DOG EAT DOG

US, 2016, 93 minutes, Colour.
Nicolas Cage, Willem Dafoe, Christopher Matthew Cook, Omar J. Dorsey, Paul Schrader.
Directed by Paul Schrader.

Dog Eats Dog comes 40 years into Paul Schrader’s significant but mixed career of writing and directing films. In the 1970s and 1980s, he was a significant figure, especially in his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Last Temptation of Christ. He also made his mark in directing significant films starting with Blue Collar, Hardcore and continuing throughout the decades with some strong films and also some strange minor choices.

The focus of this story about criminals getting out of prison, having two strikes against them and fearing life imprisonment because of the third strike rule, they gather together, share their hopes, looking for the perfect crime to make their lives secure.

A lot of the film spends time on focusing on each of the characters, Nicolas Cage and his film obsession, the planner, yet potential for erupting. Willem Dafoe is Mad Dog, intrinsic explosive. The contrast is with Christopher Matthew Cook as Diesel, quiet and large.

Schrader himself appears as a gang Lord commissioning the three to kidnap the child of a rival.

The plan is made. The crime is to be carried out – with so much going wrong.

In the end, probably just a film for those who wish to be completers concerning Paul Schrader’s career.

1. The title? Expectations? Human nature? Animal nature? Violence?

2. The work of Paul Schrader? His writing? Directing? Strong themes over many decades? The place of this film in his career? And the critical comment? Not popular? For his fans?

3. The Los Angeles setting, sleazy, the strip clubs and those in them, the drinking, drug background, sexuality? The background of gangs and gang leaders? Mafia types? Gang rivalries?

4. The prison background, harsh, the three men and their experiences? Two strikes? Getting out, their ambitions, the crime that will make them? And yet to avoid the three strikes rule?

5. Nicolas Cage, Troy, his prison experience, his film references, to Elvis, admiration for Humphrey Bogart, film noir? Getting out, the final crime, the plan?

6. Willem Dafoe: Mad Dog, personality, violent, past experiences, sleazy, unlikable?

7. Diesel, prison experience, being, quiet, part of the group?

8. The early part of the film, the three men, the conversations, going on for a long time, revealing their characters?

9. El Grecco, his position in Los Angeles, gang rivalries, the proposal for the crime? The kidnapping of the child?

10. The planning, police, disguise, the execution of the crime, things going wrong?

11. The role of the police, Troy and his bashing the woman? The greater violence?

12. The mismanagement? Building up to a culmination? Diesel and his hunger? Violence and death?

13. Schrader’s interpretation of human nature in the context of prison and crime? The worst aspects of human nature?