A Dog's Purpose (2017)/Dog's Journey (2019)/Dog's Way Home (2019) (1 Viewer)

[Mike Frezon]

And it looks like Alastair just had a haircut before the big photo got taken!

Thanks so much, Tino! The picture has been sent on to my wife...who LOVES it. I'll post the link here when she uses it!

 

[Mike Frezon]

And thanks for bumping the thread.

We are just about A WEEK AWAY from the film's premiere. I hope you liked the Cameron books, Tino!

Trailer #2:



And a clip from the film:

 

[Malcolm R]

Possible problem brewing?

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/18/entertainment/a-dogs-purpose-disturbing-video/index.html

 

[Robert Crawford]

Possible problem brewing?

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/18/entertainment/a-dogs-purpose-disturbing-video/index.html

I hope not as I'm going to see this film anyway.

 

[Mikael Soderholm]

Had completely missed/ignored this, as I usually don't like Lasse Hallström movies, but then I watched that trailer ... shouldn't have done it at work. Now I need to get the books and check out when this will come to Stockholm.

After reading up some, I just realised there is one other Hallström movie that I liked, Hachiko, go figure
Thanks for the tip.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Possible problem brewing?

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/18/entertainment/a-dogs-purpose-disturbing-video/index.html

This concerns me. Haven't seen the video, but if it's true that cruelty was involved in the filming of the movie, it won't see it. Note that I said "if".

 

[Mark Booth]

Possible problem brewing?

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/18/entertainment/a-dogs-purpose-disturbing-video/index.html

I found and watched the TMZ video. If what I saw was truly shot during the making of 'A Dog's Purpose', I certainly won't be going to see the film.

If you don't want to see a dog going under the water in a turbulent pool of water and potentially coming very close to drowning, don't watch the video. If you don't want to watch a dog being practically forced to get into the turbulent pool when it is very clear the dog is afraid to jump in, don't watch the video.

http://www.tmz.com/2017/01/18/a-dogs-purpose-german-shepherd-is-okay-not-forced-to-film/

Mark

 

[TravisR]

This concerns me. Haven't seen the video, but if it's true that cruelty was involved in the filming of the movie, it won't see it. Note that I said "if".

From the way that TMZ is touting it, I was expecting Michael Vick's home movies and this is not that. The dog is scared and they force it into a large tank of running water (presumably simulating a running river). Everyone can make their own decision about it but I would say that while it's not a nice thing to do to an animal, I can't see saying that it's cruel. The pool is padded & protected for all humans and animals, it's likely heated since it's Winnepeg in November and unless they're totally crazy, the Humane Society was definitely on set and apparently didn't have a problem with the situation or they'd have shut it down.

I realize that I'm making a number of assumptions but they're all reasonable assumptions to make.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I've seen the TMZ video. There's two clips. Both cut away just before anything happens. This makes me think that it was edited for effect.

I'm at a place in my life where I doubt most anything I see/hear in instances like this. Groups like PETA have lost any credibility with me through some of its positions on other issues.

And, Cameron (the book author) has issued an "I'm looking into this" statement last night.

My only advice here is not to rush to judgment.

 

[Mark Booth]

I believe the filmmakers when they say they didn't continue to force the dog to film at that particular moment. But the video makes it very clear the dog was frightened and reluctant at the time the video was shot. If that was a small child struggling to stay out of the water, being held by a collar around his neck, nobody would disagree that it was cruelty.

Amblin needs to release raw video of the same dog willfully jumping into that turbulent pool during a different shoot. (And I don't mean the actual film footage.) They say they practiced several times, let us see it. And the water better be just as turbulent as the TMZ video.

That's the only thing that will convince me this film might be something I want to see.

Mark

 

[Mark Booth]

The American Humane Association employee that was responsible for monitoring the filming has been suspended:

http://www.nbc26.com/news/national/video-shows-possible-animal-abuse-on-the-set-of-a-dogs-purpose

Mark

 

[Mark Booth]

The film's producer, Gavin Polone, an animal rights activist himself, is outraged too.

http://deadline.com/2017/01/a-dogs-purpose-peta-boycott-drowning-dog-1201889236/

Mark

 

[TravisR]

I've seen the TMZ video. There's two clips. Both cut away just before anything happens. This makes me think that it was edited for effect.

Exactly. TMZ isn't in the journalism game, they're in the get-website-hits game. The portion that is edited could show the dog calming down and then performing as they wanted. That's something that TMZ wouldn't show because then it's a non-story and they don't get website hits.

Once again, everyone is entitled to their own opinion though.

 

[Malcolm R]

Regardless of the reality, the perception alone may be enough to affect the box office, especially given the links above about AHA suspending their monitor and one of the film's own producers speaking out.

 

[Alf S]

If it does mess with the box office, odds are it will recoup nicely via streaming and DVD rental market.

 

[Mark Booth]

There is most definitely "reality" in that TMZ video. Hercules clearly didn't want to get into that turbulent water and the attempts to force him in should have stopped MUCH sooner than it did. I think the film's producer is pretty qualified to interpret the video:

“I’m horrified by this,” said Polone. “The first thing I asked was, ‘Is the dog OK?’ He’s fine. But if I had seen that, I would have stopped it in a minute. People have to be held responsible for this. It was someone’s job to watch out for this kind of thing. Why didn’t they? This is something I’ve written about before, whether it be circus animals or animals on set. American Humane are supposed to be there supervising. That’s their job that someone is paid a lot of money to do. Why wasn’t this stopped?"

What the video DID show was enough to upset him. Not sure why anyone would be okay with what is shown in that video, regardless if the dog eventually jumped in the water of his own free will.

What I need to see is raw video of the dog jumping into the same type of turbulent water of his own free will during rehearsals. That would prove that the TMZ video is sort of an anomaly. And if the dog had done it freely multiple times in rehearsal, that would help explain a little bit of why they kept shooting during that TMZ scene (hey, he did it before, why not now).

The various articles are spreading on social media like wildfire. Amblin & Universal had better get out in front of this FAST. Otherwise, this film is probably doomed at the box office.

Mark

 

[Mike Frezon]

Alistair says thanks Mike.

View attachment 36072

Tino: Check THIS out!

 

[Tino]

Awesome Mike![emoji106]

 

[TravisR]

What I need to see is raw video of the dog jumping into the same type of turbulent water of his own free will during rehearsals. That would prove that the TMZ video is sort of an anomaly. And if the dog had done it freely multiple times in rehearsal, that would help explain a little bit of why they kept shooting during that TMZ scene (hey, he did it before, why not now).

The problem is that the crew member who sold the video to TMZ won't come forward with an unedited copy of the video because no one is going to hire them again if they're a known snitch.

Regardless of the reality, the perception alone may be enough to affect the box office, especially given the links above about AHA suspending their monitor and one of the film's own producers speaking out.

Yeah but both responses are to an edited video. Like you said, the perception is all that matters though and the Humane Society, in an effort to maintain their own reputation, had to suspend their representative but if the video had shown the entire situation, the rep may have done nothing wrong.

 

[Mark Booth]

The video we've seen CLEARLY shows that Hercules does not want to get into the water. The clip at the end showing him going under the water, while not at all pleasant, is actually of less immediate concern to me than the first part. The dog doesn't want to get in the water in the first place and the attempts to convince him to get into the water go on for far too long.

For me, the editing is irrelevant. I see the two clips within the video as two separate videos. Neither one of them are great but the first one CLEARLY shows animal abuse. If Hercules later freely jumped into the water on his own and that is what led to him going under the water in the second part of the TMZ clip it does NOT negate the abuse that occurred in the first part of the TMZ clip.

Mark