White Dog (1982)

Director: Samuel Fuller
Writer(s): Fuller and Curtis Hanson, from a story by Romain Gary
Starring: Kristy McNichol, Christa Lang, Vernon Weddle, and Jameson Parker

White Dog is Samuel Fuller’s attack against racism, something that is made plain as day, from its title, all the way down to its plot. It’s not a subtle, playful jab, but rather a full-on assault that sat on shelves for years, after studio executives--a type not exactly known for their intellect--somehow confused the message of the picture, believing it to condone racism (to be fair, so did several high profile pro-African American organizations, such as the NAACP, who ignorantly came to this conclusion without apparently ever having seen it.)

For a country that touts all day about our “freedoms”, such as those for speech and press, the fact that a movie such as this was ever suppressed from view for so long should be considered a travesty of the highest order (completed in 1982, it never received a proper release in the United States until Criterion stepped to the plate and released it in 2008). It is entirely unforgivable to think that pro-racism trash like “The Turner Diaries” is widely available from major retailers online, while a movie like White Dog, were it not for Criterion’s commendable efforts, would continue to be unavailable.

Kristy McNichol plays Julie, an actress who, as the film opens, runs over a white German Shepherd with her car. Distressed, she takes the animal to a vet, where she is relieved to discover the animal will survive. But when she mentions her plans to take the dog to a shelter, the vets convince her that he is too old to be adopted, and that he will more than likely be euthanized; not wanting to hear this, she decides instead to post flyers around, looking for the original owner.

A little while later, she brings her dog on set with her while shooting a commercial. Her co-star is a black woman. Unprovoked, the dog simply attacks her. At first, it seems like a terrible accident, but a similar situation reveals that her dog is a “white dog”, or, a dog trained to attack black people. Ignoring suggestions that she should have the animal killed, she takes him instead to a local animal trainer, who of course happens to be black, and he agrees to try to break the animal, much to the chagrin of his colleague, Carruthers. Carruthers, an old, grumpy white man, believes that what animals are taught, cannot be unlearned; Keys, the black trainer, is desperate to prove him wrong.

It doesn’t take much reading between the lines to understand that White Dog isn’t just merely about a dog that is taught to hate; its argument is that any one of us, under the wrong conditions, could have grown up to share the mindset of that dog. The German Shepherd in the movie was not born to hate blacks, just as no baby is naturally predisposed to racial intolerance immediately after crawling out of the womb; it is a trait that must be learned, an impression that is generally made on children when they are young and unable to think for themselves. But even if you simply take the movie at face value—that is, you look at it only as a movie about a dog that tries to unlearn its instincts—it still manages to be potent.

White Dog was clearly made on a low budget, and its financial constraints occasionally come to the forefront: the acting is pretty choppy, and it often looks and feels unpolished. But its fearlessness is certainly admirable, especially considering, if it had been made earlier, chances are it would have been a watered-down crowd pleaser with only a fraction of the emotional impact.

Rumors have it that the movie remained in limbo for years, originally planned for production in the mid ‘70s, with Roman Polanski attached as director. After he fled the country for allegedly drugging and raping a minor, the project was put on hold. Through the next few years, it went from one director to another, with the studio (Paramount) at one point wanting to eliminate the racism aspects altogether, instead aiming for a Jaws reboot on dry land.

It’s certainly a great thing that it eventually landed in the hands of Samuel Fuller, who was unfazed by the racism aspects; he was confident in the material, as he had dealt with those themes in previous films. However, the outcome would be bittersweet: following the way executives handled the movie after its completion, Fuller would move to France, and never direct another American film again, eventually passing away in 1997.

Rather than face a self-imposed exile, this should have been a rebirth of Fuller’s later career, rather than a final nail in the coffin for his Hollywood career. This is unfortunate, because White Dog is a powerful tale, one that unfortunately only continues to become more and more relevant as the years wear on.

RECAP: Perhaps a little ahead of its time, White Dog was shelved by Paramount after the studio received heat from several organizations that labeled this movie as “racist”, an accusation that couldn’t be farther from the truth: This is clearly an anti-racist picture, focusing on the attempts to “cure” a white German Shepherd that has been taught to attack blacks. Its low budget occasionally makes slight cuts into its effectiveness—the acting is choppy and uneven—but the overall story remains strong, even when it strays into “preachy” territory. Criterion Collection should be commended for being the first to release this on any format in the United States, because this is an important film that continues to become more and more relevant with each passing year, and depressing proof that some things never change.

SCORE: 8/10

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