A Boy and His Dog (1975)

[Scott]

A BOY AND HIS DOG (1975) - Low budget Post Apocalyptic film starring Don Johnson. A dog has conversations with a young Don Johnson as they scavenge for food and other things. This film wasn't that good, but appears to have influenced the making of the Mad Max films in style and even a scene or two, but  A BOY AND HIS DOG isn't done as well as the later Australian Mad Max  variations. In the end a group of people that I think was led by Jason Robards wants Don Johnson for his sperm and they strap him to a table. Guess the radiation effected the others males. Didn't find it as interesting as the reviews that I've read about it.

[Yaddo 42]

I'm a fan of this one, but think some take it way too seriously and believe it's deeper or better than it really is. Maybe they've read the Harlan Ellison work that's the basis for the film (I haven't yet and can't compare), or maybe they just think that the rest of the film is as clever as the joke in the last scene.

It's a fun but slight post-apocalyptic satire and a literal shaggy dog story for the final pay off.

[JohnL]

>or maybe they just think that the rest of the film is as clever as the joke in the last
>scene.

That last scene is straight out of the short story.

[Menard]

I saw this movie in the theatre probably around 1981. Perhaps it is because I had been told so much about the movie and generally knew what to expect that I found it to drag once Don Johnson's character enters the underground city. None the less, it does have its humorous moments and probably works better for the viewer if it is approached from the standpoint of a not too serious movie. Although I have not read the story, what I have read of Ellison's work does have a certain level of humor embodied within the story and the movie certainly appears to have accomplished that.

Bob

[The Burgomaster]

I saw this at a revival showing at a local movie theater back around 1981 or 82.  I thought it was great . . . very funny . . . and I loved the ending.  However, I saw it a few years later on video and I didn't like it nearly as much.  Maybe the novelty had worn off after my first viewing.  Anyway, I'll have to watch it again because I haven't seen it in many years.

[Yaddo 42]

Maybe it's just that the people I've know IRL who really like this film only talk about two scenes. The ending, obviously, and the scene where Don Johnson finds out what his husbandly duties will really entale. Both scenes are funny (but I knew how the "marriage" would turn out) , but like I said, I've known people who thought both parts were deep. They seem to forget how much the earlier part of the film drags.

[Bargle5]

Actually, the ending pretty much ruined the movie for me. The guy starts out as a jerk, goes through a bunch of stuff, gets to the end of the movie and he's still a jerk. Maybe this was supposed to show that some people don't learn from experience or something, I dunno. One of the few times I felt ripped off by a movie.

[Chopper]

i've always wondered what this would be like re-done and with a better budget.

[peter johnson]

Don Johnson did a good job in this, and in another extra-bizarro film from 1970:  Zachariah.  Funny thing is, he looks older in Zachariah, and here is is older, but playing younger.  Ah, Hollywood magic . . .
The point of the ending is where lies Value.  The boy chooses the dog over the girl because the girl is selfish, spoiled, demanding, has no survival skills, and has nothing to offer and is generally uncool except as a sex-recepticle.  The dog has valuable survival skills, is loyal to the point of self-starvation, and is brighter and a more interesting conversationalist than the girl.  The boy knows he will get more sex later, somewhere, but in the meantime he needs the dog to survive.  Hence, he feeds the girl to the dog.
In the novella, the ending is posed much more as an answer to a mystery.  The girl and the residents of the Underworld prate a lot about "love", something that puzzles the boy.  What is Love?  Finally, he has an epiphany:  A boy loves his dog.
peter johnson/denny crane

[Bargle5]

Peter, thanks for your answer. It's been 20+ years since I've seen it so my memory may be faulty, but this is how the ending struck me. The girl has begun to realize she is selfish and spoiled and wants to change and she has begun to have feelings for the boy. They find the dog and it tells the boy that he alone can't steal the needed food from the closest camp. Instead of grasping the obvious and enlisting the girl's help, he continues to see her as nothing but a sex receptacle and kills her, leading us to that closing remark, "She didn't have good taste". In other words she was dumb for trusting them since they were both just jerks.
Then again, I may be just projecting my own ideas of how the movie should have ended.

[peter johnson]

Yes, but the dog gives that final line -- not in the book -- & the boy doesn't join in the bad joke -- he's still puzzled as to whether he's made the right choice or not, which is a bit of a copout from Ellison's original harsh ending.
I really didn't get at all that she ever had any feelings for the boy -- she wanted him to be her servant, as she was served in the Underworld, nothing more.  Also, I don't recall any realization or self-awareness on the girl's part, or that she had any interest in changing -- I may have to watch this again sometime.  My memory is is that she wanted to be served & was impatient with the boy for not immediately leaping to her needs & instead fussing over this almost-dead dog.  Indeed, I think that was one of the ham-handed points of the ending:  That if she had, in fact, demonstrated any sort of empathy at that point, then the boy wouldn't have killed her to feed the dog.  Instead she put a big "Alpo" sign on her forehead.
Jason Robards is really good in it as the Underworld chieftain.
As a sidebar, it should be noted that absolutely nothing Ellison has ever written for TV or film has ever been shot as he wrote it.  Somewhere, someone always blanches at his full vision.  Even on Star Trek/City at the Edge of Forever.
peter johnson/denny crane