White God: Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
When young Lili is forced to give up her beloved dog Hagen because its mixed-breed heritage is deemed “unfit” by The State, she and the dog begin a dangerous journey back towards each other. At the same time, all the unwanted, unloved and so-called “unfit” dogs rise up under a new leader, Hagen, the one-time house pet who has learned all too well from his “Masters” in his journey through the streets and animal control centers how to bite the hands that beats him.
I’m sure there are plenty of people out there that have had to part with a pet at some point or another. Well this film takes that moment and makes it heartbreaking but at the same time makes it so interesting to watch. Lili makes a promise to her dog that she’s going to find him and it you see the journey of them both getting back to each other. The journey turns very dark (and honest) when you start to see Hagens’ perspective. You see him being picked up by someone and get mistreated. He’s trained and beaten in order to become a fighting dog which is really painful to watch and it’s the turning point for the rest of the movie. It’s impressive how they were able to capture emotions from a dog without having to have any dialogue at all. From there you see the dog head to a pound and basically become the leader of the other dogs there. As soon as that happened I figured the next step would be a complete bloodbath but instead we saw deaths that happened off camera and lots (like a whole lot) of dogs running the streets. That was kind of cool to see in itself because of the task that it most likely was the herd all of the dogs. My wife is terrified of dogs and all I could think of how much she would hate this movie…Haha! This was a way different kind of movie than what I’m used to seeing and I will warn you that some of the content will make you cringe quite a bit of you’re a dog lover but it’s a must watch for sure. 8/10
Special Features:
Behind the Scenes of White God – A really good BTS feature that shows rehearsals of the canines and interviews with the cast and crew of the film.
Interview with Writer/Director Kornel Mundruczó – He talks a bit about the troubles that came about when he told investors that he would be using real dogs in the film and his other experiences on set.
Interview with Animal Coordinator/Technical Advisor Teresa Ann Miller – She discusses having to use twin dogs for Hagen and other challenges having to use so many dogs at once.
