Chips, the War Dog (1990)

 

            “Chips, the War Dog” is an old school Disney movie that premiered on tv in 1990.  It was directed by Ed Kaplan.  It is the true story of the most decorated American war dog of WWII.  The film is dedicated to all the dogs who served in the armed services in WWII.

            The film opens in Bloomington, Indiana in 1943.  Chips is the pet of a farm family.  He is sometimes a bad dog who chases the neighbors’ chickens.  The sheriff issues a warning.  One day the kids are at the theater and after a Donald Duck enlisting cartoon, there is a short with a Col. Charnley (William Devane) asking for patriot Americans to donate dogs to the armed services.  The kids talk dad into doing it.  So, it’s off to war for the pouch.  The chickens celebrate.

 Meanwhile, Danny (Brandon Douglas) is a soda jerk who ends up in the army.  He is chosen as a dog handler despite not being a dog person.  Chips gets off to a ruff start when he gets out of his cage and lets the other dogs out.  (A bit of Disney whimsy there.)  Naturally, when it comes to black or dog units, there will be an evil congressman trying to get the program shut down.  Thankfully, we get to see more of William Devane.  Meanwhile, Danny and Chip make a comical pair.  Danny is a Sad Sack and Chips is not taking to training very well.  Danny gets a cinematic enemy.  Danny and Chips both wash out, but they are given a second chance.  They get redemption and prove themselves before the congressional committee that is eying shutting down the program.  I know you won’t be surprised that the program survives.  So, it’s off to Sicily and glory.

“Chips, the War Dog” is second level Disney.  It is a low budget production.  This really shows in the invasion of Sicily, but you would not expect “Saving Private Ryan”.  The low budget applies to the cast.  They are all unknowns, except for Devane.  Unfortunately, he is not used much. Brandon Douglas is weak and is upstaged by a mutt.  The plot is full of cliches:  the Sad Sack man and dog, the evil Senator, the boot camp enemy.  It is very predictable, except when Chips gets into the war you know he’s going to be a hero, but you don’t know how.  The war scenes are competently done and should have kids on the edge of their seats.  Watching it with your kids or grandkids might bring back fond memories of Disney productions like it.  The feel of the movie is nostalgic, plus it throws in the Donald Duck cartoon, the 20 cent movie ticket, and some swing music. 

Disney did occasionally delve into history.  “The Great Locomotive Chase” is a good and accurate movie.  We also have “Johnny Tremain”, which brings the book to the screen well.  And, of course, Disney has a track record with dog movies.  Chips is not up to the standards of Old Yeller or Savage Sam, but he is a real dog and his story deserved to be told, even if it was in a old-fashioned way. 

How accurate is it?  Chips was a German shepherd/collie/malamute mix.  He was gifted by the Wren family in 1942.  I found no reference to his behavior, but I would bet that chasing the chickens was fiction.  We do know that Chips would go to school with Gail and lay under her desk.  At recess, Chips would break up fights.  The Wren family donated him to the War Dog Training Center in Front Royal, Virginia.  He made it through boot camp with no black marks and was assigned to the 3^rd Infantry Division.  His handler was Private John Rowell.  They served in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany.  Chips met FDR and Churchill when he was a sentry dog at the Casablanca Conference.  His claim to fame was on July, 10, 1943.  His unit was pinned down by a pill box.  Chips broke away and ran into the pill box.  There was a lot of noise and then an Italian exited the pill box with Chips at his throat.  He surrendered, as did the other three Italians.  Chips suffered from a scalp wound and some powder burns, but he remained at the front line.  On the next day, he helped capture 10 more prisoners.  He was awarded the Silver Star and nominated for the Distinguished Service Cross and the Purple Heart.  Sadly, the Army took back the Silver Star and disallowed the nominations for the other medals.  It was official policy not to give medals to animals.  Boo!  Chips survived the war and was reunited with the Wrens.  Sadly, he died seven months later.  In 2018, Chips was awarded the United Kingdom’s Dicken Award.  This is the British equivalent of the Victoria Cross.  In 2019, he was awarded the Animals in War and Peace Medal of Bravery.  He was a good dog.

“Chips, the War Dog” is available on YouTube.  It’s worth the watch, but there are better dog movies, like "Sergeant Stubby", "Megan Leavey", and "Dog".  Or if you are a cat person…  Well, there are no war cat movies because cats are not patriotic. 

 

GRADE  =  C

 

           

 

 

 

Dog (2022)

 

                Dogs have been used in war since ancient history.  The earliest mention was in a history of King Alyattes, King of Lydia, around 600 B.C. He used the war dogs against the invading Cimmerians.  There have been a few movies that told the stories of actual war dogs.  “Sergeant Stubby” is set in WWI,  “Chips, The War Dog” is WWII, and “Megan Leavey” in Iraq.  “Dog” is different because it is not based on a true story and it covers a post-war dog.  The film saw the directorial debuts of Channing Tatum and Reid Carolin.  The story was inspired by Tatum’s experience with his dying dog, Lulu.  They took a road trip and Tatum found it cathartic.  The movie was dedicated to Lulu.  Three dogs played the dog, also called Lulu.  In the movie, Lulu is a Belgian Malinos.  The pandemic shut the production down for 9 months.  This was actually beneficial as the cast was better able to bond with Britta, Lana 5, and Zuza.  The movie was a hit.  It cost $15 million and made $85 million.  This is a testament to the box office appeal of Channing Tatum.  And dogs.

                The scrapbook of a war dog and his handler (these are called “I Love Me” books) highlights the credits.  Jackson Briggs (Tatum) was a Ranger, but now he is working at Subway because of a brain injury.  Like many cinematic veterans, he’s having trouble adjusting to civilian life.  He desperately wants to return to the military.  His ex-commanding officer holds out that possibility if he does a job for him.  A comrade of Briggs, who was a dog handler in the Middle East,  has recently died and Briggs reluctantly agrees to transport the dog to his funeral.  Lulu has anger management problems, so the pair both have PTSD.  After the funeral, Briggs is to drop Lulu off at a base where she will be euthanized.  Briggs has no problem with this outcome.  At first.

  We’ve got ourselves a road trip movie, so clearly there will be bonding over a series of adventures.  For instance, Lulu runs into the woods and Briggs has an encounter with a militia-type.  Briggs uses Lulu to pretend he is blind to get a free hotel room.  Briggs visits his daughter, but his ex-wife doesn’t allow him to see her.  Lulu ruins Briggs chance of a threesome.  Lulu bites a Middle Eastern man, which gets Briggs arrested for a hate crime.  The truck breaks down and they hitchhike.  Will they make it to the funeral?  Will Lulu be put down?  Gue

Since this is a road trip movie, some of the plot is predictable.  It has the usual format of a series of vignettes.  There is an eclectic mix of songs that provides the soundtrack for their trek.  The PTSD plot does break new ground by involving a military dog, but Briggs is a stock character.  The movie relies on Tatum’s charm to compensate for it’s lack of originality.  Tatum carries the movie as he is the only recognizable actor in it, aside from a cameo by Bill Burr.  His co-stars, the dogs, are decent actors, but you will not be amazed at their acting.  They don’t get to show much range because the movie makes the questionable decision to not show Lulu in flashbacks.  There are vague references to her career.  However, we don’t know why she has PTSD.  Did she search for IED’s?  Did she patrol bases?  At least, she gets some therapy, unlike Briggs.  The movie does not serve as a tribute to war dogs, which would seemingly have been low-hanging fruit since it is aimed at dog-lovers.  We are left with a Channing Tatum movie.  Entertaining, but dog-eared.

GRADE  =  C

 

NOW SHOWING: Megan Leavey (2017)

“Megan Leavey” is this summer’s feel-good war dog movie.  In a summer full of super heroes, we have here a real hero.  And heroine.  The movie is “’based on a true story” about a Marine Corporal and her Military Police K9 dog.  It was directed by Gabrilla Cowperthwaite.  It took four screenwriters to finish the script which is never a good sign.  However, that is not likely to discourage the viewing public.

The movie opens in New York state in 2001.  Megan Leavey (Kate Mara) is living a dead-end life after the death of her best friend.  Her family life is a mess and then one day she gets a wild hair and joins the Marines.  It’s off to Parris Island for a short training montage.  A graduation celebratory pee in the bushes gets the PFC put on a **** detail which is literal because she has to clean out the kennels of the K9 unit.  There she meets a dog named Rex who is not looking to make any friends.  As in most cinematic romances, you just know these two will get together.  Thankfully the movie eschews the lover’s triangle.  Before you know it, the duo is off to Iraq.  After a couple of routine missions to establish the resumé of a military working dog, Meagan and Rex reach their epiphany by way of an IED.  Is this the end of a great friendship?

I wanted to like “Megan Leavey”.  I love war movies and I love dogs, so it seemed like a natural fit for me.  And I am not saying I disliked it.  It is a nice little movie and deserves to do well at the box office.  My problem is that it has an unsatisfactory feel to it.  The word that comes to mind is “shallow”.  Although it clocks in at almost two hours, parts of it seem cursory.  Even the montages are truncated.  Megan develops a reputation as a problem with no evidence presented.  Megan bonds with Rex with little difficulty.  Training is barely touched on.  The divorced parents pop up to assure us that Megan is better off risking her life in Iraq than being around them.  In Iraq, we get only brief tastes of the hazardous duties of Megan and Rex.  The movie has some giant time jumps that give the false impression that war for a bomb-sniffing dog team is long stretches between cinematic-worthy suspense.  To tell you the truth, the movie does not make a strong case for Megan and/or Rex being a hero.   The movie throws in a romantic interest for Megan which is perfunctory.  I could best describe the movie as the Cliff’s Notes version of the story.

I’m not trying to be the grinch who stole your feel-good movie of the summer.  The movie is nicely made with decent acting.  Obviously,  Kate Mara is solid and the unidentified dog actor is fine.  Does it make sense to say they lacked chemistry?  Rex usually appears less than thrilled to see her.  Probably that soldier thing where they don’t want to get too invested in a friendship.  The cast is fine, but wastes three as the father, mother, and stepfather (Bradley Whitford, Edie Falco, and Will Patton).  More time with the dog and less with the glum-inflictors would have been a good decision.  The dialogue does not stand out and there are no memorable lines.  However, the movie is not schmaltzy and does not jerk tears.  It certainly had the potential to require tissues if it had carried the “true story” to its completion (see below).   While I am not a big fan of tearjerkers, this movie would have been better if it stuck to the true story better.  Or fleshed out what it decided to cover.

Take a break from the usual bombastic summer fare and you’ll leave the theater feeling good.  Just don’t expect an Academy Award nominations.  And don’t go home and shame your dog.  

GRADE  =  C

HISTORICAL ACCURACY: Megan Leavey did not escape a dead-end life by joining the Marines.  She was not depressed over the loss of her best friend.  In fact, she was in college when she was inspired by 9/11 to serve her country.  She was not punished by being sent to the K9 unit.  She volunteered for the Military Police and was assigned Rex.  He was not a problem dog.  He had already been to Iraq with his original handler.  Sgt. Mike Dowling took Rex to Iraq in the first deployment of military dogs since the Vietnam War.  He later wrote a well-received book entitled Sergeant Rex:  The Unbreakable Bond Between a Marine and his Military Working Dog.  The book chronicles their adventures In Iraq and covers how Dowding helped Rex overcome his fear of explosions and gunfire.  (Although Dowling has publicly expressed his support for the movie, I have to wonder about his feelings about being written out of it.)   I am unclear how Leavey became the dog’s handler, but she must have taken over in Iraq.  They did not meet when Leavey was training to be a dog handler.  The two spent two tours together.  First in Fallujah in 2005 and the second in Ramadi in 2006.  The IED incident occurred during the second tour.  The movie accurate depicts it.  Leavey and Rex both took about a year to recover.  Leavey decided not to reenlist and wanted to adopt Rex at this point, but the Marines logically turned her down because Rex had recovered to the point where he could resume his duties.  The adoption was not foiled by a bitchy veterinarian as shown in the movie.  Several years passed (much longer than the movie implies) and Rex developed a facial palsy that ended his working career.  It was at this point that Leavey reinitiated her adoption attempts.  She did contact Sen. Schumer from New York, although not personally as shown in the movie.  The Senator did facilitate the reunion.  Leavey and Rex made the national news and were honored at Yankee Stadium.  Unfortunately, they had only a few months together before Rex passed away in 2012.  Now you can break out those hankies.

I think most would agree that the movie would have been better if it had adhered to the real story.  Remove the lame plotting about Leavey escaping her crappy family and substitute her having to take over a dog that was already bonded to a male handler.  I think that cinematic dynamic would have worked better.  And add more from the one hundred plus missions the trio did in Iraq.  Close with the big finish of Rex dying.  Not a dry eye in the house.