Blood, Sweat and Jeers

Sure, terrorism, climate change and economic collapse are pretty scary, but today’s worst-case scenarios have nothing on the nightmares of yesteryear. Take, for example, A Boy and His Dog, a 1975 Hugo Award-winning film based on a Harlan Ellison novella. In a world ravaged by nuclear war, a boy named Vic — played by an impossibly young-looking Don Johnson — wanders the wasteland with his companion, a telepathic dog named Blood, in search of food and sexual companionship. Aboveground, chaos, violence and extreme scarcity are the norm, but Vic manages well enough, thanks to Blood, until he is lured into the “Down Under” by a pretty girl named Quilla. Below the surface, he finds a totalitarian society called Topeka, run by the iron-fisted Committee, which enslaves Vic for the purpose of repopulating society.

It’s an entertaining movie with a nice blend of action, wry social commentary and black humor, and it moves along at a good clip. It does have its flaws, though, namely some lackluster action sequences and a distasteful thread of misogyny that runs through the story. But they don’t drag things down too much, and despite its obscurity, the film is well worth the time for fans of thoughtful science fiction.

Catch this cult classic tonight at 7 and 9 p.m. at Muenzinger Auditorium on the University of Colorado campus in Boulder. Tickets are $6, or $5 for CU-Boulder students with ID; for more info, visit www.internationalfilmseries.com or call 303-492-1531.
Wed., Feb. 11, 7 & 9 p.m., 2009