Writer(s): Rosen, adapted from the novel "The Plague Dogs" by Richard Adams.
Starring: John Hurt, Christopher Benjamin, James Bolam, and Nigel Hawthorne
If you have ever wanted to lose faith in humanity, then plan a viewing of Martin Rosen’s animated tearjerker The Plague Dogs. I can only imagine the look on the faces of confused parents who, seeing animated dogs on the cover, rented this for their children expecting lighthearted cartoon fare; there are no laughs to be had, only feelings of intense despair and sadness. We know how it will end almost before it begins, when the depressing opening credit song kicks in:
I don’t feel no pain no more
I don’t feel no pain no more
I’ve left this cruel world behind
And I found my piece of mind
I don’t feel no pain no more
Not far removed from the opening credits, we witness a dog in a water tank, swimming while “white coats” (the dog’s slang for the people wearing lab coats that carry out the cruel animal tests) time him; once he passes out from exhaustion and starts to drown, they remove him from the tub, and place him back in a cage. This is Rowf, a large black Labrador mix, and we soon learn that he is a frequent, but unwilling, participant in these water experiments (the “white coats” even excitedly comment on how his stamina and time keeps going up with each attempt).
His pal is Snitter, a smooth fox terrier who is in an adjoining cell, and wears a plastic cap on his head. Unlike Rowf, who has only known this life, Snitter was once in a loving home with a loving master. But all that changes when his owner is hit by a car. Soon after, Snitter was sold to the laboratory, who constantly operated on his brain; as a result, he constantly dips in and out of reality, and frequently hallucinates.
One day, they get a stroke of luck: a hurried worker doesn’t close Rowf’s cage all the way. Snitter sneaks through a small opening in the wire, and the two of them make their escape from the testing facility. However, they soon learn that survival on the outside is even more difficult than their torturous existence within the testing compound, a fact made even more strenuous when the media declares that they might be carriers of the bubonic plague, which ensures no one will help them, lest they run the risk of getting the disease.
Thankfully, Rowf and Snitter do have an ally in this whole ordeal, and he comes in the form of The Tod, a sly and crafty fox with whom they strike an uneasy alliance. While Snitter is taken by The Tod, old grumpy Rowf is certain that they would be better off without him; before long, The Tod runs off and he gets his wish, learning too late that maybe they need him for their survival after all.
Initially, the trio manage to survive by killing and eating sheep; this angers the sheep’s owner and starts a manhunt to destroy the animals that are cutting into his livelihood. They manage to survive that, only to be rewarded with the horrors of winter, when the sheep are taken out of the fields and put some place warmer. This is when the "true" manhunt begins…the military is sent in to "take care of" the dogs, who are believed to be infected with plague, only of course in this instance, "take care of" means "kill". The military eventually manages to trap the dogs, and then...
The Plague Dogs is, at times, a powerful film, but I have to admit that the film’s style really bothered me—Rosen relies heavily on fades to black between scenes, which honestly makes the movie feel like it’s a series of vignettes moreso than one continuing narrative. Even worse, the passage of time between the fades is very inconsistent: sometimes, it picks up just a few moments later, and other times we’re informed that several days have passed. The fragmented storytelling really broke up the momentum for me, and I felt that it was never really firing on all cylinders; it literally took me completely out of the movie on occasion. There’s no doubting that I still liked the film overall—just the plot alone packs a mean punch—but there’s also no doubting that it could have been infinitely more powerful with better editing/direction.
I’m also not sure of Rosen’s ultimate objective for this—the book on which this is based (also called “The Plague Dogs”, and written by Richard Adams) is clearly against vivisection and animal cruelty (he even spent a year as president of the ASPCA: American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). Rosen, on the other hand, adamantly maintained that this movie had no agenda, and was instead an “adventure” film. The material itself makes you cheer for the animals, while making the humans look like insensitive pricks, but I’m wondering how well it could have worked in the hands of a director willing to focus more on the anti-cruelty aspects, instead of merely trying to make it exciting and "entertaining".
Still, this is almost required viewing for all animal lovers that are willing to stomach this kind of stuff. It is an all-too-rare instance of an adult story trapped within the confines of a typically-children’s visual style, and one that couldn’t be told any other way. I’m really not sure it will stick with me that long after this initial viewing—unlike the brilliance of a film like White God, which I can’t get out of my head several months later—but The Plague Dogs is certainly a worthwhile alternative to the constant string of feel-good animated junk that comes out every year. Just make sure you have the tissues ready for an “Oh no don’t you dare do this to me” ending that’s both ironic, and emotionally shattering.
RECAP: There are certainly pacing and directorial issues (a fade-to-black every two minutes…really?), but despite these, The Plague Dogs still manages to be an occasionally powerful story of two dogs who escape an animal testing facility, only to find that life on the outside is every bit as difficult. Even though it’s animated, this is no feel-good story; it’s almost endlessly bleak, with an ending that seems to fake ambiguity but seems all too depressingly obvious. If you can stomach the plot, and if you can forgive the often plodding pace, then this is a great example of a decidedly adult film that couldn’t be told in any other way.
RATING: 7/10
I’m also not sure of Rosen’s ultimate objective for this—the book on which this is based (also called “The Plague Dogs”, and written by Richard Adams) is clearly against vivisection and animal cruelty (he even spent a year as president of the ASPCA: American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). Rosen, on the other hand, adamantly maintained that this movie had no agenda, and was instead an “adventure” film. The material itself makes you cheer for the animals, while making the humans look like insensitive pricks, but I’m wondering how well it could have worked in the hands of a director willing to focus more on the anti-cruelty aspects, instead of merely trying to make it exciting and "entertaining".
Still, this is almost required viewing for all animal lovers that are willing to stomach this kind of stuff. It is an all-too-rare instance of an adult story trapped within the confines of a typically-children’s visual style, and one that couldn’t be told any other way. I’m really not sure it will stick with me that long after this initial viewing—unlike the brilliance of a film like White God, which I can’t get out of my head several months later—but The Plague Dogs is certainly a worthwhile alternative to the constant string of feel-good animated junk that comes out every year. Just make sure you have the tissues ready for an “Oh no don’t you dare do this to me” ending that’s both ironic, and emotionally shattering.
RECAP: There are certainly pacing and directorial issues (a fade-to-black every two minutes…really?), but despite these, The Plague Dogs still manages to be an occasionally powerful story of two dogs who escape an animal testing facility, only to find that life on the outside is every bit as difficult. Even though it’s animated, this is no feel-good story; it’s almost endlessly bleak, with an ending that seems to fake ambiguity but seems all too depressingly obvious. If you can stomach the plot, and if you can forgive the often plodding pace, then this is a great example of a decidedly adult film that couldn’t be told in any other way.
RATING: 7/10
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