DVD: White Dog | reviews, news & interviews
DVD: White Dog
DVD: White Dog
Startling polemic on racism
![](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/mast_image_landscape/public/mastimages/white%20dog%20header_web.jpg?itok=k01hqM9T)
Once in his stride as a director, Samuel Fuller never shied away from the controversial. The mental-hospital set Shock Corridor, from 1963, prefigured One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and touched on the arms race, incest, racism and the Korean War. A year later, his Naked Kiss sympathetically portrayed a prostitute. The final film he made in America, 1982’s White Dog, also pulled no punches and met the nature of racism head on.
White Dog is, indeed, a very strong film and absolutely anti-racist. Based on a novel, it concerns the title’s canine, who is taken in by Julie Sawyer (Kristy McNichol) after she hits him while out in her car. Although docile in her company, she soon learns the dog is trained to attack black people – it is a “white dog”, trained by a racist. Late in the film, she encounters the dog's original owner. After finding Carruthers (Burl Ives), who has a menagerie from which he furnishes animals for films, his black colleague Keys (Paul Winfield) decides to de-programme the dog with a series of training sessions. The film’s ending is within the bounds of what might be expected, but it is not exactly what seems to be coming. It shocks.
Overall, the film shocks. The trappings of Hollywood cloak a fiercely angry polemic. This startling film would work well on a double bill with the 1962, William Shatner-starring Roger Corman film The Intruder, which is also concerned with racism. (pictured right, Kristy McNichol's Julie Sawyer with the white dog)
There are some missteps and distractions. Winfield is dependably wooden. Scenes of Sawyer with her boyfriend are a waste of time. McNichol herself is irritating in a Kim Darby-ish way. Her character is meant to be a poor, struggling actress yet she has a magnificent, mountain-top house, a swank Ford Mustang and wears a different, then-fashionable, outfit for virtually every scene. Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack music, though well suited for White Dog, recycles large chunks of what he wrote and what was recorded for the 1971 film Una Lucertola con la Pelle di Donna which seems a bit cheeky. It is the film’s tenor which matters though.
The image of this release is stunning. During night scenes, the colours have the intense depth of the Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks. The only extra is a sub-titled version of the film, but the package’s booklet has top-notch, in-depth essays and a reprint of a curious piece where Fuller himself interviews the white dog.
Overleaf: watch director Richard Linklater discussing White Dog
Watch director Richard Linklater discussing White Dog
rating
Explore topics
Share this article
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
more Film
![Sister act: Bianca Delbravo, Dilvin Asaad, and Safira Mossberg in 'Paradise Is Burning'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Main%20pic%20PisBurning.jpeg?itok=M-QpAFJr)
![Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin in 'Sing Sing'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Sing%201.jpeg?itok=FzGLffp-)
![Caught on the woof: Eddie Peng and best friend in Guan Hu’s tale of provincial struggle](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Black%20Dog%20pic.jpeg?itok=4flF1pOd)
![David Morrissey: 'When I discovered my drama group at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, that saved my life'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Morrissey%20MAIN.jpg?itok=tsYiugwk)
![Gael force: Kneecap's Liam Óg, JJ Ó Dochartaigh, and Naoise Ó Caireállain](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/three%20shot%20Kneecap.jpeg?itok=wbu8VQio)
![The night they invented champagne: Barbe (Haley Bennett) concocts her latest vintage](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Barb%20MAIN.jpg?itok=7HfioYC9)
![This is reception: Hunter Schafer in 'Cuckoo'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/CUCKOO-Still-1-Credit-Felix-Dickinson-Courtesy-of-NEON.jpg?itok=9T-JMH2b)
![Losing his way. Zhu Yilong in 'Only the River Flows'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Only-The-River-Flows1.jpg?itok=Xe75y-DM)
![Alienated youth: Rain (Cailee Spaeny) takes on the mantle of Ripley, with David Jonsson as 'synthetic' Andy](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Spaeyny%20and%20Jonsson.jpeg?itok=At6et-4p)
![A glimpse of the director, with Mawlawi Mansour at right](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/Hollywoodgate%203.jpg?itok=sUZKpWKk)
![Richard Chamberlain and Glenda Jackson tie the knot in 'The Music Lovers'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/5009250_THE%20MUSIC%20LOVERS_A%20BFI%20BLU-RAY%20RELEASE%20Image%20courtesy%20MGM%20%26%20Park%20Circus.jpg?itok=hV9gAlOE)
![Father knows worst: Josh Hartnett and Ariel Donaghue in 'Trap'](https://theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/mastimages/TRAP.jpg.jpg?itok=_wrN_N8v)
Add comment