A Boy And His Dog

Starring:Hal Baylor, Susanne Benton, Don Carter, Ron Feinberg, Michael Hershman, Don Johnson, L.Q. Jones, Charles McGraw, Tim McIntire, Alvy Moore, Jason Robards, Michael Rupert, Helene Winston
Director: L.Q. Jones
Studio: Lumivision
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com essential video

Closely adapted from the acclaimed novella by Harlan Ellison, this postapocalyptic black comedy has emerged as a cult favorite since its release in 1975, when Don Johnson was a relative unknown and still years away from TV stardom on Miami Vice. Here Johnson plays a young, libidinous loner named Vic who roams the postnuclear wasteland with his loyal dog, Blood, a remarkable hound with keen intelligence and the ability to telepathically communicate with his less-intelligent master. It's survival of the fittest, so food and sex are Vic's highest priorities, and he gets plenty of both when recruited into a mysterious underground society in desperate need of young fertile males. While Blood must fend for himself on the unfriendly surface, Vic realizes that he's an exploited prisoner and must escape to return to the canine friend he left behind. Thanks in large part to the sly wit of Blood (whose sarcastic voice is splendidly provided by Tim McIntire), this clever and disturbing film readily earns its lasting reputation as a low-budget classic, and features a funny yet chilling supporting role for Jason Robards Jr. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

"He was not a pet, he was a person".......2007-06-26

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

"A Boy and His Dog" (1975) is based on a well-known novella by Harlan Ellison of the same title. The movie focuses of the adventures of a young scavenger Vic (Don Johnson) and his telepathic dog Blood as they wander through the wasteland where Phoenix, Arizona used to be in 2024 AD after the end of WWIV that resulted in nuclear holocaust. In their duet, Blood seems more intelligent, experienced, sarcastic, and reasonable than Vic but they need each other to survive, to find food for both and the girls for Vic. All females have moved underground where a parody on pre-war suburban middle class life has been preserved and it has been over six weeks since Vic got laid last. Blood will sense a girl who dressed like a boy to attend the screening of an old porn-movie and Vic will follow her as far as the underground city "Topeka" against the Blood's advices. Little he knew that Quilla June was supposed to lure him down under where he will be used as a source for sperm that the underground women desperately need to get pregnant. After series of adventures, Vic was able to break away from the scary looking machine he was hooked up to with Quilla June's help and two of them escape to the surface...

While technically, the movie is not the most spectacular or visually prominent, the acting of the main characters, the communication between a boy (good performance from young and very handsome Don Johnson) and his dog (Tim McIntire was very convincing providing the voice of "Blood" and singing the main title song, "A Boy and His Dog"), and especially the story, dark and funny, make it well deserving of its cult status.

I wanted to see the movie because I am very impressed by Ellison's writings and consider some of his short stories the best, the most brilliant, incredible, shocking, and disturbing ever written. The first one I read literally took my breath away. It was "The whimper of the whipped dogs" that I found in the thick volume "The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century" and it was the brightest star among the works of such writers as O'Henry, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Patricia Highsmith, Joyce Carol Oates, and many wore. Since my first encounter with Ellison's writing, I became his loyal fan. Later, I read Ellison's collection "Deathbird Stories: A Pantheon Of Modern Gods" which "The whimper of the whipped dogs" opens. While reading the story that gave the book its title, "The Deathbird", I first learned about "A Boy and His Dog":

"Yesterday my dog died. For eleven years Ahbhu was my closest friend. He was responsible for my writing a story about a boy and his dog that many people have read. He was not a pet, he was a person. It was impossible to anthropomorphize him, he would not stand for it. But he was so much his own kind of creature, he had such a strongly formed personality, he was so determined to share his life with only those he chose, that it was impossible to think of him as simply a dog."
-Harlan Ellison "Ahbhu", the short story inserted in "The Deathbird"

After having read "The Deathbird", I was not surprised with the ending of "A Boy and A Dog", the story and the movie. Even though, they are attributed to the genre of science-fiction satire (and they are, intelligent, sharp, sarcastic, and biting), I think of them more as the meditation on many important subjects and the tribute Ellison paid to the true friendship, loyalty, and love. He also could've brought to the story resentment and disappointments from his broken marriages and relationships.

Don't get me wrong, the movie is brilliant..........2007-02-17

...which is why I keep buying every new release that comes out in the hopes that it will be better than the last. No such luck. This is the same transfer as the previous two releases -- from the original laserdisc, and with the same problems: dropped frames, dust and scratches all over it. And despite Amazon's description, this release is NOT ANAMORPHIC, though, like the others, it is widescreen. (I've submitted a change to the description). I could live with the dust and scratches -- after all, all the known prints of this film have been knocking around for almost thirty years, and as far as I know no pristine negative exists anymore. But I *wish* we could get an anamorphic transfer. How is it that a Hugo award-winning film that is so loved by critics can be overlooked for a decent DVD treatment for so long?

Now, the good: In addition to the now-familiar (and very entertaining) L.Q. Jones commentary track which has appeared on all the others, we also get two trailers restored to the DVD (these appeared on the first release, but not the one from Slingshot). And the fact that it is available once again at all -- I didn't relish the idea of shelling out ~$100 if something happened to current copy. Kudos to Firstrun for printing 'em again.

But dangit, won't *someone* step up to the plate and give us a decent anamorphic transfer? I'm begging here, which even Blood could only bring himself to do once.

Man's Best friend.......2007-02-12

Saw the movie when it first came out years ago, loved it then and love it now. Tongue in cheek, futuristic society, after math of the second big bang.

The most conservative work of fiction I've ever read. I don't think this aspect of the story transfers well to the big screen.......2007-02-07

A Boy and His Dog is not a well made movie. The budget for this project was just too low perhaps. It concerns a boy and his intelligent K-9 traveling companion, 'Blood'. 'Intelligent', as in smarter than friend Vic, and telepathic. Blood 'talks'. According to the movie, dogs like these were bred for war - before the big war, the nuclear war. The war, to, really, end-all-wars. Vic and Blood travel across the post-apocalypse wasteland looking for food sex and good times. The original story was an award winner written by SF writer Harlan Ellison. As a youth Ellison traveled the country as a carnival worker and is said to have really been in youth gangs. The conversation between Vic and Blood, sounds, authentic. The dialog doesn't sound dated. You can also enjoy the movie for it's adventure. You can enjoy it for it's mother-of-all twist endings. You could appreciate the movie for the social statement it makes.

The movie begins, in a movie theater. One gangs 'action' is running an abandoned theater. Admission: one can of non-radiated food. From there Vic travels to a large underground bomb shelter where the citizens live in a repressed manner said to be reminiscent of the 1950's. Vic is captured by them. They want to use him as their 'stud' because all the men are sterile. One reviewer even saying, this is one of the messages of the film, repression leads to men being sterile.

Vic likes the idea of being able to sleep with all the women (in the book he's really going to be sleeping with them - in the movie he's hooked up to an unpleasant 'milking machine') he likes the idea... but he doesn't like his loss of freedom. He escapes with a girl from the down-under Quilla June. Quilla herself is part of group of youths rebelling against the grown ups, and here, the movie ups-the-ante from the book. In the story, the only rebellion is simply their escape. The 'youth rebellion' I think gives us another chance to compare this society with our own.

Quilla liberates Vics guns and then they shoot their way out of town. Vic noticing Quilla's horror, turning to blood lust, saying to himself, "do you have to waste so much ammunition..." This is the point in the book where it becomes obvious this story has an agenda. As they are making their escape, shooting at the last townsfolk, Vic says to himself, "they should have known better than to mess with Jimmy Cagney". Cagney being the actor who always plays the gangster in the movies he so loves to watch earlier in the movie. Then of course right after their escape, there's the twist ending.

This is the most conservative work of fiction I've ever read, ever. I don't think this aspect of the story transfers well to the big screen. Perhaps the filmmaker failed. Perhaps the failure is on the part of the viewer. Do we have an underlying fear of seeing things in an incorrect way? The original story was written in 1968. Is it difficult for us to empathize with a world view so different from the one we're ordinarily presented with? It's not a view we see too often nowadays. It's certainly something we don't expect to see when sitting down to watch a movie.

Still trying to figure this film out.......2007-02-03

Alright, I'm going to go ahead and give this film 5 stars... but the stars are for incomprehensibility, rather than anything else which can make a sci-fi film truly great. Harlan Ellison must have one really twisted mind, if he wrote stuff like this. He is one old geezer who seriously needs to be picked up and put in a rest home.

OK, yeah, all of us guys are motivated by sex and food, as Don Johnson and his canine sidekick have reminded us throughout the picture... and being a red-blooded straight male myself, I of course had the hots for the nuclear-survivor girl who had the big doe eyes and the white mime makeup on her face.

To this day, however, I can't figure out what was supposed to have happened at the end, and I watched the picture 5 times. Did Vic leave the girl as she went back underground with the rest of her bizarre tribe, or (gasp!), did he kill her and cook her for dinner, as food for himself and the psychic dog? The film doesn't tell us.

Seems like such a stupid shame, to have sex with a beautiful young woman, only to cut her up and roast her later. Not a film for the uninitiated.

Average customer rating:

"He was not a pet, he was a person"
Don't get me wrong, the movie is brilliant...
Man's Best friend
The most conservative work of fiction I've ever read. I don't think this aspect of the story transfers well to the big screen
Still trying to figure this film out

A Boy And His Dog
Starring: Hal Baylor , Susanne Benton , Don Carter , Ron Feinberg , and Michael Hershman
Director: L.Q. Jones
Manufacturer: Lumivision
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Satire | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

Sci-Fi & Fantasy | Cult Movies | Genres | DVD | Video

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Zardoz
The Omega Man
The Lathe of Heaven
Soylent Green
Logan's Run

ASIN: 6304492405
Release Date: 1999-03-30

Amazon.com essential video

Customer Reviews:

"He was not a pet, he was a person".......2007-06-26

Don't get me wrong, the movie is brilliant..........2007-02-17

Man's Best friend.......2007-02-12

Saw the movie when it first came out years ago, loved it then and love it now. Tongue in cheek, futuristic society, after math of the second big bang.

The most conservative work of fiction I've ever read. I don't think this aspect of the story transfers well to the big screen.......2007-02-07

Still trying to figure this film out.......2007-02-03

Average customer rating:

"He was not a pet, he was a person"
Don't get me wrong, the movie is brilliant...
Man's Best friend
The most conservative work of fiction I've ever read. I don't think this aspect of the story transfers well to the big screen
Still trying to figure this film out

A Boy & His Dog
Starring: Hal Baylor , Susanne Benton , Don Carter , Ron Feinberg , and Michael Hershman
Manufacturer: Sling Shot
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

Satire | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

Sci-Fi & Fantasy | Cult Movies | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Zardoz
The Omega Man
The Lathe of Heaven
Soylent Green
Logan's Run

ASIN: B00000IXPN
Release Date: 1999-04-13

Amazon.com essential video

Customer Reviews:

"He was not a pet, he was a person".......2007-06-26

Don't get me wrong, the movie is brilliant..........2007-02-17

Man's Best friend.......2007-02-12

Saw the movie when it first came out years ago, loved it then and love it now. Tongue in cheek, futuristic society, after math of the second big bang.

The most conservative work of fiction I've ever read. I don't think this aspect of the story transfers well to the big screen.......2007-02-07

Still trying to figure this film out.......2007-02-03

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