The Plague Dogs

Director Martin Rosen tore out our hearts in the late seventies with his filmed adaptation of Richard Adams' Watership Down.  It remains one of my favorite animated features.  It is a rough, brutal, greatly disturbing drama that would certainly prove troubling for children.  Some have charged that Adams despised them, in fact.  That thought may be strengthened by 1982's THE PLAGUE DOGS, which was again adapted from his novel by Rosen.  Animals are likewise again the protagonists, though this time their enemies are human beings.  This film may well be even more difficult viewing than the previous.

Two dogs, Rowf and Snitter, are captives in an experimental lab in England.  The former is subjected to daily drownings and revivals, while the latter has had vivisections on his brain, leaving him often unable to distinguish fantasy from reality.  One night, an unlatched cage allows the duo freedom from a certain grim fate, only to face another in the wilderness, where food is not shoved in their faces each day.  Their impairments and sensitivity to the elements only make matters worse, though curiously they face no predators. Of the animal variety.  This is no accident in Adams' (who adapted his novel) tale, as farmers, the "white coats" from the facility, the media, and the military will fill those roles more than adequately as the dogs are hunted down, eventually believed to be carrying diseases.  It's telling that we never really get a good look at the humans' faces.

Along the way Rowf and Snitter meet The Tod, a cunning fox who assists them in trapping sheep and chickens.  Unfortunately, a few humans also (accidentally, though because of the dogs) die and the canines may now as well be Public Enemies #1.

THE PLAGUE DOGS marches forward grimly, rarely offering any sense of hope.  The dogs often seem ready to accept death, and their words are not the kind ordinarily heard in an animated feature, though this is far from Disney fare, even the darker kind.  The animation here is quite stunning (Brad Bird, quite early in his career, was a contributor in this U.S./Brit production). Rosen moves the camera skillfully in this barren landscape, often making it feel like a live action feature.  The sophistication of the work here may even surpass WATERSHIP DOWN in some ways.

And it is crushingly sad.  I am getting more sensitive in my old age but I can't imagine not having a strong reaction to this at any stage of my life, animal lover or otherwise.  And the coup de grace? The voice overs of the human characters, all ineffectual Brits.  Their conversations put a fine point on this devastating movie.