If you watched A Dog’s Purpose two years ago, you already have a good idea of what to expect from the new sequel, including the corny dialogue, the fabricated plot, and the tense atmosphere.
Oh, you thought A Dog’s Purpose was supposed to be a happy, family-friendly adventure, not a horror movie? Let me remind you, then. The premise of A Dog’s Purpose is that a dog named Bailey is repeatedly reincarnated while attempting to determine his purpose for existence. Inspiring? Perhaps. But over the course of those two hours, this dog also passes away so frequently from various causes—including old age, euthanasia, and even a gunshot wound—that dog lovers in the audience can only watch in dread of what will happen to Bailey next. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement.
This vicious cycle is continued in A Dog’s Journey, where Bailey’s goal is to defend CJ, the granddaughter of his most devoted owner from the first film, Ethan, who is constantly in danger. If you’re going to watch this, you might want to familiarize yourself with all the ways that Bailey dies (or very nearly dies), so you can be sure you’re prepared for every agonizing moment. This proves to be just as harrowing as the events of the original.
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Dogs, war, and of course, dogs who have been in war are all beloved by good Americans. Bad Americans love none of these things. Get that demon seed a dog, preferably one that has been to war, if your child is a budding bad American who ostensibly opposes the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq because it just might teach him to believe in America again.
That is the baseline premise for Max, a bizarre, beguiling “family” movie about an incredible canine war veteran with PTSD whos tethered to a petulant, pinch-faced tween named Justin (Josh Wiggins). Max (whos played by a dog named Carlos) is a Belgian Malinois — a breed of dog that looks somewhat like a German Shepard but appears to be more agile and nimble — and he and Justin are bound together by fate and smell. Justins better-looking and better-liked brother Kyle (Robbie Amell) was Maxs human partner in the Marines, and Justin presumably smells like his brother, so he is able to earn Maxs trust after Kyle dies in combat. Together, Justin and Max navigate Justins puberty, Maxs PTSD, Justins relationship with his grumpy father, Ray (Thomas Haden Church), various encounters with Taliban arms dealers, and the dealings of a Mexican drug cartel that operates in the shadows of a Texas suburb.
“Were just an ocean of pixels in a dogs eyes,” Ray tells his wife, Pamela (Lauren Graham), during the films jagged opening.
It’s a clear invitation for viewers to argue that dog movies—especially those featuring adorable and athletic dogs like Max—are much more glorious than Ray suggests. Unfortunately, his words continue to resonate because there are times in this strange movie when the politics become illogical. It turns into something that resembles a Red State fever dream, full of pro-war sentiment that will make you wish it would disintegrate into a bowl of pixel stew instead of the heartwarming story about a superhuman dog that everyone is really here for.
Max is American Sniper reimagined through the eyes of a dog
The movies director and screenwriter, Boaz Yakin, has said that he wanted to make a film about military working dogs (MWDs), their role in the recent wars America has waged, and the impact of those wars on the dogs. And for about 15 percent of the film, thats what we see. Due to an incident in Kandahar that involves heavy gunfire and results in Kyles death, Max is scared of fireworks and loud noises, and distrusts people. Theres even a powerful (and manipulative) moment where Max howls at Kyles casket, pawing helplessly for his late master.
But despite the multiple pieces of YouTube evidence that millions of people will watch anything involving dogs and war veterans, Yakin wasnt satisfied with Max being just a dog movie. And thats the films biggest problem. Yakin could have created a touching tribute to MWDs, but he ultimately loses that thread in a blaze of fearmongering glory.
The tale that Yakin and fellow screenwriter Sheldon Lettich spin resembles the work of someone who was deeply upset by the tragic ending of American Sniper and reimagined the Bradley Cooper film in a world where the “good guys” win. Yakin isnt content to restrict his star to fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, so he plunks an orphaned Max down near the Texas-Mexico border. In those suburban streets and bucolic forests, an unnamed Mexican drug cartel has bent the minds of the towns most respected individuals in order to obtain military-grade weapons smuggled in from raids on Taliban outposts — and somehow, this all connects back to Max.
It is a huge leap of logic to think that a vicious Mexican drug cartel would need weapons from Afghanistan in particular. It is almost as big as Lauren Graham’s “Texan” accent. But it highlights a straightforward point: Despite the fact that every adult male in this film is armed, Max is the one who must defend this Texas town from an influx of frightening brown people.
Max then turns into an oddly political rant in which Yakin takes potshots at anyone who identifies as being against war, especially liberals and non-Texans. The movie is fixated on the notion that being “good” means obeying orders and the unwavering conviction that America has its citizens’ best interests at heart. No place exists where a bad war and good soldiers can coexist. War cynics like Justin become the films ungrateful villains.
For instance, Justin is a sarcastic little gremlin who complains about Kyle and the Afghanistan War while playing video games in the first half of the film. Justin is wearing a “Murica” T-shirt. Justin’s arrogance is compared to his brother’s bravery — the rebellious adolescent versus the brave soldier making Skype calls to his family from Kandahar.
The movie’s main antagonist (whose identity I won’t reveal) says, “I’m a realist,” as he explains why he believes that the Middle Eastern wars are America’s method of sending its blue-collar workers to fight in support of defense contracts.
It’s telling that the movie chooses to portray its villain as a “realist” rather than an “opportunist” on purpose. It portrays realism as the enemy and, when combined with Justin’s initial anti-war beliefs (before Max teaches him to believe otherwise), makes the good guys the ones who will always trust the US government. The heroes of this story are idealists, and there is no room for an idealist who thinks the Middle Eastern wars were a mistake.
Max, despite his Belgian roots, is a good American. He can spot the bad guys, but once he settles in Texas, he is surrounded by cynical and occasionally evil “realists” who discredit or ignore him. By the end of the movie, I was exhausted and left wondering where cats fit into this world because of Yakins’s tiresome political infusion into Max.
Audiences generally dont like to see dogs die in movies. Many people want to know about a dog’s death in advance, whether it be in Marley and Me or All Dogs Go to Heaven.
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The film’s creative team frequently engages in “dog death brinkmanship” because they are fully aware of this apprehension. As I previously stated, there are numerous occasions when someone draws a gun on Max, but during the course of the movie’s 111 minutes, he also faces other threats. Along the way, he is also threatened by a neighbor, bombed in Afghanistan, bit by a Rottweiler, nearly killed twice (once by the Army and once by the pound), falls off the edge of a cliff in rural Texas, and is imprisoned in a number of cages.
The fact that Max’s death never seems too far away creates a lot of dramatic tension But after someone threatens Max with a gun for the second time, this tension also starts to feel manipulative. Threats to his life are used as cheesy plot devices to jolt you out of your reverie and compel you to pay attention to what is happening on screen rather than because it is particularly significant or even all that shocking.
Yakins’ stated intention to tell a story about the great service that military dogs provide, how devoted they can be, and how violence affects them, too, gets lost in the shuffle of bullets and narrow misses. I’m not sure where the movie went, but what I saw was a bizarre, violent mess.
What breed of dog is Max?
The Warner Brothers/MGM movie Max, which centers on a Belgian Malinois who serves as a military dog, debuts this Friday.