A Dog Called... Vengeance — A Dog Called... Vengeance( Blu Ray)
A Dog Called... Vengeance is a late 1970s Spanish film that brings together several genres in a creative & largely successful manner. It’s a blend of an escape-from-prison action film, a man vs dog thriller, and a taut political drama. Here from Severin is a Blu-Ray reissue of the film- taking in a new scan of the film, and a few worthy extras.
A Dog Called... Vengeance ( aka El Perro, The Dog, Vengeance) is from 1977. It was filmed between Spain & Venezuela- moving between grey swamplands, a cramped and sweaty prison block, beaten down sun mining, to built-up cityscapes & rundown/ overcrowded ghettos.
The film was directed by Madrid-born Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi. Between the mid-1950s and late 1980’s he had seventeen credits to his name. These move between the crime film Relato Policíaco (1954), Spaghetti western Sentencia Contra Una Mujer (1960), Horror sci-fi Assignment Terror(1970), and the documentary Rafael en Raphael (1975) which regarded a famous Spanish singer & his sociological Impact. So, an interesting and versatile filmmaker.
The film is set in an unnamed South American country that is under dictatorship. We open up seeing a moustache prison officer tracking through swamp land with his dog- looking for two escaped prisoners. One is scared in the reeds, while the other runs- the dog bounds after him- mulling/ killing him offscreen.
We then move to an overcrowded prison block. In the office on site is a bedraggled older man, who we are told possesses all the names of those involved in the planned overthrow of the government- the man is thrown out of an upstairs window after being slapped about a bit- he dies.
We then shift to prisoners working on a sun-beaten mine- one of the trucks used to transfer the men nearly slips off the edge of a cliff- meaning that Aristides Ungria (Jason Miller) escapes, and he becomes our main focus, aside from the dog from the beginning which relentless tracks him.
Aristide is a middle-aged mathematician who was wrongly imprisoned a decade or so back- inside his mind is the list of those wanting to overthrow the government, so the film focuses on his escape, evading the dog, and if he’s unable to get the list out of his mind.
The film nicely flows/ shifts from a prison escape adventure, onto a man vs dog thriller, later on adding into political drama. It runs for one hour and fifty- with the whole thing nicely shifting through its genre gears in a well and rewarding manner.
Our two leads Miller and Dog are well placed/ shifting between being pensive, rowed up, cunning and clever. And I’m guessing it’s only one dog, and if so it truly is an amazing animal- swimming, climbing, darting, hiding, and jumping.
A Dog Called... Vengeance is most certainly a very distinctive and original creation- blending action, thriller, and more thoughtful/provocative fare very well.
The region-free Blu-Ray features a nicely clean and crisp 2k scan of the film, with the English subtitles always being easy to read. Equally, the audio is well-balanced- always even between the dialogue and music.
On the extras side, we get three shot-on film/ Spanish with English interviews- and each of these are worth a play. First is A Film Ahead Of Its Time ( 14.10) An Appreciation By Ángel Sala, Head Of Programming At The Sitges Film Festival. He starts off by touching on Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi trilogy of action films That Man In Instanbul (1965), They Came To Rob Las Vagas(1968), and Assignment Terror(1970) which were very popular in Spain & made a name for the director. We find out the film to hand was roughly based on the best-selling novel Como Un Perro-Rabioso by Alberto Vázquez Figueroa. He comments on the use of posters throughout the film brought to mind John Carpenter's They Live. He talks about how the film is about a dictatorship but it’s done in a clever abstract manner. He discusses the great use of editing- which really edges up the tension in the film.
Next, we have Memories Of A Guerilla Woman ( 20.57) with Actress Marisa Paredes. She starts off by talking about how handsome Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi was, and we find out the pair were together for eight years/ had a child together. She talks about how she had to leave her baby for two weeks while shooting, and this was most painful for her. She chats about the difficulty of trying to get funding for the film, and how it was quite expensive for a Spain film. She touches on the dangerous side of the role with stunts, and how she enjoyed the role she played.
Lastly, we have Daughter Of Titans( 13.19) with Marisa Paredes- daughter of director Antonio Isasi. She talks about him being a man who never sat still, always travelling. We find out he had a boat, and was a keen sailor. She says he was a fun man, who loved people and details. He also had a great imagination and was always able to get around issues he came across in filming. We lastly get an original trailer.
A Dog Called... Vengeance is a distinctive & original blend of genres- successfully bringing together an escape-from-prison action film, a man vs dog thriller, and a taut political drama. This new release from Severin features a lovely clean & crisp scan, and a selection of worthy extras.