It's a Dog's Life

I happened to stumble upon this movie late at night, airing on TMC. I started watching, thinking it would be an entertaining, old movie that would be amusing if not a little silly. What I found was greatly offensive material that promotes violence towards dogs and women. Sure, this may be an old movie with dated opinions of the treatment (or more accurately, mistreatment) of animals and women. However, movies like this should not be shown on basic cable, guised under the title of "entertainment". Not only does it show dogfighting in a glamorous light, it shows extreme violence against women, in a "comedic" setting. This movie perpetuates the stereotypes of pit bull terriers as being violent, nasty animals that should be discriminated against, banned for ownership, or put to death. Animal abuse is not funny, nor should it be the basis for a comedy movie.

I love this film! I watch it all the time. The story is presented from the dogs point of view. It has some witty jokes. I love it for the wonderful acting out the animals in the film.

Wildfire is the Rocky Balboa of bull terriers. This fantasy film does not promote dog fighting, dog abuse or violence again women. Those elements are part of the challenges that the dog experiences in his rags to riches life. The narrator doesn't sound like Vic Morrow and the narration is flat and monotone. This is not a film for very young children as they may find some (non-graphic) scenes disturbing.

I loved this movie. I thought it was very well done and handled sensitive material like dog fighting well considering it was 1955 and was not really very graphic. That was only a small part of the film as well. The cast was excellent and the dog voice -over for Wildfire had just the right touch. Overall it was a very appealing story with nice pieces of emotion. I recommend it highly.

A bull terrier recounts his rise from the dirty waterfront bowery of New York City to dog fights to kindly stable hand Jeremiah Edward Emmett Augustus Nolan (Edmund Gwenn)'s dog in a rich man's estate. When the master orders the dog to leave, his daughter makes him a bet that the dog would win the big dog show. This is as good as many of the 70's doggie movies. Instead of having two contests, it would be nice to make it all about one contest. Then there is the daddy issues. I would rather skip that. It's not laid out well enough for it to be a good story element. There could be more done with the training section and the dog show itself. This is nice even if it drags a little towards the end.

Great movie. Shows why dogs are precious. I would definitely recommend this movie to people with children. Movies like this do not come along that often and so they should be treasured.