X
- 2015
- R
- Magnolia Pictures
- 2 h 1 m
- 2015
- R
- Magnolia Pictures
- 2 h 1 m
Summary When young Lili is forced to give up her beloved dog Hagen, because it's mixed-breed heritage is deemed unfit by The State, she and the dog begin a dangerous journey back towards each other. At the same time, all the unwanted, unloved and so-called unfit dogs rise up under a new leader, Hagen, the one-time housepet who has learned all to...
Directed By: Kornél Mundruczó
- 2015
- R
- Magnolia Pictures
- 2 h 1 m
- 2015
- R
- Magnolia Pictures
- 2 h 1 m
White God
80
7.2
Where to Watch
Summary When young Lili is forced to give up her beloved dog Hagen, because it's mixed-breed heritage is deemed unfit by The State, she and the dog begin a dangerous journey back towards each other. At the same time, all the unwanted, unloved and so-called unfit dogs rise up under a new leader, Hagen, the one-time housepet who has learned all to...
Directed By: Kornél Mundruczó
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 29 Critic Reviews
80
90% Positive
26 Reviews
26 Reviews
10% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 29 Critic Reviews
80
90% Positive
26 Reviews
26 Reviews
10% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
White God is the rare sort of movie in the era of computer-generated special effects where you can’t believe your eyes, because what you’re looking at is real.
Árpád Halász is the credited “animal trainer for 280 dogs,” Teresa Ann Miller the handler of Bodie and Luke — better actors than half this year’s Academy Award nominees. This is the new gold standard for nature-bites-back movies.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 55 User Ratings
7.2
73% Positive
40 Ratings
40 Ratings
16% Mixed
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
11% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 55 User Ratings
7.2
73% Positive
40 Ratings
40 Ratings
16% Mixed
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
11% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
Canine drama that is not afraid to get out of the formula. It is more of an allegation about the mistreatment of animals, with clever nods to Tom & Jerry and The birds, with a disconcerting ending that evokes The Twilight Zone.
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The day when the dogs stopped wagging their tails.
This movie was a tricky one, because everyone cannot understand and everyone cannot enjoy it. In this modern world, the computer graphics are easily available to illude the audience, so who would still use the silly old practical trickery in a film making. Must have been the hard work to manage plenty of the dogs during the shooting. But I believe there are hardly any major CGI works other than the bluescreen works. If you get the movie, then that's fine, if not, you may get some ideas through this review. Before proceeding I just want to alert the readers the review might contain some spoilers which is not measured.
The Hungary's entry for the last concluded Oscars. The movie talks about a girl Lili in her early teenage, aspiring musician and her mixed breed dog name Hagen. When a circumstance forces them apart, the individual life journey begins for both of them. The girl becomes rebellious towards her father and the dog towards the human society like a piece of iron bar pulled away from the magnet. Will they unite again? Is the rest of the story with the breathtaking second half.
This dark fantasy (like dark comedy) film was like the old days, like the black and white beast or the monster films similar to 'King Kong' and others, where animals can think like humans, execute like humans, but still not a fairytale nor the science fiction. Because sci-fi applies theoretical probabilities, animal psychology et cetera, while fairytale is a magic. It will come between sci-fi and fantasy, most likely an adult version of the fantasy tale. Comparing it with 'Birds' is one hundred per cent not agreeable, because unlike the dogs, the birds' behaviours were unknown. But 'Conquest of the Planet of the Apes' was the closest one, and you can compare Caesar with Hagen.
It does not end there, I believe you all have seen the last year's genuinely written screenplay 'Lucy'. You may wonder why this comparison, because this film is about dogs, yet the title strangely pronounced as 'God'. What I understood was that Hagen was drugged with cocaine (white powder) like the blue powder in the other film and he started to change his personality. So that explains the coke was the 'White God' and the rest follows the story of revenge, leadership and ultimately the revolution.
"It's hard to lose someone you love.
Things don't work out the way we imagined."
Off the record: Most of us know that the dogs are derived from the wolves. Yet they have lost the freedom compared to a few centuries ago who walked freely on the human streets. Every dog must have a master/owner or it will be put to sleep rather keeping and feeding them forever in the dog pound. So I think dogs are suffering more than the apes and they deserved the revolution (according to this film).
Animal abuse was highlighted in the movie. The story was descended from there and what happens if they takeover us is the movie's view. One of the weirdest movie of the year, but different and good. If you ever had a dog, you will know they were adorable, even in the violent scenes. Because they were just playing, but that does not the case for children and those who never been with dogs. Every shot that had dogs were cleverly achieved, the outcome was very convincing.
I have heard the crew used two brothers for the Hagen role. They both were awesome, equals to any main human characters from the movie. Another 250 mixed-breed stray dogs were participated in the film making and later most of them were adopted. Believe me the movie was a good one, but some people had a hard time accepting the oddity of the theme. It won a couple of awards at Cannes film festival, including one for the Hagen's character performance.
The Hungarian film industry to make into the international level, they should take the cue from this success and must bring the sequel with a broader cast. Nowadays, experimental movies like this are welcomed by the moviegoers around the globe. Definitely, an interesting story with the striking scenes and dialogues would make everyone turn toward the eastern Europe. Obviously I recommend this one, but never expect the style of Hollywood, it had approached its own way to give a pleasing movie.
8/10
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White God has been compared to “The Birds,” but there are also echoes of “Lassie Come Home” and even “Dirty Harry.” Director Kornél Mundruczó goes big with allegory, violence, drama and sentiment, and the results are riveting.
White God works as an ambiguous satire of power relations generally: eventually the lower orders will rise up. The film has a flair and a bite which I have found lacking in Mundruczó's earlier films.
Hackle-raising in its intensity.
Yet the great thing about White God is that the more you command it to sit and stay — to settle down as a plausible plot, or to cohere as a political fable — the more it slips its leash and runs amok.
It affects a general air of artistically inclined realism, but it's mostly concerned with building tension via a steady accumulation of flatly conceived misery.
The movie is decent enough in and of itself, but what truly amazes me are the dogs. Rather, I should say the dog trainers perhaps. Hundreds of dogs on screen all "acting." It's truly astounding. I believe it's genuinely worth watching for that alone but it is on top of that an enjoyable film if not a bit preachy with its overly obvious metaphors.
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No idea why this movie got good reviews from critics. I was excited about the premise, since I am a huge dog lover who also enjoys revenge flicks, but this was a utter waste of two long long hours. Why? The acting of the little girl was wooden at best, there were too many scenes that were unnecessary, the motivations of some of the terribly cliched characters made no sense, and the pacing was off. Furthermore, I still don't know if it was supposed to be a love story, horror story, or coming of age story. I'm giving this a 2 solely for the dogs in the movie; they were well trained and the main dog, Hagen/Max, was the best actor in the entire film!
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I saw this last night at the Wisconsin Film Festival, and was really disappointed. The film was poorly paced, full of cliches and the characters frequently made absurd, illogical decisions. So many things in White God made no flipping sense at all.
Overall, I don't think the director knew what kind of movie he wanted to make. It wasn't a good horror flick. It was a terrible drama. And it was a tired coming-of-age story about a teenager that I didn't care about.
In a word, this movie was simply...dumb.
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C'est une gamine et son clébard qui doit aller vivre chez son père quelque temps avec le putain de clébard qui fait chier tout le monde... d'autant plus qu'il s'agit d'un **** (ce tarbaaa de sa reum !) qui pense qu'à bouffer et chier comme tous les clébards !
Le père est pas con, il le voit bien... il voit bien que sa fille est complètement conne à cause de ce putain de cabot... alors il fait ce qu'il faut... et puis... enfin... rien en fait. Car en tant que thriller, c'est très, très mauvais, maladroit et très mal filmé (dans les très rares scènes d'action, tout à l'épaule !) ; en tant que drame (?) ou psychodrame (lol ?!) ça ne tient pas la route non plus... Il reste l'aspect comique... peut-être ? car au second, au troisième ou au sixième degré (?) sur un malentendu, serait-ce une satire de quelque chose ou une forme spécifique d'humour hongrois ? non, je ne crois pas non plus, alors que le film nous fait suivre le parcours de ce con de clebs qui devrait finir à la SPA... ou mieux, expédié en Chine ! miam miam, très goûteux, bien préparé, spécialité wouah-wouah ! très bon !
Soit tout l'inverse de ce film très, très mauvais et très ennuyeux, si navrant et si ridicule qu'on arrrive pas à y croire : c'est aussi pour ça que les Hongrois en font pas de film ou si peu... c'est parce qu'ils ne savent pas. Ce n'est pas grave, on aime la Hongrie quand même ! mais pas au cinoche.
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Production Company
Proton Cinema,
Pola Pandora Filmproduktions,
Filmpartners,
The Chimney Pot,
Eurimages,
FILLSCRN,
Film i Väst,
German Films,
Hungarian Film Incentives,
Hungarian National Film Fund,
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg,
Svenska Filminstitutet (SFI),
VisionTeam,
ZDF/Arte
Release Date Mar 27, 2015
Duration 2 h 1 m
Rating R
Tagline The unwanted will have their day.
Awards
Chlotrudis Awards
• 3 Nominations
Cannes Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
Golden Rooster Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
