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White Dog

Play trailer Poster for White Dog PG Released Jul 7, 1982 1h 30m Drama Horror Play Trailer Watchlist
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94% Tomatometer 17 Reviews 73% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
An animal-trainer (Paul Winfield) tries to deprogram an actress's (Kristy McNichol) found dog, trained for racial attacks.
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White Dog

Critics Reviews

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Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader As in the fables of Aesop and La Fontaine, the hero of Fuller’s parable may be a dog, but the subject is the human race. Rated: 4/4 May 26, 2022 Full Review Ryan Gilbey New Statesman The film has a TV-movie cheesiness overruled by Fuller's expert deployment of the camera, brisk pacing and committed performances. Apr 3, 2014 Full Review Fernando F. Croce Slant Magazine Hate is a dog from hell in White Dog, Samuel Fuller's abused and abandoned late-career masterpiece about homegrown racism. Rated: 4/4 Dec 12, 2008 Full Review Eddie Harrison film-authority.com …a controversial and original take on a hot subject… Rated: 3/5 Aug 29, 2022 Full Review Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review Samuel Fuller's most controversial and confronting film Rated: 4/4 Feb 20, 2022 Full Review Jas Keimig The Stranger (Seattle, WA) Sam Fuller's anti-racist allegory, White Dog, really soaks into your brain. Jan 20, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (224) audience reviews
Patrick S Interesting ideas presented. I wish the movie were better. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 07/30/23 Full Review Audience Member The key challenge immediately confronting "White Dog" is inherent in the very fabric of its concept, and the question arises as to whether or not the film successfully addresses that challenge. It is built on a premise of good intentions involving the symbolic embodiment of racism and all of its viscerally-rooted savagery in the form of a white dog, trained by brutes to attack the object of their hatred rather than its own. With respect to the challenge alluded to above, herein lies the dilemma: if imperfectly or carelessly executed, the deeply serious nature of the premise ensures that the results will feel exploitative regardless of their good intentions. Watching the film, I was engaged by what I was seeing, but stunned at times by gaping problems at the level of story development and screenwriting. Characters occasionally speak in a manner that comes dangerously close to objectifying African Americans, and such objectification is heightened exponentially by the baffling fashion in which certain brutal deaths are dismissively passed over. For such reasons, my feeling is that "White Dog" fails critically at the ideological level of its execution despite producing an experience that is interesting to behold as a result of its bizarre mixture of successes and failures. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review delysid d im not sure if white dogs are a real thing or not, i thought this movie was pretty funny and i was laughing my ass off the whole time. but, this might be almost too disturbing for black people. i always wanted a movie about out of control killer dogs, this is the first one i've seen. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 04/19/22 Full Review Audience Member I watched this in Germany when I was a kid and remembered the impression this movie had. Its a true shame this became banned ,because the storyline was truly heart wrenching. The best actor was of course the gorgeous Wolf like White Dog. An animal forced to be raised into violence unable to distinguish instinct from what is ingrained from its former training. The man who braved trying to retrain the Dog was incredibly patient. I felt such compassion and sympathy for those who wouldn't give up and despite of what appears to be a hopeless situation continue to have faith for a better less biased future. Sadly due to prejudice this feature presentation was rejected and even forced to remain unseen. But I can happily report to have been one of the rare few who saw it and remember it more than 30 years later. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Joel C Incredibly well made and great performances. The film isn't racist, the subject matter is, and it's handled very well. This is a very real film about human's manipulating animals as well as children. Even the history of how the film got made is interesting. One of my all time favorites. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/19/21 Full Review Audience Member Temática mais que relevante, atualíssima, abordada com brilhantismo técnico. Se em vida Fuller não teve o devido reconhecimento, o tempo revelou a contribuição inestimável desta obra socialmente engajada. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/15/23 Full Review Read all reviews
White Dog

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Cast & Crew

Nightwing 33% 24% Nightwing Watchlist Honkytonk Man 93% 64% Honkytonk Man Watchlist One on One 78% 73% One on One Watchlist Cannery Row 75% 72% Cannery Row Watchlist The Great Santini 95% 75% The Great Santini Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis An animal-trainer (Paul Winfield) tries to deprogram an actress's (Kristy McNichol) found dog, trained for racial attacks.
Director
Samuel Fuller
Rating
PG
Genre
Drama, Horror
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jul 7, 1982, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Jan 12, 2017
Runtime
1h 30m
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