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White Dog - Criterion Collection | 
 enlarge | Director: Samuel Fuller
Actors: Paul Winfield, Kristy Mcnichol, Burl Ives
Studio: Criterion Collection
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $20.92
You Save: $9.03 (30%)
New (31) Used (5) from $20.92
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 3316
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Ntsc, Widescreen
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 90 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 1782
UPC: 715515033923
EAN: 0715515033923
ASIN: B001GCATWA
Theatrical Release Date: 1982
Release Date: December 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 12/02/2008 Run time: 90 minutes
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| Customer Reviews:
 "Four-legged time bomb!" January 6, 2009
Cubist (United States)
White Dog was Samuel Fuller's last Hollywood film and arguably his most controversial. No easy feat from the man who tackled racism with Shock Corridor - Criterion Collection, patriotism with Pickup on South Street (1953), and made deeply profound anti-war films like The Steel Helmet (1951) and Merrill's Marauders (1962). White Dog tells the story of a German shepherd dog trained to attack African Americans.
The DVD is a little light in the extras department but they of high quality.
"Four-Legged Time Bomb" features interviews with co-writer Curtis Hanson, producer Jon Davison, and Fuller's widow Christa. Hanson talks about the first Fuller film he ever saw and how he eventually got to meet the man. Davison describes Fuller's larger-than-life personality, while Krista talks about her husband's approach to film. All three recount the origins and production of White Dog through fascinating and engaging anecdotes.
"Recollections from Karl Lewis Miller" reprints excerpts of an interview with the film's dog trainer. He talks about working with Fuller and his approach to getting natural performances out of the dogs used on the film.
Finally, there is a "Photo Gallery" of on-the-set stills.
Typical Sam Fuller - which is to say, not typical at all. December 4, 2008
newmanmonster999 (Berkeley, CA United States)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
At times crude, heavy-handed, stilted, screamingly melodramatic or extremely wobbly, it's tempting to knock off a star because I know these things are there - but here's the thing: those elements are present in most of Fuller's films, and they would be major defects in ANY other film, but, inexplicably, they do absolutely nothing to diminish the power of Fuller's films, which is often tremendous - and that's also typical of Fuller. I have no idea how he pulled it off, and it makes these movies stick to your brain. They SHOULD fail. Instead they grab you by the guts and don't let go even long after the movie is over, sometimes. (I saw this yesterday, and it's STILL dominating my thoughts.)
More than the above, Fuller's films are also subtle (I know I just said "heavy-handed," look at his movies and see how he manages to be both at the same time), VERY intelligent, entertaining but passionately serious (even when they get silly), full of both incendiary wrath and extraordinary compassion, and obviously the work of a rough-and-ready cinematic genius. This isn't the first film by Fuller that left me absolutely stymied as to how it can possibly so devastatingly powerful, when what meets the eye wouldn't totally seem to account for it.
Remember 'Cujo?' Well, you can forget 'Cujo.' 'White Dog' is the superior killer dog picture in every possible way, and far more frightening - had it been released, there's little doubt the later film would have suffered by comparison. Mind you, Lewis Teague didn't make a bad film, he just made a film that had no more depth than its source material. 'White Dog' is a great deal more than a scare movie, it's a serious social drama that approaches it's subject obliquely, and then gives it a workout that will leave many people breathless. The fact that it can, at times, invoke sickening fear is only incidental. The real intent is to examine racism in a substantial way, and 'White Dog' doesn't just beat any number of mad dog thrillers at their game, it mops the floor with 'Crash.' Hollywood gave Oscars to that, but they threw this away.
'White Dog' sneaks up and gets you. More than once, I've seen this called the best film treatment of racism in the US. I always suspected this might be outsize praise for an unfairly maligned and difficult to see film, but, having finally seen it, and thinking back on every film I've seen that took up racism as it's central issue, I honestly can't say that any of them affected me as strongly as this one did - and that's without having ANY major racist characters, directly racist incidents, epithets... Like I said, Fuller is blunt and almost rudely direct, but that doesn't mean he's not subtle and extremely complex at the same time. It's an enigma. The point not only gets made, it penetrates you.
The greatest effects achieved by 'White Dog' are emotional. Why, exactly, is this movie so achingly sad? The whole is so much greater than the sum of the visible parts.
Which is not to say that there isn't brilliance CLEARLY on display. There are virtuoso passages here in abundance - one sequence of terrible beauty in particular, I had to go back and look at several times. Fuller can make you wonder if he knows what he's doing one moment, and then turn around and use the camera and sheer technique to blow your mind in substantial ways. The dog (five dogs, actually) is a magnificent camera subject, and is lovingly, impressively exploited as such. The dog also gets scarier and scarier as the film progresses, with his tragic nature increasing in direct proportion. The only explanation I have for that is that we know the dog doesn't know what he's doing, so you feel horrible for the people he attacks - but the worse the attack, the worse you feel for the dog, as well, having no clue as to the magnitude and horror of his actions. The dog just wants to be a dog and be around people he loves like most dogs. But every time he does what he's trained to do we know that he's unwittingly placing himself further and further beyond the pale of what a creature can be and still be suffered to exist in this world. The dog functions powerfully as both what it is, and what it represents.
The polar opposite of 'Crash,' 'White Dog' tells an extremely simple story to achieve very complex effects, while the other film used an unreasonably complicated (and stridently show-offy) narrative to deliver simplistic "insights" into the subject that TV talk shows have been exploiting like mad for years. This modest little film that didn't even get released is, warts and all, by far the more impressive and compelling achievement.
Also of note: Morricone contributes a haunting, stripped down score, Burl Ives contributes his wonderful presence, and Paul Winfield gives a standout human performance. Certain viewers (you know who you are) will be gratified to notice Paul Bartel and Dick Miller hanging around in the margins.
VERY highly recommended!
UPDATE: My viewing of 'White Dog' has prompted a major reexamination of Fuller's work. The more I see of Fuller's oeuvre, and the more I look at interviews with him, the stronger my sense that this man poured his undistilled CHARACTER into his films - which may be what puts some people off. It's something we're not really used to.
I definitely remember it taking a couple of films to warm up to Fuller, and to get a sense of what his films were about. It took me a while to get my Fuller-legs - but once that cherry gets broken, addiction may not be far behind. Still, you have to get beyond the temptation to dismiss the work, since there is often something there that we don't generally associate with quality - sometimes they matter, sometimes they don't, and sometimes these things look like flaws on the face of things, but aren't.
 BITE ME December 3, 2008
Michael
4 out of 26 found this review helpful
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.
 White Dog: When Man Becomes His Own Worst Enemy. November 27, 2008
G. Merritt (Boulder, CO)
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
Samuel Fuller's name is synonymous with his 1980 film The Big Red One and with his more controversial films Shock Corridor (1963), The Naked Kiss (1964), and White Dog (1982), which the studio (Paramount) refused to release until 1991 because of its subject: racism. Based on a 1970 semi-autobiographical novel by Romain Gary involving a stray German shepherd, White Dog stars Paul Winfield, Kristy McNichol, Jameson Parker and Burl Ives. It tells the story of an unmarried young actress, Julie Sawyer (McNichol), who takes in a stray white German shepherd for her protection, after accidentally hitting the dog with her car. Unbeknownst to her, the innocent dog has been trained by an extreme racist to attack black people on sight. After discovering the dog will brutally kill any dark-skinned person it sees, Julie takes the dog to a sympathetic Black dog trainer, Keys (Winfield), who obsessively attempts to re-educate the dog to stop attacking blacks. The re-training has an unexpected side-effect, and I won't spoil the plot. Paul Winfield carries the film with his didactic re-education scenes. Fuller's film is ultimately about the realities of human hatred, and the film's final scenes carry its message home. It is unlikely that this film would offend anyone today.
The new Criterion edition of White Dog features a newly 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; and 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.
G. Merritt
 THIS DOG STILL BITES! November 26, 2008
Robin Simmons (Palm Springs area, CA United States)
15 out of 18 found this review helpful
In 1982, Samuel Fuller's "WHITE DOG" created a storm of controversy that resulted in a limited theatrical release with no follow-up video until now.
What was falsely labeled an incendiary racist film that could provoke real life violence is instead a bold anti-racist parable about how racism is learned or taught. In the movie the metaphor is a dog that has been trained to attack people with dark skin.
The origin of the story is a harrowing true incident Romain Gary wrote about in Life magazine.
The movie story is simple. Julie Sawyer (Kristy McNichol in her first adult role) is a young actress who, while driving one night, accidentally hits a white German shepherd on a mountain road. She takes it to a vet and tries to find the owner. In the meantime, Julie grows attached to the dog. One night it saves her from a intruder who attempts to rape her. Later, the dog runs away and comes home bloody. On a movie set with Julie, the dog attacks a black actress. Julie realizes the dog has been trained as an attack dog so she takes it to "Noah's Ark" an animal shelter and training facility hoping the dog can be deprogrammed in some way. She is told that the dog is a "white dog," one trained to attack black people. At the facility, Keys (Paul Winfield), a dog expert sees this as an opportunity to see if racial prejudice can be unlearned.
This low-budget film is sometimes heavy-handed but is immensely watchable and the restored uncut widescreen transfer is, as with all Criterion editions, made from the best elements available and is very crisp and clean.
Kristy McNichol has a natural, winning charisma on screen. Her top billing is justified and she has an easy, believable chemistry with the dog (actually five dogs were used).
Paul Winfield dominates the latter half of the film. His performance is focused and intense. I was reminded of a superb dog story in which he starred, 1972's "Sounder."
The great Burl Ives has a small part as the co-owner of "Noah's Ark." It is great to hear that singular voice even if it is only in spoken words.
Director Sam Fuller had a reputation as a tough, cigar-chomping sometimes over-the-top, story-teller. He has been called "the tabloid poet." Fuller did not shy away from controversial issues and in fact helmed other films with racial conflict as a theme. He died in 1997 at the age of 85. This was his last film.
There's a wonderful featurette containing new interviews with producer Jon Davison, co-writer Curtis Hanson ("L.A. Confidential") and Fuller's widow Krista Lang.
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