Watch Out: A Boy and His Dog [1975]

Starring a young Don Johnson and a  shaggy dog, A Boy and His Dog opens on an average day after the end of the world. The boy, Vic, and his dog, Blood, are trying to survive and, if possible, thrive. Always at the top of the list are food, sex, and entertainment.

A Boy and His Dog is one of my favorite movies with its cheeky mix of post-apocalyptic wasteland violence and 70’s… not to mention a “talking” dog. It’s not clear if the dog is actually talking, telepathically communicating with the boy, or if the boy is just imagining it. I’m pretty sure the dog is telepathic and chooses to only speak to the boy.


 

In the post-apocalyptic future of 2024, Vic and his telepathic dog, Blood, roam the wastelands hunting for food, water and females. When Vic is lured underground by a young girl, he finds himself separated from Blood and trapped in the anachronistic society of Topeka. The Leader tells Vic he is going to be the father of a new generation, but Vic soon learns instead of hooking him up with women, the Topekans are planning to hook him up to a machine. Meanwhile Blood is above ground waiting for his human partner to return and save him from dying.

If you’re not about old movies, you can also read the book that A Boy and His Dog is based on by author Harlan Ellison, Vic and Blood.

The cycle begins with “Eggsucker,” which chronicles the early years of the association between fourteen‑year‑old loner Vic and his brilliant, telepathic dog. The saga continues and expands in “A Boy and His Dog,” in which Blood shows just how much smarter he is than Vic, and Vic shows how loyal he can be. The story continues in “Run, Spot, Run,” the first part of Ellison’s promised novel of the cycle, Blood’s a Rover. Here Vic and Blood find surprising new ways to get into trouble—but getting out of it may be beyond even their combined talents.

 

Drama, the survival camp, and you

So over no dramathe past six months or so, I’ve realized something about myself: I hate drama. Not drama in movies or books or anything like that, but real-life drama. The kind with gossiping, rumor-mongering, backstabbing, that sort of thing. Now, I’m not saying that I’ve experienced those things in the past six months, but there’s been, well, drama. And some serious real-life flouncing. (Aside: I didn’t actually think people could flounce in real life, but it turns out they CAN.)

I have realized that if you’re going to act like a child and engage in behavior best left to grade school playgrounds, I will drop you like a hot potato. For example: if your idea of resolving conflict is to refuse to talk to the person you’ve got a problem with and instead talk to other people about that person and problem, I will drop you faster than you can say “FLOUNCING!” Or if you thrive on drama and/or cause drama because it’s fun, I will walk (possibly run) away. And yep, faster than you can say “FLOUNCING!

Why? Well, for a couple of reasons. One, because life’s too short for that shit. The other, and probably more important reason, is because I’m too damn lazy to deal with that sort of crap.

Honestly, drama takes effort. I’m a path-of-least-resistance kind of girl. You know.

This sort of behavior — and my sort of reaction (aka “run, run away”) — is all well and good now. As in, the pre-apocalypse. But what about in the post-apocalypse? (I’m assuming a terrible post-apocalypse here; the wasteland sort, possibly with zombies. Your post-apocalypse may vary.) In a survival camp, where people are doing everything possible just to stay, you know, alive, will this type of behavior be tolerated? Will drama-causers and divas be kicked out to fend for themselves?

Or will the drama-causers and divas be the ones running the survival camp? (In which case I’m screwed.)

If it were me running a survival camp, I would likely have a no-drama policy, just because I think it’s a waste of time and effort. I’m sure there will be better things to do in camp than to recreate your junior high school experience. Of course, not tolerating drama might get me a) a massive exodus out of my survival camp; or b) ousted as benevolent dictator of said survival camp. I don’t know, it could go either way.

I think it’s possible that people will band together and overcome the urge to stir shit up and cause drama while in a life or death situation like the post-apocalypse (assuming the dire and terrible zombie wasteland type of post-apocalypse, of course).

But I also think it’s possible that bringing people together under such stressful conditions will just bring out the worst in everybody and the drama quotient will multiply. By a factor of…well, a lot.

The cynic in me thinks that there will be drama aplenty. But that’s just me. What do you think?