- Samuel Fuller’s throat-grabbing expose on American racism was misunderstood and withheld from release when it was made in the early eighties; today, the notorious film is lauded for its daring metaphor and gripping pulp filmmaking. Kristy McNichol stars as a young actress who adopts a lost German Shepard, only to discover through a series of horrifying incidents that the dog has been trained t
Product Description
Samuel Fuller’s throat-grabbing exposé on American racism was misunderstood and withheld from release when it was made in the early eighties; today, the notorious film is lauded for its daring metaphor and gripping pulp filmmaking. Kristy McNichol stars as a young actress who adopts a lost German Shepherd, only to discover through a series of horrifying incidents that the dog has been trained to attack black people, and Paul Winfield plays the animal trainer who tries to cure him. A snarling, uncompromising vision, White Dog is a tragic portrait of the evil done by that most corruptible of animals: the human being.
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
New, restored high-definition digital transfer of the uncut version, approved by producer Jon Davison
New video interviews with producer Davison, co-writer Curtis Hanson, and Sam Fuller s widow, Christa Lang-Fuller
An interview with dog trainer Karl Lewis-Miller
Rare photos from the film s production
PLUS: A booklet featuring new essays by critics J. Hoberman and Armond White, plus a rare 1982 interview in which Fuller interviews the canine star of the film
$19.05
White Dog – Criterion Collection
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Nathan Andersen says:
05/09/2010 at 4:43 PM (UTC -5)
Sam Fuller was never one to pull punches, and his films always manage to make his message clear. At the same time, his stories (always B stories, always with an element of melodrama, and a heavy dose of pulp, and a low-budget vibe) always also manage to be unique and engaging. This film is no exception.
It is a film about Julie, a young, aspiring actress who adopts a dog and finds out it is no ordinary dog. It is a “white dog” trained from a young age to fear and attack people with black skin. Julie, convinced that the dog is not at fault for its training, finds an animal trainer willing to attempt a rehabilitation. What Fuller achieves by making the dog both Julie’s protector and the perpetrator of violence is to generate both sympathy for the animal and anger at its behavior. Fuller’s message, in a nutshell, may be to hate (and fight against) racism without at the same time hating the racist. While the dog’s training is an obvious metaphor for racism – that aims to show its stupidity and insidiousness, it also, more subtly, makes clear that those who grow up racist inherit their prejudices unthinkingly and should therefore also be considered victims.
Sam Fuller’s astonishing technique is to take a very blunt premise and weave it into a story that (however hokey it might seem if merely described) manages to be gripping, and somehow even plausible. Every character offers something unique and memorable, and I found myself thoroughly drawn in by the story. The dialogue works on multiple levels, with several conversations serving as both blunt and powerful lectures to the audience on the evil and stupidity of racism, and plausible conversations between characters that flow out of actual situations. Few directors could pull this off without it seeming hokey and heavyhanded. Sam Fuller manages. An exceptional film by one of the most consistently distinctive independent voices in American cinema.
Rating: 5 / 5
R. Ram says:
05/09/2010 at 3:41 PM (UTC -5)
CRITERION OWNS THE RIGHTS FOR THE RELEASE OF WHITE DOG AMAZON NEED TO TAKE THIS VERSION OUT FROM THE LIST.
Rating: 1 / 5
CGScammell says:
05/09/2010 at 2:03 PM (UTC -5)
I bought this movie thinking this was going to be a gem, having been left unreleased all these years for allegedly its content.
But what a disappointment.
The movie starts off with the dog getting hit. There is no plot development. And from there there is no character development, either. Every character remains shallow and flat. And that horrific loud background music so typical of B movies!!!
The dialogue, the camera, the storyline…all was so boring. The movie was more something that was aired on late-night TV of the 1970s.
The end was predictable.
The message of the movie was well-intended but the final product was an under-performing B movie.
Rating: 1 / 5
Arnold Jr Or Cavazos says:
05/09/2010 at 1:30 PM (UTC -5)
Expected more from this movie after reading several reviews. Upon delivery, I found it was not exactly what I expected. I expected alot more action. It dragged and left me wanting my money back!
Rating: 2 / 5
Michael says:
05/09/2010 at 10:46 AM (UTC -5)
Horrible, tedious, and shallow. It fails on every level. The dialog is insipid, and the acting never leaves the ground. It’s not the actors’ fault, though. You can tell they weren’t getting any direction. The script drops the lead character (who is flatly drawn to begin with) 30 minutes into the film. The premise of the movie, the central metaphor, has a lot of potential, but the director/writer failed to take advantage of it. When you take on a subject as controversial as racism, you should do it justice by delving into the material, showing how racism works in the lives of the characters. Instead, the characters in this film all express sanitized, politically correct points of view–they are all untouched by the reality of racism. The film coyly situates itself as dealing with “controversial subject matter” but it is in fact very superficial. There is nothing at stake here, the characters go through no significant changes. I give it two paws down.
Rating: 1 / 5