A review by Brian M Downing
Directors: Channing Tatum and Reid Carolin
Starring: Channing Tatum and three Belgian Malinois
8/10
As a dog lover, I expected to like this. I loved it. Tatum plays a special forces soldier tasked with taking a “spirited” Belgian Malinois service dog, paradoxically named Lulu, on a long journey. (Anyone familiar with this breed knows why I used scare quotes.) Upon completing the mission, Tatum will be considered for reassignment back into his beloved ranger battalion.
Both soldier and dog are dealing with the effects of war service and both are often judged so hardened and potentially violent as to be outcasts in American society. Together they set out from Washington State to Arizona, where the pooch’s former handler is being interred. Tatum delivers his lines with subtle irony, sarcasm, and humorous dishonesty. When trying to score with two women he tells them he loves Shih Tzus. He later tells an MP how much he appreciates their work.
The film is reminiscent of movies pairing characters with personality conflicts, Hope and Crosby, Beatty and Hoffman, and perhaps especially ones involving transporting prisoners like Midnight Run. The pair encounters New Age masseuses, pot-growing hippies, fellow veterans, fake veterans, and various civilians who are completely alien to military life. The film repeatedly contrasts the discipline and sacrifice of soldiers’ lives to the ease and self-indulgence of the outside world. Naturally, human and dog are the better for the trials on the road.
Dog pays homage to several films. An early scene with Lulu in an eerily dark cage and restrained by an elaborate muzzle recalls the dangerous serial killer in Silence of the Lambs and Tatum looks a bit like Halloween’s Michael Myers. Encounters with lefty culture reminded me of The Last Detail. Tatum’s disoriented morning-after parallels Martin Sheen’s in the opening of Apocalypse Now. And the final scene is reminiscent of the closing to Paper Moon where Ryan O’Neal refuses to leave his daughter Tatum behind.
A running gag involves the phrase “Thank you for your service.” It can be sincere and welcome but it’s often a trite and annoying effort by people in the out-group to ingratiate themselves or display rapport with an in-group. I loathe the expression. It’s a token of regret for the excesses of the antiwar movement and a feeble display of patriotism and support for soldiers. I laughed out loud at the film’s ridicule of it. The filmmakers have done us a great service.
©2023 Brian M Downing
Brian M Downing is a national security analyst who’s written for outlets across the political spectrum. He studied at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago, and did post-graduate work at Harvard’s Center for International Affairs. Thanks as ever to fellow Hoya Susan Ganosellis.