Boy and His Dog (1975) Belgian Poster

A Boy and his Dog brilliantly captures Harlan Ellison’s sour and provocative dystopia. By 2024, fighting the Cold War has resulted in a nuclear wasteland, with scavengers (male as most women were in the destroyed cities) picking through the scant remains. Vic, the amoral protagonist, is concerned mainly with food and fornication, and is helped in this by his telepathic dog, Blood, who helps him locate women in exchange for food. Vic Follows Quilla, a girl they ‘rescued’ who returned to Downunder, an underground nuclear vault decked out in a macabre simulation of a small American town. During his escape, he finally learns where his loyalties lie.

Actor L. Q. Jones wrote the script and directed, which attracted criticism for misogynistic flourishes that weren’t in the original story – the end lines being amongst them. But his visual style and Ellison’s dusty, blasted setting was a direct inspiration to George Miller for Mad Max (1979) and particularly The Road Warrior (1981), and thus just about every science fiction film thereafter.

Condition: VERY FINE

Cast: Don Johnson, Tim McIntire (Blood's voice - also the theme song), Susanne Benton – That Cold Day in the Park (1969), Survival (1976), The Last Horror Film (1982), Jason Robards, Alvy Moore, Helene Winston – The Brotherhood of Satan (1971), Charles McGraw – everything from The Mad Ghoul (1943) to Spartacus (1960) to The Birds (1963) to The Killer Inside Me (1976).