Subject: Retrospective: A Boy and His Dog (1975)

From: "Dragan Antulov" <[email-masked]>
Date: 5 Jun 2001 00:07:47 GMT

A BOY AND HIS DOG (1975)
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2001

When people hear the phrase "post-apocalyptic" films, they
usually think about extremely violent low budget action
films, set in deserts that are supposed to represent the
modern civilisation turned into wasteland. Most of these
films were made in late 1970s and early 1980s, inspired by
the success of George Miller's MAD MAX 2 and new-born fears
of nuclear annihilation in Reagan's year. However, post-
apocalyptic films were made before late 1970s and they
didn't always belong to the area of action genre. One of
such examples is A BOY AND HIS DOG, 1975 black comedy
directed by L.Q. Jones and based on the award-winning
novella by well- known science fiction author Harlan
Ellison.

The plot of this film is set in Arizona in the year 2024
A.D. The world had been devastated by nuclear war seventeen
years ago, and the surface of the Earth is turned into
desert, roamed by various drifters in search of food, drink
and shelter. One of them is Vic (played by Don Johnson),
eighteen-year-old boy whose only companion is Blood (voice
by Tim McIntire), dog with whom he has telepathic
connection. Blood's instincts, wisdom, knowledge experience
help Vic in his everyday search for food, but so far Vic
can't find the only thing on his mind - a girl. Finally, two
of them stumble on a girl in the form of young Quilla June
Holmes (played by Susan Benton) and rescue her from
homicidal rapists and mutants. After a night of passionate
love Quilla disappears and Vic, against Blood's better
judgement, goes looking for her in the underground, where
some remnants of civilisation survived and turned into
grotesque version of ultraconservative America. The
underground men are sterile and Vic finds out that he had
been lured down in order to impregnate underground women,
but this task turns out to be anything but pleasant.

After the opening scenes of A BOY AND HIS DOG, when scenes
of nuclear explosions serve as backdrop for authors'
commentary on contemporary world, viewers instantly know
that he is going to watch black comedy, but hardly anything
can prepare them for the surprise and macabre twist at the
end - probably one of the best finales in the history of
cult movies. Between those two points we have an opportunity
to watch Don Johnson of MIAMI VICE fame in his early days,
when he very believably plays young, horny teenager.
However, the best thing about whole film is his interaction
with dog and Tim McIntire whose voice always spews critical
and right-on- target comments on boy's mundane and
irresponsible behaviour. The dialogue is extremely funny and
very entertaining, and Susan Benton also adds them
additional dimension when she enters the picture.
Unfortunately, in the segments that deal with underground
society, writer and director L.Q. Jones goes overboard with
his grotesque attempt of satire on conformist and
semi-totalitarian tendencies of small- town America. Those
segments provide opportunity for great Jason Robards Jr. to
give quite effective portrayal of soulless bureaucrat, but
that performance doesn't improve general impression. Another
problem with this film is obvious lack of budget that forced
filmmakers to shoot many scenes underground or at night;
inadequate lighting make many happenings on the screen
incomprehensible to the viewer. Those who are patient and
forgiving enough are going to be awarded with good acting,
sharp dialogue and effective black humour, so the cult
reputation of A BOY AND HIS DOG is well deserved.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

Written on June 2nd 2001

Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
Fido: 2:381/100
E-mail: [email-masked]
E-mail: [email-masked]

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