White Dog

White Dog(1982) - Samuel Fuller

White Dog is a film about a woman who finds a seemingly kind german shepherd before realizing that the dog has been trained to be racist, and the rest of the film revolves around reconditioning the dog. White Dog’s premise almost sounds like it could be a comedy in a post-Chapelle Show world, but the film was deemed too controversial for 1981 and it was shelved for 10 years. The studio’s desire to bury this film is ironic given the film’s presentation of white privilege, years before that term was so ubiquitous. It’s not all handled perfectly, but Fuller attempts to tackle American racism head-on, and the results are fascinating. Like all Sam Fuller films, White Dog takes places in a sort of heightened reality of melodrama and paperback thrillers. I love Sam Fuller’s early films from the ’50s and ’60s, but it’s particularly interesting to see how he was influenced by 70’s cinema and Spaghetti Westerns. The film even features a haunting score from Ennio Morricone. White Dog is spiteful, sympathetic, and challenging, but never gratuitous.