Touches You

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

A film with a truly unique premise. A dog trained to attack black people is hit by a car driven by an aspiring actress. She takes him in and the dog even saves her from a burglar/rapist. But when the dog attacks her black co-star on the sets of a film and makes her boyfriend uncomfortable, the actress takes him to the owner of an animal training ranch. The owner of the ranch (a great Burl Ives) directs the actress to an animal trainer (Paul Winfield) who is black but agrees to cure the dog of its racism.I am surprised the makers couldn't find a better leading lady than Kristy McNichol. She was alright, but I am sure there were better actresses in the 1980s who would have been interested in working with Fuller. I liked the scene where Ives character takes a dig at Star Wars by throwing an arrow at the Star Wars robot target. Paul Winfield had great screen presence. The dog also looked sinister as hell with its sharp teeth and long tongue.Morricone's score is terrific. But it was best suited for one of those intense Italian movies of the 60s and 70s.The film had so much potential. But writer-director Samuel Fuller and co-writer Curtis Hanson messes up. Many of the scenes lacked weight. The plot developments were unimaginative.This is a film that seems to have garnered a cult following based on its unique premise, rather than what the writer-director actually realized.

A film that deals with racism and hatred is necessarily racist and because of that can't have a good message? Well, if this is a current truth "White Dog" proves it wrong. With its apparently simple plot of a attacker German Shephard trained to kill Black people, the film directed by Samuel Fuller is a redemption story that makes us not take a look at how animals are treated to make horrible things but it's a even deeper look to another animal whose bestiality surpasses of any other wild animal, and that is us, we, the "thinking human", superior to all the other creatures of Earth.After accidentally hit a dog while driving, an actress (Kristy McNichol) takes the poor animal to her home thinking he's such a good boy. That good boy will later proof to be an racist and horrendous attacker who can kill or injure his victims simply because they're African American. As many know, this kind of situation leaves no alternative than to put the dog out of his misery but the woman says "No, I can't let that happen", and decides to take him to an specialist in wild animals who might cure the dog's dangerous obsession. And who's more inclined to do this job? A black trainer (Paul Winfield in one of his best roles) who tried (and failed) this experiment a few other times and firmly believes that he can take out of the hatred of the vicious dog. Will the white dog change for good?This adaptation from Romain Gary's book is translated to the screen as an strong reflection to us on why people should think twice before training an animal to become a monster who can kill people. To those who dared to call "White Dog" a racist due to the fact of all the things presented throughout the story, take a second look and pay attention to the ending, in which was corroborated that even if changing the animal's ferocity towards his primal target he'll change for another. What we get is that hatred sees beyond colors (even though, as the trainer says, "to the dog it's a black and white world" meaning that he'll find one good, nice and the other bad, I must attack), or to another extent seeing far away from what the film has shown, hatred and intolerance, even seeing the appearances, are completely blind to all the other things that exists, it doesn't see the interior of someone. The biggest questions we must ask ourselves while watching this film is: Does hate can easily be erased from somebody or something? One can teach to despise but one can really teach to change his views or what is thought to be his natural behavior? Not just the dog but a person as well, can we really change them of their negative and violent views? The film answers in its own sad ways but there's greater lessons to be learned when we reach its conclusion. The dog as a metaphor really worked for me, might not be so well perceived by some.It is an upsetting and tense plot but never discouraging, it always manages to make us engaged, thrilled. Of course, it has its minor flaws (an struggling actress like the main character wouldn't have the money to buy that kind of house), it has some weak acting from the leading role and her romantic pair, but it features some decent acting from Winfield, Burl Ives, and the five dogs that play the unnamed White Dog) but it's a effective thriller that skilfully touches the horror (some moments when I couldn't control myself when the trainer tests the dog with another black man in the cage just to prove that the animal already cured); such horror followed by the splendid music of maestro Ennio Morricone. Paramount feared to release this in theaters back in the days believing that the subject wouldn't be accepted by audiences and they also feared a massive boycott led by NAACP. Shelved after a few limited screenings, the film never found its public until recently with the release of the Criterion DVD. Sadly, Fuller never directed another American film just when his career was starting to being resurrected with the glorious war film "The Big Red One". Huge mistake of them but gladly many audiences can rediscover something more appealing and more positive than many flicks out there (and to think that "Birth of a Nation" caused more damage than anything with the racists played as heroes, coming out of the dark again and killing, lynching people and disseminating hatred in America; "White Dog" is highly harmless in comparison). Be prepared to really see something both scary and thought provoking. 10/10

Join the debate at filmdebate.wordpress.com THE PROFESSIONAL: I hadn't heard of this movie before I was browsing the Criterion Collection collection at my local independent video store. With such great cover art and a curious synopsis, I couldn't NOT rent it. "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." THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE: It felt like a movie of the week, in the most non-pejorative way possible. The soundtrack by Ennio Morricone was my favorite aspect of the movie.THE PROFESSIONAL: I came away much more impressed. I felt it was Jaws with a dog instead of a shark and The Exorcist with racism instead of some evil spirit. Now there were some definite flaws, but you'd have to say it easily tops Cujo.THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE: There needs to be a term like the "uncanny valley" for movies from the 80s and early 90s. It's recent enough that it feels current and identifiable, but old enough to feel cheesy and dated. Whereas movies much older, from the 40s and 50s for example, are so old that they are a completely separate era, and thus it's easier to accept that their styles were just the way they did things back then. The idea and execution were competent, but it was hard to take seriously. I will say it's the best animal acting/directing I've seen this side of "Homeward Bound".THE PROFESSIONAL: Somebody get that dog an Oscar! Postdogously. Yes, there is that 'gee whiz' acting quality of some of the characters / actors – but that is another similarity I see with The Exorcist. The story starts off quietly enough, with some naive individuals who become unknowingly entangled with a very dangerous situation, the true nature of which they become slowly aware of as the situation becomes increasingly more... CONTINUED AT FILMDEBATE.WORDPRESS.COM

Samuel Fuller directs this film to reflect racism through a dog's perspective. Not at all is the film racist, on the contrary Fuller's main objective is to communicate a point across during that era. I think that this film portrays what was and is still occurring. The movie is not about "ohh look how cute is that dog". it's about a dog that has been mislead and taught to do the wrong thing. The white dog has been taught to attack black people. As a puppy the dog learned that because he had a bad experience with black person every other black person was the same. However, he was just poisoned by the very owner that had a hate for black people. Julie Sawyer one of the main actresses confronts the dog's ex- owner and speaks out her mind about how he had done such a hard to the dog. Racist people that spoil the rest of the bunch should be put a stop to because categorizing people according to their skin color isn't fair. This movie raises suspense but at times the music is too over the top, overall this film contains a greater meaning.