Directed by:
Samuel FullerCinematography:
Bruce SurteesComposer:
Ennio MorriconeCast:
Kristy McNichol, Paul Winfield, Burl Ives, Jameson Parker, Samuel Fuller, Marshall Thompson, Paul Bartel, Lynne Moody, Dick Miller, Parley Baer (more)Plots(1)
One of the most controversial American films of the 1980s, Samuel Fuller's White Dog was originally withheld from release in the USA and has been rarely seen since. This head-on examination of racism remains a riveting and startlingly powerful film experience, with superb performances and a brilliant score by the great Ennio Morricone. When a young actress (Kristy McNichol) adopts a stray white Alsatian she hit with her car, she soon discovers that the dog has been conditioned to attack any black person on sight. Its only chance is Keys (Paul Winfield), an animal trainer focused on breaking the dog's behaviour and finding a way to eradicate its vicious instincts. (Eureka Entertainment)
(more)Reviews (1)
More sophisticated movie than one would expect from the purely second-rate shallow controversial teaser of "Goro the white dog is killing Afroamericans. Fuller's great victory is that it works on both intended levels. In the first half of the genre, from "her point of view" it is a traditionally built disturbing thriller of old-fashioned style, which is in many respects a better adaptation of King's Cuja than the film Cujo itself and fully satisfies the slowly built atmosphere, long shoots, exposed gob here and there, chilling growl and ingeniously saddened Morricone background music. In the second metaphorical half "from his point of view", it is a multi-layered allegory of racism and xenophobia, which is more complex, disturbing and impressive than many "kind of serious" films addressing the same subject. The icing on the cake is the relativizing ending, which gets deep under your skin.
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