PimpinAinttEasy A film with a truly unique premise. A dog trained to attack black people is hit by a car driven by an aspiring actress. She takes him in and the dog even saves her from a burglar/rapist. But when the dog attacks her black co-star on the sets of a film and makes her boyfriend uncomfortable, the actress takes him to the owner of an animal training ranch. The owner of the ranch (a great Burl Ives) directs the actress to an animal trainer (Paul Winfield) who is black but agrees to cure the dog of its racism.I am surprised the makers couldn't find a better leading lady than Kristy McNichol. She was alright, but I am sure there were better actresses in the 1980s who would have been interested in working with Fuller. I liked the scene where Ives character takes a dig at Star Wars by throwing an arrow at the Star Wars robot target. Paul Winfield had great screen presence. The dog also looked sinister as hell with its sharp teeth and long tongue.Morricone's score is terrific. But it was best suited for one of those intense Italian movies of the 60s and 70s.The film had so much potential. But writer-director Samuel Fuller and co-writer Curtis Hanson messes up. Many of the scenes lacked weight. The plot developments were unimaginative.This is a film that seems to have garnered a cult following based on its unique premise, rather than what the writer-director actually realized.

jeffdiggy I'm only giving this movie 3 stars because I basically like the 3 stars that were in it and enjoyed their performances...from the mild but REALLY "Kristy McNichol" Kristy McNichol performance...to the emotion-on-queue Paul Winfield one...to the UNDER-cast, almost anachronistic Burl Ives one. The rest of the movie...the entire PREMISE of it...garbage. And let me tell ya why! First off...it's real simple: bad dog (of any color or race!) bites someone to the point it draws blood...dead dog. Simple...end of day...end of story. Yet in THIS movie the dog has some kind of 'white privilege'! It gets away with biting people in a bloody frenzy...to outright mauling a man to death...IN A CHURCH...and they STILL want to reform this maniac dog...he's REALLY f'd in the head! All of that is enough to sink this movie into a ridiculous, farcical mound...but it fails on another level. It TOTALLY insults black people and makes them look like completely appeasing, happenstance inconsequential entities that just HAPPEN to exist in a bilaterally-symmetrical world...meaningless. The dog attacks and kills one (1) black man (no one sees this, mind you...OK...understandable)...fine, I get it so far (other than Kristy's bland acting...apparently presented to us in this film off the back of the ratings of 'Family'...or 'Little Darlings' happening to do well??). But black person attacked number two (2)...in plain sight of MANY people...blood drawn from mangled back and, later revealed, arm of a young, female (though black...that nullifies any other descriptor/characteristic) actress...and black person attacked number three (3) in plain sight of the dynamic trio of McNichol, Winfield and Ives?? I mean...DEAD dog!! HOW is this animal STILL alive?? Now attacked black being number four (4)...dead number two (2)...is a DOOZIE!! WHY, you ask? Because attacked/dead black person number 4/2...is killed IN A CHURCH!! This event (apparent aftermath) was also witnessed by someone...the person compelled and COMMITTED to curing the white dog (Winfield). Now I come to the main part of why and how this movie was pathetic and an insult to black people. The head of the now criminal group that allowed the dog to live was Paul Winfield (with Ives and McNichol complicit in a clandestine cabal...knowing FULL well what they were doing...while dining on savory lamb chops)...the black man who saw, with his own eyes, attacked/dead black person number 4/2 viciously killed by this dog to the point where ole' faithful n' emotional Winfield was able to shed a tear...from BOTH eyes...yet STILL wanted to cure this animal...ostensibly to prevent such an animal from existing again. PLEASE tell me how one could ever prevent white dogs or black dogs from existing...and WHY would we ever want to "cure" such an animal that has MURDERED people?? Yet Mr. Winfield's and Mr. Ives's and Ms. McNichol's characters (though, credit to her, McNichol's character FINALLY realized the dog needed a bullet after black man number 4/2) STILL...STILL want to cure this beast (McNichol, seemingly coerced, may get a lesser sentence when the real world swings around). The message I got from this movie...is not ONLY do black lives NOT matter...but they apparently just disappear after they die in this movie (when not gleeful they have actor's guild insurance...oh...no problem with the gashes on the back seemingly requiring stitches and a hospital stay where several bouquets of flowers have been delivered...though this, black person attacked number two (2) WAS under the impression the dog had been "gotten rid of"...which to me would have inferred a final trip to the pound). Black man dies in a fiery collision with a paint store after being chewed driving and screaming by a racist, paratroop-jumping attack dog...knowing when to bail EXACTLY at the right time. Black man gets mauled to death in a church...dog gets cheeseburger. Um...one question...WHERE ARE THE DETECTIVES??? The movie TOTALLY ignores this and makes it look like these black men that were murdered in such dramatic fashions and in such odd, highly-notable settings (a church and a blown-up paint store) were totally expendable, unimportant phenomena...just moving creatures that happen to have two arms and two legs and a head. And Winfield's character MUST have actually tampered with evidence at a crime scene and moved the dead, black body from the church...ALL to rehabilitate a poor canine traumatized by a white supremacist as a puppy. Um...DEAD DOG! So Winfield is basically accessory to a murder (remember...the dog should have LONG SINCE been dead when it escaped from his care and murdered yet another person...Winfield MUST have later cleaned up...but WHERE did he take the body? Oh, I forgot...dead, black bodies just disappear in this movie/movie's world!)...and, btw, what was this a ghost town...nobody on the street but one black man in a business suit (doing what??) who runs in a church with no parishioners or pastor? Crazy. Well...long story short we cure the dog now. Only one problem...he's Damien Omen K-9 now. He doesn't know who NOT to attack...and is FINALLY killed by black man/Winfield...but ONLY when he (crazy dog was never even given a name...maybe THAT'S why he was wacko) attacks white man/Ives. Black man degraded throughout the entire movie...but STILL loyal enough to protect white man. Where have we seen THIS narrative before? This movie was just SO wrong on SO many levels. I saw it as a child and didn't realize the nonsense I was watching. It just couldn't have been made better because the ENTIRE premise of trying to save a murderous dog to prevent one from ever existing again (an impossibility) just makes no sense in ANY dimension...MAYBE one where time goes backward...whereby the dog could have been trained in the future not to kill the people it did/does/would have in the past...WHATEVER...but...not like this (in my female 'Matrix' victim's voice)...not like this. Oh and I would LOVE to see a 'White Dog II'...where they start to investigate the murders! Winfield's character better PRAY they didn't/don't have luminol back then!! ALL three of you are going to JAIL!! Dead Movie!

Claudio Carvalho In Los Angeles, the unemployed young actress Julie Sawyer (Kristy McNichol) hits a white German Sheppard while driving though the hills during the night. She brings the dog to the veterinary and keeps the animal in her house on the hills. Julie takes a picture of the dog and distributes fliers with her boyfriend seeking out the owner.When a burglar and rapist breaks in her house, the dog protects Julie and she decides to keep the animal with her. But sooner she learns the white dog is an animal trained by a racist to attack black people. However Julie has become attached to the dog and tries to find a trainer for "deprogramming" the dog. She goes to the Noah Ark, a place where the Afro-American trainer of wild animals Keys (Paul Winfield) accepts the challenge despite the difficulties of his task. "White Dog" is among the most impressive films about racism ever made by the cinema history. The plot is very simple but touching and shows how cruel and intolerant a human being can be. The sick idea of using alcoholic or addicted black man to frequently beat up a puppy until it grows-up with hatred of black people is so despicable that it is hard to believe that it may happen. I saw this film for the first time in the 80's and it has not aged. My vote is sight.Title (Brazil): "Cão Branco" ("White Dog")

amonamarthyigit The movie White Dog is definitely a hidden gem. It is so sad that this movie was not shown in the theaters at that time. The movie absolutely had nothing to do with promoting racism. Opposite of it, movie is anti-racist and white dog is a metaphor for racism in the society. Is racism curable? Can you unteach racism to a person who is brainwashed by racism? Movie concerns with these social issues. Movie not only raises some important questions about racism, but also entertains its audience. There are some very thrilling scenes in the movie. I am sure that the movie would have a great box office success if it was released in the theaters. Most of the movies which appeal to a large audience is not concerned with any social or any other issue. And most of the movies which are concerned about social issues do not appeal to a large audience. White Dog is one of few exceptions. The movie would effect a whole generation to think about these issues if it was released those days.Banning such movie by the claim of racism is absurd. It made me doubtful about the freedom of speech in the US. Why did they banned the movie? Authorities of the time were so illogical to think that the movie is racist? Or they just did not want this movie to point some of social issues to the large audiences? I think there is no way a person can think this movie is racist. So, there can be only one reason why did they banned such movie...