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CUJO (1983)
It's like Old Yeller, but with a happy ending I can only imagine the consternation felt by Stephen King fans when this movie was released, its ending granting a reprieve to a major character that died at the conclusion of his book. King's story about a family's extended, harrowing encounter with a rabid dog probably couldn't be filmed as written, partly because so much of it takes place in its characters heads, and partly because of that ending which...well, it wouldn't be allowed. So personally, I'm not too bitter about it. The story of Cujo is divided pretty sharply in half - the first half focuses on the family's problems. Mom (Dee Wallace Stone) is having an affair, Dad (Daniel Hugh Kelly) is oblivious (that he makes note of how they're running out of dinner conversation topics and then proposes they have another kid says a lot), and the kid (Danny Pintuaro...yep, that kid from Who's The Boss) thinks there's a monster in his closet. Indeed! There's another family of rednecks (he: chugging beer and wearing a wifebeater, she: responds to her kid's complaint that the dog's started foaming at the mouth with what amounts to a You Hush Now), some headaches at Dad's work, car problems, the "town stud" who won't let go of the married woman who tells him it's over...yep, total snooze boredom. Things kick into gear for the second half though, when the mom and the kid are trapped inside the broken-down family Pinto (why do people with a huge ocean-view house own a Pinto?), under siege from the dog which is increasingly determined to get to the car's chewy center. You wouldn't think there's a lot of mileage to get out of such a limited situation, but you might be surprised; the waits are suspenseful and the attacks are knucklebiters. Stone is great, but it's the dog that totally rules this show - that is, the five (reportedly more) dogs that played Cujo. They must've been good sports, undergoing all these dirt-and-slime treatments until they scarcely looked like a dog at all, more of a shambling, drooling dirt mound. The movie even shows its decaying mental state up until it starts chomping people (loud noises being particularly irritating for it); so far as animals-run-amok movie animals go, this one is as scary and as well-developed (it's almost, like, a character!) as any of them. Too bad half the movie's over before Cujo does anything scary. And the whole time, Pintuaro's whiny little shit will make you wish they made Cuisinarts in "tyke" size. It's nothing that removing half the movie wouldn't fix, but I find myself more disappointed that with this movie and many others, the DVD age is doing them a disservice by replacing their terrific poster/box art from back in the day with the shittiest, most generic new box "art" you could imagine. One of the best King adaptations...when it's trying, which isn't often enough. (c) Brian J. Wright 2006 BACK TO THE C's BACK TO THE MAIN PAGE |