayish, inoffensive litany no more bothersome than grouchiness. Sam Fuller stated in film what it really is, and that is that people learn from others throughout childhood, not always by overt indoctrination but by subtle methods, to think in stereotypical and racist terms. Not just whites thinking of blacks as uneducated gangster-rappers, but also those who think of Native Americans as lazy drinkers, Italians as loud-mouthed mob disciples, country folks as hillbilly trailer trash, and so on.

And Hollywood does little of significance to dispel this, because they mostly grind things down to these kind of stereotypes to fit into the 2-hr film story mode that they like, which is long on violence, sex and action, and short on character. It's easier that way. Thanks to Sam Fuller for his courage.

ADDENDUM: I had the opportunity to see this again recently after 25 years, and it is still as powerful as I remembered. It does have a B-movie quality to it, a roughness that actually makes it better than if it had been a polished film. The final sequence remains as terrifying as anything I've seen in any type of film, horror, suspense, Hitchcock, and so on. And it has a fabulous music score by Ennio Morricone. I'd confidently call this one a must-see!

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 July 1982 (France)

Also Known As:

White Dog

Filming Locations:

Wildlife Way Station - 14831 Little Tujunga Canyon Road, Sylmar, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$8,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$46,509

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$46,509

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1