White Dog (1982)

Director:

Samuel Fuller

Writers:

Samuel Fuller (writer)
Romain Gary (story)

Release Date:

7 July 1982 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

...Trained To Kill [Video Australia]

Plot:

Keys is a trainer attempting to reprogram a vicious dog who's been trained to attack and kill people with black skin. |

Plot Keywords:

Dog | Animal Attack | Church | Social Issues | Compassion

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Kristy McNichol	...	Julie Sawyer
Christa Lang	...	Nurse
Vernon Weddle	...	Vet
Jameson Parker	...	Roland Gray
Karl Lewis Miller	...	Attacker
Karrie Emerson	...	Sun Bather
Helen Siff	...	Pound Operator (as Helen J. Siff)
Glen Garner	...	Pound Worker
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

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG | West Germany:16 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Wildlife Way Station - 14831 Little Tujunga Canyon Road, San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Never released theatrically in the United States, supposedly out of concern for its controversial subject matter. It did air on HBO several times.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Julie Sawyer first takes the dog to the animal training center, Carruthers is on the phone but tells her to sit down. To his right, almost out of frame, you can see some fingers moving. Most likely the dog's trainer making signs.

Quotes:

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

Movie Connections:

References True Grit (1969)

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!