OP-ED: Human Privilege And The Bias Against Dog Actors

  Top Left: a rottweiler in Don't Breathe, Top Right: a german shepherd in Desierto, Bottom Center: a pit bull in Green Room

All movies released/being released this year, all movies that feature dogs, of varied breeds, all marginalised as obedient killers.

  We need a movie like a Cujo reboot where an independent killer dog that don't need no man kills indiscriminately, without human commands (albeit due to a bite from a rabid bat)! Thankfully, the wolves in Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping manage to become unleashed and, interestingly enough, kill a man named Seal. That's very interesting.

  I'm sure everyone remembers the original Independence Day and how could we forget the scene in the tunnel where the fireball destroys everything but, AT THE LAST MINUTE, the dog narrowly escapes! He jumps clear out of the way!! Well, Independence Day was directed by Rolland Emmerich, who would go on to direct The Day After Tomorrow and 2012; two movies that also feature dogs narrowly escaping danger. The one movie in Emmerich's Disaster Porn saga to not feature a dog's struggle with fight-or-flight is his 1998 Godzilla remake with Matthew Broderick. What does 'Godzilla' become when you hold it against a mirror?

ALL IZ DOG

  So with a new Independence Day movie imminent, it got me thinking. Other animals get to have their own adventures: just look at the mayhem a cat causes in the new comedy, Keanu. And let's not forget the absurd society of Zootopia and the talking beasts in The Jungle Book who spar over, of all things, a human boy!

  Then we have the shapeshifting raven and Black Philip the goat in The VVitch. Worse yet: the two men posing as animals in Captain America: Civil War, 'Black Panther' and 'Falcon' (neither had me fooled). The most egregious is The Lobster, a movie about how, in the future, man becomes an animal of their choosing if they don't find a mate in 45 days - human privilege if I've ever seen it. Don't even get me started on Tarzan. This is the year that Dogs can change things! Please show this post to any dog you know!!

  The Secret Life Of Pets comes out July 8th, we'll see how problematic that one is.