Dog Review

In recent years there have been plenty of dog films and films about service personnel. The film Dog combines both with it focusing on two misfits who must go on a road trip together.

Jackson Briggs (Channing Tatum) is a US Army Ranger who has been out of active service after being injured in the line of duty. Briggs is desperate to get back into active service and his commanding officer makes a deal, if he takes a fallen comrade’s dog to his funeral in New Mexico he will sign the papers to declare Briggs fit for duty. The issue is Bella has become an uncontrollable beast who is on death row.

Dog capitalises on three cinematic trends: road movies, animal movies, and films about service personnel. Road movies are seen as a quintessentially American genre. They literally have a plot where characters go from A to B, allow characters to bond on their journey, and see the glorious tapestry that is America. In Dog’s case Briggs goes from the snowy forests of Washington State to the desert of New Mexico and they go to cities like Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. This road movie gave Dog an episodic quality where Briggs and Bella got into various misadventures on their three-day journey.

Dog was a story about two lost souls who end up finding solace with each other. Briggs and Bella were both damaged physically and mentally by their experience in war. They hated each other but as the film progresses they grow to like each other. Briggs must deal with Bella’s naughty dog antics like destroying a car seat or Bella trying to jump out of a moving car. Pet owners can relate to some of these issues since their dog or cat would have done things like this. But in Bella’s case it was a sign of much deeper trauma. Whilst Briggs denies he’s suffering PTSD it was obvious he was suffering mentally, as well as physically because he constantly was plying himself with drink, going out on the pull, and was having nightmares.

This leads to Dog looking at wider issues, looking at the lives of veterans after their time of service. Briggs is someone who thinks all he can do is serve because army life was all he knows, and he was desperate to return to the frontline. On his journey to New Mexico he meets veterans where he could see two paths his life could go down. He could fall down a hole of drink, drugs, and homelessness, or settle down and have a normal life. But even having a normal life would be difficult because he would have to work hard and face his demons.

This theme gives Dog its heart. The film is tackling a serious issue by looking at the life of veterans and is poignant because of America’s recent history. There have been many men and women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and a portion of them have mental and physical injuries. A lot of these people have a long road to recovery, and some must accept they have a problem before they can move on. This was the case for Briggs since he thinks he is okay despite the fact he is having to take prescription medication and with people telling Briggs he needs to get help. Yet the army was all Briggs knew and like many veterans there’s a struggle to transition to civilian life.

Dog also aimed to be a comedy. There were many incidents and situations that aimed to induce laughter. Some were small like Briggs’ army buddies playing a prank on him and Bella’s naughty dog antics. There were also big incidents like Briggs trying to scam himself a free hotel room and the most bizarre moment was when it looked like the film was going to re-enact Deliverance and Pulp Fiction. As a comedy it was mildly amusing but as the film progressed it turned more and more serious as it took a deeper look into its themes.

Dog was a film that leaned towards conservatism. Military issues tend to be more of an interest to conservatives. This conservative approach was most evident when Briggs and Bella were in Portland. Portland has a reputation for being a Mecca for liberal, millennial hipsters and many of the characters in the city were made out to be stereotypes. Briggs goes to a bar that only served microbrew beers and all the women he tried to chat up talked about the industrial-military complex that he was a part of.. Two women he finally did hook up with were hippies who were into spiritualism and one of the residents even called Briggs a redneck. It seemed like Ben Sharpio made this portion of the film.

Tamara (Jane Adams) and Gus (Kevin Nash) were portrayed a lot more sympathetically. They were aging hippies who grew weed and were also into spiritualism, but they weren’t self-centred and were kind towards Briggs and Bella. Plus, Briggs was willing to partake in recreational drug use with them.

In my screening of Dog there were a lot of families. Many most of whom assumed it was going to be a cute, fun film about a man and a naughty dog. But Dog was not meant for family viewing. It was a film that looked at the subjects of war, racism, and mental health issues had the major characters going to a cannabis farm, and showed Brigg’s drinking, taking drugs, and nearly having a threesome.

Dog was a well-intended film because of the themes about veterans and it was a perfectly solid offering. However, it was a tonally confused film. The mix of comedy and drama ended up undermining the message.