#71 – A Boy and his Dog

Movie Apocalypse Survivors, 

Last week in the year 2017 we watched what will happen after World War 4 in 2024. We took down an epic movie night albatross that has been tempting us from the beginning. A Boy and His Dog (1975)
Like most movies from 1975 this one dragged in places… but also had things that you’d never see in modern movies (so much cheerful rape!) but that ending thou…

so lets recap.
A young Don Johnson roams the wastelands with only his telepathic dog to keep him company. It seems like the dog is the real brains of the operation, a real “Mr Peabody and Sherman” situation. After a while it becomes clear that the dog is finding women for Vic in exchange for food/protection. So after spotting a woman disguised as a man at a local outdoor porno theater (showing ‘fistful of rawhide’) they chase her into a bunker. This line from the wikipedia “Searching a bunker for a woman for Vic to rape” sounds so cheerful. ugh. At this point I think he does possibly rape her but its somewhat consensual. After they lay around this sex dungeon for a while she tells him that she’s from ‘The Great Underground City Of Topeka’.

Now at this point I went to change the baby’s diaper or something. When I came back Don Johnson was being dick milked and told by Jason Robards wearing white face paint and 18th century clothes that he was going to repopulate the underworld with their women.

So there was a very abrupt change. 

But the woman has another idea and free’s sexy Don Johnson so he can help her take over Topeka. But then during a marching band parade they release an overall wearing good Ol’boy to attack them…who of course is an unstoppable android killing machine. They manage to escape to the surface. 

now at this point I dropped off, because I had company coming over. But everyone insisted I go back and watch the ending. 

SO… they escape to the surface and she claims that she loves him and that they should abandon this half dead shaggy dog and go off on their own. He thinks about it for a second, then is like NAWWWWWWW…. she is dunzos and they cook and eat her body to stay alive.

Walk into the sunset A BOY AND HIS DOG. 

THIS MOVIE IS BONKERS. 

Thoughts, I have a few.  

• even in 1975 Don Johnson is clearly not a boy. 
• Has she recruited people before? is this a GET OUT situation?
• Shouldn’t she know that they have many unstoppable androids. 
• The ending seems out of left field, but reading the wiki, I think it’s just that the acting level was so bad throughout that you just couldn’t tell that she was being deceitful with her ‘love’ and just needed a man to protect her out in the wastelands. 
• This movie is like the opposite of Fury Road. 
• Classic Movie night movie, influenced many movies and games after it, but is also kind of terrible. 
• Has this werid tone that you’re not sure if its supposed to be a comedy? ‘The Road’ is a bleak horrific movie, but at some points it’s like this. 

Facts

• 1975 Hugo Awards, Johnson won the Golden Scroll for Best Actor, which was shared with James Caan for his performance in Rollerball. (another movie that I find is boring and weird and exciting)
• According to Cult Movies 2, Jones had a sequel planned called A Girl and Her Dog, but the plan was scrapped when Tiger, the dog who portrayed Blood, died.
• Ellison particularly objected to the film’s final line, in which Blood said of Quilla, “Well, I’d say she certainly had marvelous judgement, Albert, if not particularly good taste.” Ellison referred to it as a “moronic, hateful chauvinist last line, which I despise.”

This week it’s Bill D’s choice, unless he’s driving back from North Dakota or something. 
-Mark