A Boy And His Dog Review

A Boy And His Dog
It is the year 2024, in the aftermath of a nuclear war that has ravaged the planet. Amongst the ruins, a boy scavenges for food and sex, along with his telepathic dog. They stumble upon an underground civilisation which captures them, with plans to use the boy for insemination purposes...

by Kim Newman |
Published on
Release Date:

01 Jan 1975

Running Time:

0 minutes

Certificate:

15

Original Title:

A Boy And His Dog

A gritty, callous and satirical post-apocalypse movie based on the Harlan Ellison story, directed by actor L. Q. Jones.

A young Don Johnson stars as Vic, a wasteland wanderer partnered by a telepathic dog (voiced marvellously by Tim McIntire) who seeks out 'females' and has an enjoyably snippy relationship with his 'master'. The boy is then lured by a girl (Susanne Benton) into servitude as a stud in a ghastly underground community run by folksy tyrant Jason Robards, emblazoned in full and freaky clown make-up.

A true oddball, A Boy And His Dog is now seen in some circles as a fullblown cult sci-fi classic, and certainly its low-key depiction of an apocalyptic aftermath has been fairly influential on other similarly themed movies (Mad Max, etc.), while the interplay between Vic and the dog, Blood, could even be seen as a forerunner of certain buddy movies. Sadly, the film's let down by a horribly heartwarming ending that undoes the previous hour and a half of rampant cynicism.

The execution doesn't quite enliven the premise, but there's still enough enjoyably offbeat moments here to make this one worth digging up.
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