Books into Celluloid: A Boy and His Dog
Written by Kelly Cozy Tuesday, 21 July 2009 20:22
A Boy and His Dog
Directed by L. Q. Jones
Released in 1975
Cast: Don Johnson
Suzanne Benton
Tiger/Tim McIntire (voice)
A classic science fiction tale is translated to the big screen.
The story
In a post-apocalyptic America, a young man named Vic and his telepathic dog Blood roam the countryside, living a hardscrabble existence. Their relationship is at times antagonistic and affectionate but is also based on interdependence. Vic provides food for Blood, as well as protection from other outlaws and gangs, and from the radioactive mutants that also roam the wasteland. In return the dog (whose telepathy and high intelligence are the result of a government genetic breeding program) teaches Vic how to read and also scouts out women for Vic. Their friendship is put to the test when a young woman from one of the downunders — underground dwellings where the last of American civilization survives — enters their lives.
The story
Harlan Ellison’s 1969 story, written for his own pet dog Ahbhu, is, despite its often horrific post-apocalyptic setting, a love story. It doesn’t seem like one as the reader watches Vic and Blood scrounge for food (usually whatever canned goods can be found in the ruins of civilization) and scout for women so Vic can do what he calls “get laid” but is actually rape. They rely on each others’ skills but they also understand each other in a way no one else can.
Their relationship is thrown off-balance by the arrival of Quilla June Holmes, a young woman from underground Topeka who’s come to the surface world to get a glimpse of “real” life — or so Vic believes. His intended assault on Quilla June is interrupted not just by a roving gang who want the girl for themselves, but by Vic’s unexpected tender feelings for her. This doesn’t stop him from raping her later that night when they’ve fought off the gang and are safe, but Quilla June seems to come down with a case of Stockholm Syndrome and becomes Vic’s willing lover. That is, until she conks him on the head and returns to her underground home. Vic follows, leaving Blood behind, and finds that he’s been lured down to be part of the downunder’s breeding program, as most of the men are sterile. When Vic escapes with Quilla June — who says she loves him and may even believe it — they return to the surface to find Blood near death from starvation and injuries. Vic’s left with a choice — stay with Blood or flee with Quilla June.
Ellison’s story is narrated from Vic’s point of view, and is both so convincing and engaging that it makes the more unsavory aspects of Vic’s life believable and engaging, at least within the context of the story. It’s a hard, brutal world and Vic has to be brutal to survive. Yet despite being a killer and rapist, he’s not sadistic and his love for Blood and the feelings for Quilla June (which sadly for her don’t come close to being love) help redeem him in the readers’ eyes. The story ends on a strange note, with an incident of savagery (all off-page) seen as something done out of love.
It took a long time before I stopped hearing her calling in my head. Asking me, asking me: do you know what love is?
Sure I know.
A boy loves his dog.
The movie
Adapted by director L. Q. Jones after Ellison ran into writer’s block with his screenplay, the movie’s first two thirds are fairly faithful to the story. Despite the film’s small budget the story’s world is well realized, with the Arizona desert playing itself as a barren wasteland. Don Johnson (yes, that Don Johnson) gives a good performance as Vic, using his boyish charm to endear the viewer to Vic despite his less savory deeds. Kudos go to Jones for not glossing over this aspect of the story: when Vic finds a woman who’s been raped and murdered by a roving gang, his response is not sadness over the woman’s fate but a complaint that “she could have been used a few more times.”
But all of Johnson’s scenes with the dog are a delight. In the pre-CGI 1970s, a real dog needed to be on hand, and Tiger (familiar to TV viewers as the Brady Bunch’s dog), together with Tim McIntire’s voice, is the best actor in the film. Blood isn’t a “cute” dog, yet he’s not a warrior either. He’s old, something of a relic. His telepathy and intellect have cost him valuable survival skills and he knows it. Both Tiger and McIntire give Blood an appropriately world-weary manner. The viewer soon forgets that we’re watching an actor talk to a dog whose “thoughts” were dubbed in later — we’re watching Vic and Blood bicker, sometimes with hostility, more often with affection.
Suzanne Benton is less good as Quilla June, though it’s hard to say if that comes from the performance or from the changes to the character. Instead of the easily manipulated victim from the story, the movie’s Quilla June is a schemer, ambitious to raise her status in the underground community by bringing in Vic to act as the community’s breeding stock. Which leads us to the movie’s greatest divergence from the source material.
In the story, the underground world of Topeka is a bucolic everytown, the sort often envisioned by Ray Bradbury in his stories. For Vic it’s the epitome of “a nice place to visit but you wouldn’t want to live there,” as he finds the friendliness, cleanliness, and claustrophobia of the underground dwelling intolerable. (It’s telling that Vic wants to flee this place almost instantly despite the prospect of getting all the sex he can handle in his role as impregnator of the women.) However, in the movie Topeka is changed to a much more repressive totalitarian society, and Jones made the unfortunate choice of putting most of the Topekans in clownish makeup. Jones also detracted from the nature of Vic’s predicament by having his stud duties be done by artificial insemination, with Vic hooked up to gruesome-looking medical equipment. But perhaps the most grievous error in tone (one that was castigated by Ellison, who otherwise approved of the film) is one which turns the final moment into a joke (and a not-all-that-funny one at that).
Which should you check out first?
The story is best, provided one can get past the less pleasant aspects. It can be found in various anthologies, most notably The Essential Ellison. The movie adaptation is now on DVD and the first two-thirds are worth a viewing, especially for the performances and the interaction between Johnson and Tiger/McIntire.
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