A Boy and His Dog

REVIEW
Danger After Dark: 3.5 Stars
One of the most offbeat science-fiction films of the 1970’s, A Boy and His Dog remains the only successful feature film adaptation of the work of acclaimed SF writer Harlan Ellison, and the only genre film directed by famed character actor L.Q. Jones. Creating a wholly believable post-apocalyptic environment circa 2024 with a low-budget minimum of production means and a unique emphasis on characterization and social satire, Boy tells the darkly comedic tale of a post-nuke scavenger (Don Johnson) and his dog Blood, who share an interspecies telepathic communication. The duo wander through a ravaged wasteland, ultimately encountering a community that has attempted to recapture the creature comforts of middle-class American life—but not without a price. Suffice to say, it has not only become a dog eat dog world, but also a man eat man world, a dog eat man world, a…you get the picture. Even when viewed within the context of other pessimistic, cautionary future tales advanced by SF films of the 70’s, A Boy and His Dog remains an unpredictable and unclassifiable example of independent science-fiction cinema: an intelligent, witty evocation of social chaos fully realized with a disregard for the genre’s usual pyrotechnics and visual grandeur, complete with a brutally funny ending. A crash collision between Dr. Who and Dr. Strangelove, as well as a clear influence on the Mad Max trilogy, A Boy and His Dog is superlative science fiction for those who prefer ideas over explosions.

TLA Guide Review: 3 Stars
A quirky, sci-fi comedy that envisions a future of roving scavengers and secluded townspeople. A young Johnson, accompanied by his highly intelligent talking dog, enters a surreal world of Americana only to be faced with imprisonment and the spectre of becoming a semen-producing machine for the women of the town. A cult favorite based on Harlan Ellison's WWIII scifi novel.