MovieChat Forums > White Dog (1982) Discussion > Could this still be made today?

Could this still be made today?


This film, which Paramount deemed too controversial for release, is about an unnamed German Shepherd that is trained by his previous, racist owner to attack black people.

After a young woman almost runs the dog over, she adopts him without realizing this important fact. The dog goes on a African-American killing spree and the woman's boyfriend, who is black, tries to cure him of his trainer-caused mental defect.

In the end, the dog is accidentally trained to start killing white people instead of black people and is shot. The movie rights were bought by NBC for an edited TV broadcast but they canceled the plan when the NAACP, advertisers and viewers were outraged. In fairness, the movie was intended as an examination of racism as a mental disease, but that message was lost.

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"the woman's boyfriend"

He wasn't a boyfriend. Just an animal trainer.

Good film and a proof that something interesting pops through the Hollywood production line from time to time. Too bad that americans can't see it.

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Spoiler Warning--
First thing, you should put a spoiler warning when you tell, even vaguely what a movie is about. Not everyone has seen the movie. As to your question, yes it could be made today but only if it was not too violent. Second, the black trainer was not the boyfriend of the adoptive dog owner. Third, the dog was not accidentally trained by the black man to attack whites. The dog was already mentally unstable and unfortunately became even more so after being retrained.

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