I was aware of the 1975 sci-fi picture A Boy and His Dog decades before braving it. It just happens to be coincidence I finally watched it in 2024, the year in which the film takes place.
What I had already known about the movie is it is a post-apocalyptic tale told with a harsh, satirical edge. That I can handle. The more unpleasant aspect of the film is our protagonist, when he’s not looking for food, is looking for women to rape. Those goals are not always in the same order of priority.
Sexual violence is one of those things that has to be handled very carefully in a story to not repel me completely. I’m not sure how that material could be appropriately presented, but I guess I was hoping for something like the manner Vonnegut handled ugly subjects in his books.
The source was by respected sci-fi author Harlan Ellison, but then he also wrote the screenplay for 1966’s legendarily bad The Oscar, for whatever that’s worth. The action takes place after World War IV, which was an all-out nuclear war lasting five days.
It apparently was a rather psychedelic affair, with highly solarized footage of mushroom clouds. I missed out on WWIII, but we’re filled in on that, and other historical events, in the endless quizzing Johnson endures from Blood, the dog who is his only constant companion (voiced by Tim McIntire). You see, Blood is one unusually intelligent pooch and he can communicate with Johnson, and seemingly only Johnson, telepathically. In addition to the amazing sense of smell canines possess, he seems to also have a psychic ability to detect people nearly, and there is a sonar ping sound accompanying the use of that sense.
But Blood spends most of his time finding women for Johnson to violate. That appears to be the primary focus of the survivors in this film. Even in an encampment we see that seems to be the last vestige of civilization in the area, the only movies shown are old stag reels.
In the opening scene, Blood has led Johnson to where a woman is in a shelter at the base of a sand pit. Other raiders arrived before him and they have already gang raped and murdered the unfortunate woman. Johnson is depressed only because “she probably had two or three more uses in her.” Ah, the compassion of the post-apocalyptic world.
Admittedly, there have been several other movies and novels of this genre which have had sexual assault as a plot element, but not to the extent of this one. The first that comes to mind for me are the first two Mad Max films.
When they are not otherwise occupied, Blood is trying to convince Johnson to find a paradise called Over The Hill. Not sure how Blood heard of this, or why he believes it exists. Also, I once again thought of the Mad Max series, specifically the equally apocryphal Green Place.
It is doubtful Over The Hill exists, but right under their feet at all times is an isolated bubble of civilization called Down Under. The entrances to it are controlled by key-card access at doors that are highly visible at the surface. I am still wondering why somebody didn’t just break into one of those gateways using explosives or simply plowing through one with a large vehicle.
Johnson will be lured into Down Under through a honey trap involving Susanne Benton. Among the elements of this film I least believed is how her underwear is gleaming white. That may be possible in the underground world she’s from, but I doubt they could stay that clean after even an hour in the vast desert that is the surface world.
The Down Under is revealed to also be a deeply unpleasant place, but it is one where a very strictly controlled populace struggles to maintain what they believe was once the American dream. If these people were around today, I am sure they would all be wearing hats saying “Make American Great Again”. The result is like a very strict HOA gone mad with power. Also, for no reason I could discern, everybody wears thick pancake makeup with comically rouged cheeks. You know you’re in trouble when you encounter a society where everybody is made up like clowns.
I seriously disliked A Boy and His Dog. The idea that the survivors of a nuclear war would be primarily interested in rape is preposterous. If it is a metaphor, I’m lost as to what it says about society at the time. The best I can say about this picture is I was glad when it was over, just so I wouldn’t have to spend any more time with it.
Dir: L.Q. Jones
Starring Don Johnson, Jason Robards, Susanne Benton
Watched on Shout Factory blu-ray