Wiener Takes All: A Dogumentary

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Audience Member This is a low-budget documentary on the obscure topic of wiener dog racing. This film shows off some trivia and history of the sport with some controversy over the little pups involved. The whole thing is scatter shot and despite some scattered funny moments, I can not really recommend it to anyone other than the dachshund obsessed. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Audience Member <i>Weiner Takes All</i> seems like the kind of oddball documentary that Errol Morris could have made. It's about the highly competitive world of dachshund racing, the ridiculously political world of dachshund dog shows, and the overly-enthusiastic humans that are arguably more important to the events than the dogs are. The movie begins with a stupid joke about Wienerschnitzel, but soon after makes up ground with a montage of people talking about the dogs. "They get belligerent," one woman complains, "they've powerful." Another man claims that there is steroid use in the races. I couldn't help but wonder whether this was real or if it was some kind of strange comedy. As far as I can tell, it is real. The movie mostly follows the trials of several different racing dachshunds -- starting with the famed Noodles/Pretzel rivalry (which we've all heard about in school), talking about the monster dog named Barron who never lost a single race and was eventually told could not race anymore due to his constant wins, and along the way getting to know the people behind the scenes who are rabid with support for their dogs. They treat the dogs like human beings, pampering them and making sure that they are trained for the races. When one dies, his owners reserve an entire room of their house for his trophies, newspaper clippings, and the urn where his ashes are kept. It's one thing to see your pets as a part of your family, but this is just crazy. But the movie is played mostly for laughs, so look at it more as entertainment than education. In regards to the dog shows, one judge says that you will "lose fifteen points if the dog has no head at all". Was he being serious? No, couldn't be. And when a couple of dog owners at a dog race are asked how they feel, their answer is: "A little hung over." It's difficult to tell where the line between jokes and reality are. Was the sport of dachshund racing really spawned by a Miller Lite commercial, or is it a convenient bit of humor? Were dachshunds really killed during World War I due to being of German descent, and were they really briefly re-named "Liberty pups"? Whether these bits of info are true or merely bits of humor is unclear, so the best way to look at <i>Wiener Takes All</i> is just to sit back and laugh at the way the people and dogs act. It's hysterical to see the dogs running toward the finish line, only to scatter at the last moment and run around in circles. And the dog owner's devotion to their pets is oftentimes incomprehensible. <i>Wiener Takes All</i> is kind of scattershot: it begins with the dog racing, cuts to a dog show in New York, goes back to the dog races and then to strange history of dachshunds and dog racing, then back to the races again. It doesn't have a natural flow to it, making it feel more disjointed than it really ought to have. And though it was often funny, sometimes the filmmakers were trying much too hard to be humorous (a la the aforementioned wienerschnitzel cold open). It's fun, the dogs are cute, and that's all. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/15/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Wiener Takes All: A Dogumentary

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