I hadn't seen A Boy And His Dog for a while. I decided to watch it and after the movie played out I listened to the commentary with director L Q Jones, cinematographer John Morrill, and film critic Charles Champlin. The commentary came from the 1996 laserdisc. It's pretty chattey and they talk about a little of everything. I have the 1999 dvd from Slingshot which comes in a weird clear plastic clamshell like case. They don't use them anymore. I'm sure they were costly to make, heavy to ship, and easy to break. There's not much on the dvd by way of extras besides the commentary. There are a couple of trailers, one for the release, and one for the re-release. The movie looks ok to me, better than the laserdisc. I had a copy of the laserdisc but it was warped and I got rid of it. It's a 1975 movie that's based on a Harlan Ellison story of the same name. I read the story back when I read some Harlan Ellison. That was about the time the movie came out. I read some Harlan short stories which I had mixed feelings about. I enjoyed his novel The Juvies, a gang story of the 50's. His collection of articles on tv was called The Glass Teat and I enjoyed suckin' on that. I didn't enjoy the second volume nearly as much but many years had past between volumes and I had changed. I had seen some of his tv and movie work before and after I knew who he was. Ellison wrote the scripts to Demon with a Glass Hand for the Outer Limits and The City on The Edge of Forever for the original Star Trek series. Both are highly thought of. Both are very good. More recently he worked on Babylon 5. Even better and more highly thought of, at least in this house. I used to like seeing Harlan as a guest on Tom Snyder's last talk show, The Late Late Show, back in the late late 90's. Used to be some good conversation on that show. It's the show Craig Kilborn took over, leaving The Daily Show free to hire Jon Stewart. What a stroke of luck.
There's not much luck in the dark bleak world of an alternate future. It's 2024 and Vic (the boy) is a 18 year old kid who lives by what little wits he has in the post apocalyptic wastelands of the American southwest. He's pretty close to Topeka Kansas. The few people on the surface live a crappy life. There are little groups of people, banding together to find and protect their food. They trade with travellers who cross the desolate wasteland. Vic is a solo, meaning he's all by his lonesome, hunting for food and pussy. Blood (the dog) is a rover. He's a telepathic dog who only talks to Vic. He's also smarter than Vic, certainly more well read, but not really much more moral. He sniffs out danger and finds the women knowing full well what's going to happen. Women aren't protected very well in this alternate future hellscape. The movie has taken a lot of heat for that but it just isn't the issue for me. I believe the movie tells the deep dark truth about humans. "Not very nice, ate the fish." That's A Douglas Adams joke. Of course I've just been emersed in the 3rd season of Deadwood all weekend and I'm pretty much thinkin' bleak thoughts. The two stories are odly compatable. They both have the theme of building community and the corruptions that occur when performing that deed. In Deadwood the community is made up of men from other communities who desire to bring that commodity to the lawless camp. In ABAHD too many of the community are still in the enjoyin' murder stage. At least on the surface. In the one underground community we see, the people live a ridged life of servitude to the committee. Two of the committee appear in the forms of Jason Robards and producer Alvy Moore. I mostly remember Alvy as the wacky, weird talkin' County Agent from Green Acres. The underground city of Topeka is where the bait comes from. Quilla June Holmes, cute and blond, played by Susanne Benton, is the bait. Don Johnson playsVic, and Blood is a dog named Tiger, who also appeared on The Brady Bunch. After a bit of shooting, and the naughty bits of Miss Quilla June, Vic is lured into the underground city of Topeka There he learns he has to get 35 women pregnant. Wowie! Now you know anything that good has to have a big ass catch. Yessiree. Vic is strapped down and plugged into a mansize milking machine. Once the gals are knocked up he'll be knocked off. Yeow! It's no paradise in Kansas, not any more. Conform or die. That might be better than just to die on the surface. Vic doesn't think so and he bolts. Poor little Quilla June, head of the secret revolution to take over the committee, heads after him when her scheme fails. So much like the characters on Deadwood with their schemes and plans. And like so many of those unlucky souls Quilla June comes to a sad end as an animal's dinner. Vic and Blood walk off into the sunset. L Q Jones says that the sequel would have picked up right after that freeze frame. Vic would be shot dead by a girl and Blood would become her dog. The movie is no masterpiece but it's well made and there are good actors in it and they do a good job. Most of them were amateurs, men, women and children from the local military in California where it was shot. It's well worth seeing. I think it's impact is lessened by the time past since it creation but it still holds up pretty well for repeated viewings.
While the sequel was never made, the dog died before they could, the story of Vic and Blood continued in a 2 issue comic book series that Richard Corben illustrated in 1987. In the comic Vic is eaten by a giant bug. Blood escapes to live another day. I've read it that comic a couple of times but I can't remember anything much about it. I see flashes of the Richard Corben art in my noggin but I'm not so interested in the story. I've been a fan of Corben since 1969. That was back in the days he did underground comix. He later moved into working for more mainstream comic companies. The 2 Vic and Blood comic books were collected a couple of years later into the paperback on the left. You can't get a copy cheap anymore. The book on the right came out in 2003 and is still available. The newer editon has a newer short story by Ellison. I read that and don't remember anything about that either. The Corben art is pretty entertaining. I do enjoy his style. Maybe I should dig out that pile of his stuff to look at again. Oh, damn, where's the time.
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