Dog Eat Dog
Directed by: Paul Schrader.
Written by: Matthew Wilder based on
the novel by Edward Bunker.
Starring: Nicolas Cage (Troy),
Willem Dafoe (Mad Dog), Christopher Matthew Cook (Diesel), Omar J. Dorsey (Moon
Man), Louisa Krause (Zoe), Melissa Bolona (Lina), Reynaldo Gallegos (Chepe),
Chelcie Melton (Sheila), Bruce Reizen (Maurie), Ali Wasdovich (Melissa), Louis
Perez (Mike Brennan), Magi Avila (Nanny), Paul Schrader (El Greco).
The
opening scene of Paul Schrader’s Dog Eat Dog is far and away the best part of
the movie – mainly because it’s so weird, so strange and told completely
without context, that you cannot help but be drawn in. In it, Willem Dafoe
plays Mad Dog – completely high out of his mind on drugs (hence the crazy color
scheme Schrader shoots in), embroiled in a domestic squabble with his
girlfriend – who doesn’t want him there, but then relents – and then kicks him
out again when she discovers he has been looking at internet porn. Mad Dog then
lives up to his name, and murders not only his girlfriend but her teenage
daughter, for no real reason. It’s all so strange, you cannot look away.
Unfortunately,
the rest of the movie is nowhere near that entertaining – and the film is
pretty much a grim slog from there on. It turns out that Mad Dog isn’t even the
main character of this film – that’s Troy (Nicolas Cage), the leader of a trio
of ex-cons including Mad Dog and Diesel (Christopher Matthew Cook), out of jail
for the first time in years, and trying to make a living. We see them doing
nickel and dime stuff – robbing a drug dealer for example – before they are
given a chance to earn some real. A gangster owes another gangster $4 million,
and won’t pay. He is willing to give Troy and company $750K to kidnap his 1
year old son and hold him for ransom. Troy knows immediately this is a dumb
idea – and so does Diesel. Mad Dog doesn’t know much of anything – he’s
basically a puppy dog, as likely to like your face as bite you – but they agree
to do it anyway. Why? Because, if they don’t, there isn’t a movie. Or perhaps because
this is a Paul Schrader movie – and his characters often engage in missions
they know aren’t likely to work out. The difference is in most of his films,
there is a reason they do it anyway – here, not so much.
Schrader,
of course, is the talented screenwriter – known for some of his work with
Martin Scorsese – Taxi Driver, The Last Temptation of Christ and Bringing Out
the Dead for example, who has also had a fine directing career stretching back
to the 1970s that touch on some of the same ground as his films with Scorsese,
even if they are less well known. Schrader has always had more trouble getting
his films made, and more fights with studios even when he does. For instance,
he was replaced on the Exorcist prequel after he made the whole movie – and
Renny Harlin was brought into re-shoot it. His version: Dominion: Prequel to
the Exorcist was eventually released – and while it was better than what Harlin
made, it wasn’t very good. Recently, he told everyone not see Dying of the
Light (2014) – also starring Cage – because the film was taken away from him,
re-edited, etc. His highly publicized film, The Canyons, with Lindsay Lohan and
porn star James Deen (pre-rape allegations) didn’t do much to revitalize
anyone’s career.
Dog
Eat Dog won’t do that either. The film kind of feels like all those countless
Tarantino clones we all suffered through for about 10 years after Pulp Fiction
– as the film is trying to be funny, and perhaps a little bonkers and insane,
but never gets there. The film’s treatment of women borders on misogynistic –
they are basically seen as little more than sex objects – either uncaring or
stupid (there is one exception – a woman Diesel talks into coming back to his
room, but then doesn’t know what to do with). The plan, of course, goes
completely awry – and the end devolves into violence, as we know it must. But
while that is common for a Schrader film, I don’t think he ever really figures
out the tone of the movie. From the get go, Willem Dafoe seems to have decided
to be the batshit crazy one, which means Nicolas Cage tries to play his
character as more normal – which hurts the end of the film, when all of a
sudden, he’s going a little nuts again. Schrader excels as a downbeat tone and
energy – an air of inevitability, than the films end where they must, and happy
endings were never possible. The problem is he’s stuck trying to make a bonkers
exploitation film, and doesn’t really know how to do it.
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