A Boy And His Dog

A Boy And His Dog is a great example of a BSW-SF film - that's Before Star Wars. But you knew that.

This story is not to be confused with A Horse And His Boy, which is C S Lewis and quite different. The year is 2024, a decade since the five day World War IV. Survivors hunt the wastelands for buried caches of tinned goods, which they use for sustenance and currency.

Vic (Don Johnson) is a solo scavenger, who has his psionic dog, Blood (voiced by Tim McIntire), for company. They have a food for sex relationship. No, no... Vic doesn't... The dog sniffs out girls, that is until the girl sniffed turns out to be bait to lure him away from his canine buddy.

The second part of the film is set in the truly surreal Down Under, a subterranean society ruled by a committee of crazy dictators, with the power of summary execution, who slavishly and uncomprehendingly ape 20th century Americana - a bit like today's Republican party.

With a post-apocalypse setting - deserts, service corridors, junk yards at night - the film lacks the vision of Silent Running, or Dark Star, but does share the innocence and humour of the genre films that were made before George Lucas raised the game. Did this film influence Mad Max? Is Hell Comes To Frogtown an homage (the plot is identical)? Or was the subject matter of rape and dictatorial rule, particularly the sting in the tail, too much for Seventies US audiences, thus consigning the film to cult status obscurity?

I like so-bad-it's-good films. If you do too, this rates 4 stars