SCI-FI MOVIE PAGE PICK: A BOY AND HIS DOG 

Directed by L.Q. Jones. Written by L.Q. Jones (based on the novella by Harlan Ellison). 1975. Running time: 87 minutes.

Definition of cult movies: movies outside the mainstream which audiences "get" or simply don't. There are no in-betweens, no "it wasn't too bad" or something like that. 2001 - A Space Odyssey is a good example. With its almost universal critical adoration you'd think that everybody likes this movie: they don't. You either get it or you don't . . .

A movie the South African video distributors never really "got" was A Boy And His Dog. I first saw this 1975 movie more than 15 years ago on the under the title of Apocalypse 2024. Its cover sported a picture of a nuclear bomb explosion - but sans the smiley face motif of the film's international publicity material (see picture on this page). Recently I have been meaning to track down a copy of the movie again, along with some other 1970s sci-fi favourites such as Silent Running, which I also haven't seen for quite a while, but I simply never got round to it.

So imagine my surprise when I saw a copy of the movie for sale on video for a measly R10 at Cash Converters! (Some clarification: Cash Converters is an upmarket pawnshop franchise in South Africa. Unfortunately such pawnshops have proliferated lately as the country's economic condition worsened. Some of these shops are also, I suspect, a clearinghouse for stolen goods - you can buy anything there, from big screen TVs and VCRs to CDs and household appliances. My wife and I were looking for a mountain bike for her. I have recently taken up the sport and she has indicated an interest in joining me. US$1 equals R6. R10 equals one British pound. R10 gets you one packet of cigarettes with some R2's of change. A movie ticket costs you R18, a video rental R13 - so you can understand my reaction at buying a video for R10.)

This newer video copy (which I immediately bought) gave the movie's correct title, but you'd be excused for thinking it to be some kind of soft porn movie instead of the cult science fiction classic it is. The cover features photographs of a half-dressed woman, a man bearing what seems to be a machine gun lurking in the shadows and a shaggy dog hanging around. None of the cover photographs are from the actual movie itself. The plot blurb on the cover is accurate, but uses the word "kinky" a lot.

Sci-fi video cheapie or soft porn? Neither really. Although made for very cheap A Boy and His Dog is much better than most of the dreck like Nemesis, Cyborg and so forth that inexplicably (who wants to actually watch it?) make their way to our videoshop shelves. In fact the movie is an early example of independent filmmaking, long before Sundance. It is based on a novella of the same name by cantankerous sci-fi author Harlan Ellison. (You need to be told who Ellison is? Okay, besides writing some of the best sci-fi/fantasy short stories there is, an old Outer Limits episode he also wrote provided the inspiration for The Terminator. He also served as script advisor on the Babylon 5 TV series.)

It's about a young guy named Vic (played by a stubble-less pre-Miami Vice Don Johnson) and his telepathic dog (named Blood) roaming a post-apocalyptic landscape that seems to be populated by viscous gangs primarily intent on finding food and women to rape in their spare time. Vic and Blood also partake in this particular pastime. It shouldn't come as a surprise that director George Miller admitted that A Boy and His Dog served as his main inspiration for his Mad Max (1979) and Road Warrior (1981) movies. You might not have guessed it from the above scenario, but A Boy and his Dog is actually a black humoured affair. The film derives most of its humour from the repartee between Vic and his dog (the dog is more intelligent than he is).

Along the way the movie scores makes some salient points on human nature. But the film's best pay-off isn't until the very last few minutes of its running time. If you shut off your VCR before the end, it'd be like missing the punch line of a joke. Although Ellison didn't write the screenplay himself, the movie is apparently very faithful to his novella although he didn't write the last lines of dialogue. However, Ellison apparently (uncharacteristically) approved of the movie.

A Boy and his Dog is everything good sci-fi is about. It is a provocative tale - but one that many people won't get. What count most against the movie are its poor production values. The movie was made on an obviously low budget and even for a post-apocalyptic scenario, the sets and costumes look cheap. The sound is also not of very good quality either and some scenes seems jumbled because of poor editing. Also, some night scenes are very underlit so that it is difficult to follow the action. Some scenes towards the end are simply bizarre.

However, if you're a serious SF buff, then you'll probably look past the film's weaknesses and "get" what made the movie the definite cult classic it is. You'd be willing to pay much than R10 to own a copy of it . . . (If you don't "get it", then it'd be difficult to explain what it was you didn't get.)

(Useless trivia: Blood is played by Tiger the Dog, which happen to be the dog owned by TV's original Brady Bunch. There's something very ironic about that  . . .)

Copyright © April 2000  James O'Ehley/The Sci-Fi Movie Page