Rabid Dogs Movie Review

Rabid Dogs

Keith: Dude, that was a pretty good movie last night.  I mean, I'll be
honest, when you came home and said you wanted to watch a movie at
10:30, I was a little apprehensive.  I mean, I was getting ready to go
lay down in bed and read, after all, I was tired from playing b-ball.
But I made the mistake of starting to watch it, and that was my undoing.

My second surprise was when I found that I had to read.  I don't believe
you tricked me into watching a foreign film.  Although, I think forcing
myself to read actually kept me awake, since I was so tired.  Anyways,
my first impression of this film from 1974 was that it appeared to be a
low budget job.  Most of the shots where close ups, for example; when
the car sped through a red light, they did not show a long shot where
you could see all of the cars avoiding each other, rather they took many
close low angle shots of cars stopping with sound effects of screeching
tires and spliced it all together.  Also, it was a relatively small
cast.  Would you agree?

Justin: That one has been in my "movies to watch" queue for awhile. It
was recommended by a friend, who did not give me much background on the
movie. However, I had heard of Mario Bava, and that this movie was said
to be one of his best. So I didn't mind the subtitles. I find it to be
amazing how your brain connects the dots when you are reading the
subtitles, you translate it into the characters actually saying the
dialogue. Now, I am not going to lie- I am not much of a student of
film, and most film buffs would be disgusted by the number of classics I
have not seen. However ,I have been taking myself on a crash course
lately.

As someone not as in tune to the making of film, I took the close-ups at
certain times to be simply artistic expression, and the movie did not
feel overly cheap to me. Of course, it had a very small cast, and no
special effects, explosions, etc.

From what I read, this movie has been out of print for some time, and
was only recently reintroduced, spliced with a new opening, part of the
film that was lost. Now, I also have waiting at home Diabolik, one of
his other famous pieces. You up for the challenge?


Keith: Well, I don't think I meant to say that it was cheap, just that
it was a low budget film.  I actually have a big place in my heart for
low budget films.  Today, movies cost millions to make and don't have
half the story line as Rabid Dogs does.  I agree that close ups are very
artistic.  The sign of a true artist is when they can take few materials
and create a masterpiece.

I thought the acting was excellent in the movie.  The characters each
had a distinct personality.  And there is more I would like to say about
the acting, but at the same time, I feel that to describe some of it I
would have to give away some details  of the movie that may ruin the
experience for someone who might want to watch it.

Now as far as your challenge goes, I am up for watching Diabolik any
time.  And if we keep with this foreign film trend, I have a couple that
I will have to add to the mix.