How did they film the person kicking the dog during the bit where they're showing the pandemonium in town when everyone first quits smoking. Surely they didn't really have someone kick a dog did they?
shareYou're NOT that stupid. Quit clogging up the boards with this crap.
share[deleted]
<<That was no dog. That was the first film appearance of Miss Meryl Streep. Clearly you were convinced. >>
I take you're not a fan of Miss Meryl Streep? LOL
I'd just like to know how they filmed that. It really looks like a pooch getting kicked. Maybe I need to watch it again in slo mo.
Kohntarkosz;
The scene was shot long before CGI came along but according to
the Movie magic Encylopdia, the real dog was given a light weight
body harness then a simulated foot kick (like someone kicking
a field-goal) was sent into the dog's behind but only to one
side, disappearing to the blind side of the animal, simulating
the actual contact. At the moment of contact, the dog
is sent flying via a pully, caught by his trainer, and a stuffed
toy is seen careening into the distance.
When you see it in slow motion, you can notice the wire, under-
body harness and the replica sailing into the distance.
later
"If you make the world your enemy, you'll never run out of reasons to be miserable"
They used to breed dogs that were kickable, yet resiliant.
shareThe dog was, in fact, kicked with great force on all three takes of this shot and died the next day. But since the scene brings me such pleasure, its painful death is completely justified. After all, I am a human, and it was just an animal.
Such a question merited such a response.
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Don't harsh on the op. It did look real-and the movie was made before modern special effects and animal protection laws for animals in film was enacted. I was wondering the same thing.
shareI wondered is also, and I had to replay it a few times and still couldn't tell it was a fake dog. They'd be reluctant to try anything like that today for fear of offending the offendable.
share[deleted]
So did they use a harness on a real dog and pull him up after the "kick" (presumably speeding up the film), or cut from a real dog being "kicked" to a fake dog being lifted by a harness? I've played it several times, and I'm still not sure. If I had it on DVD instead of VHS, I could probably do better with the slo-mo.
It certainly is a shocking scene, but that's what made it funny to me (and I'm crazy about canines).
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Thanks for the link. He does tense up, but clearly they don't kick him. It looks like they almost kick him, then they do some doctoring of the film to make it look like he goes flying, then they cut to him being lowered by the wires. Still very effective.
share[deleted]
That sounds like a perfect breakdown of the dog kick. I find it amazing that they pulled it off so convincingly when special effects are not the focus of this film -- and such fakery was still very crude in the early '70s. I've seen action films with stuntmen from the era that didn't look nearly as realistic.
I'm not fond of bonus features on DVDs these days, but I'd love to see an explanation of how they pulled that off, complete with a demonstration of the harness and rope (or string). More than anything, I'd love to see a quality widescreen release of this excellent and sadly forgotten film.
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Indeed! I love these grown-up films with real adults that didn't have to gain the approval the test audience in Glendale or wherever.
A remake would indeed be horrible, but there doesn't seems to be much interest out of Hollywood these days in satire or social issues in films. Of course, there don't seem to be that many more smokers left, but there's plenty left to satirize.
This film was made at a time when Hollywood was still having a great deal of fun telling quirky stories and poking fun at conventions rather than obsessing about the teen demographic or the opening weekend gross. I miss this era greatly, but these films are all out there for the taking (thought I wish many of them, like this, were easier to find).