This is a very strange movie because of the way it handles the dog. The dog seems to be an important character in the story, has a well-defined personality, seems very close to the title character, and has several heroic moments. Then it's killed and never referred to again. At all. Bizarre. I think that's some really crappy storytelling.
"All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks and that's all." -- Matt Hooper, JAWS
There was a lot going on when that older chief killed Sam. Hondo had insulted him earlier...but it was accurate. The chief wanted to hurt Hondo by killing Sam. It was a quick transition, I agree. In the gun battles to follow, did Hondo kill that chief? I don't remember.
shareI see your point. They should have made reference to the dog later.
Killing the dog was fine, however. A major weakness of this movie is there is no well defined heavy.
Victorio is the natural heavy, but he's so positively characterized that he's almost a co-lead.
Ed Lowe, the bounder husband, isn't given enough scenes. That leaves the heavy role to Silva - Victorio's henchman, but he's doesn't have enough scenes either.
When Silva kills the dog, it's as close as the movie comes to developing an effective heavy.
Still not enough, though. See my user review of Hondo for more commentary.
Didn't care for the way Hondo treated him.Or his approach to swimming lessons!
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