SPITTING ON THE DOG !!!!!

I KNOW!

that wasn't no CGI either.

REAL SPIT, REAL DOG.





Did anyone get in trouble for that?

Obviously it was to show Wales' change in personality, becoming more indifferent and detached for everything.

"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not".

It was a part of a character tic and helped set up plot points to drive the story.

Josey's habit forces him to stop at at various stores and mercantiles to load up. 1. The river store at the beginning of the film, 2) the frontier store in the middle where he goes to buy a horse and, last the large town where he runs into the carpet bagger and the union soldiers.

Last the two instances he spit on the dog was to show he did was a grouchy cuss (as pointed out here) and set up the pay-off joke: when they arrived at the bent river ranch, granny took over and began setting up house. When Josey contemplated spitting on the floor, he recanted and swallowed the juice rather than incur the wrath of Granny.

It also signifies the tonal shift in the film. By Josey NOT spitting on the flor, he is rejoining society and giving up his outlaw persona.

Spitting on the dog was a beat that help set up the entire joke. It would be interesting if this film were shot today. Would the PETA people object. Would the shot be accomplished through CG?

Because it was a mangy red-bone hound, that's why.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075029/quotes?item=qt0176160

[deleted]

Comedy. Simple as that.

It wasn't a real dog. It was one of those autoerotic dogs.

I would hate to see the crying and whining if he would have kicked the dog instead. At the time the film was supposed to take place that was far more likely to have happened.