What's the point of the dog side story?
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jztzt — 13 years ago(May 01, 2012 06:40 PM)
A lot of Blake Edwards's films have some funny sight gags, subplots or events going on in the background, like the drunk waiter in The Party (1967). It's like his trademark. He's great when it comes to slapstick and physical comedy. In the case of this film, I haven't thought of it as symbolism, but merely black comedy and the idea that some actors and directors are unfairly treated and forgotten in the entertainment business. But if it is intended as symbolism, then I would guess perhaps the dog symbolized the state of mind that Felix was in. Felix was very dedicated to his picture but it failed miserably. The dead actor could be symbolic of the failure of the picture "Night Wind", and the dog could symbolize Felix's tremendous grief but still unyielding dedication to the picture.
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preppy-3 — 13 years ago(June 25, 2012 07:16 AM)
I never understood it either. I saw it with a friend of mine and he thought the dog watching the smoke was saying something like it's a dogs life (i.e. a bad life). But the other comments above make a lot more sense. Still I agree with O.P.it was sad and depressing seeing that poor dog whining near its owners body.
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N0TY — 13 years ago(February 13, 2013 11:36 AM)
I got took Dog as this It's a metaphor for people who are so wrapped up in themselves and their own situations, that they ignore the commonplace or meaningful things happening around them Their existence revolves around artificial people, things or situations, like the Hollywood scene.
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mnoe — 12 years ago(August 17, 2013 10:55 PM)
22 January 1941, Dunkirk (NY) Evening Observer, Harrison in Hollywood by Paul Harrison, pg. 6, col. 5:
And then there was Frank Fays advice to Ren Clair, the newly arrived French director. Said Fay,
If youre going to stay in this town and want a friend, go out and buy yourself a dog.
This general quote has been attributed to a lot of people about a lot of towns, but people in show business would certainly recognize the oblique reference Edwards was making to a common axiom. Nobody loves you in Hollywood except your dog.
last 2 dvds:
Ten
(2002) &
La ragazza che sapeva troppo
(1963) -
DJ_Dank — 12 years ago(October 22, 2013 02:39 AM)
I felt the only acts of true love and kindness shown in the movie were Felix's drunken friends stealing his body and giving him a Viking funeral. Everyone else in the movie was a selfish SOB working in Hollywood and playing the ruthless game, So as the dog looses his master and goes through the indignities of being ignored and abused, to finally see the smoke from the funeral fire at sea, shows hope in the dog eat dog world depicted in this acidic black comedy.
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jegprods-7-127794 — 9 years ago(July 17, 2016 01:40 AM)
I think there are 2 purposes of the dog:
1- Julie Andrew had a doctor who asked her and her husband, Blake Edwards, who directed S.O.B., if he could be in their film. I grew up with the doctor's children, and he was also my doctor throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He was close friends with Julie and Blake, who put him in most of his movies! His name is Herb Tanney and is often billed by different variations of this name. If you look up Herb Tanney in IMDB, you'll see how many times Blake Edwards gave Herb small cameos in many of his films. So, the first reason for the dog is not really for the dog at all. It's so that Blake Edwards could use his friend and doctor in a role that always has some significance in his films.
2 - The second purpose, I believe, is that Blake is taking a very deplorable look at the film industry. This can be seen through the title alone, but the man who has a heart attack on the beach is a great example of how narcissistic and self serving people in the film industry can be. Here are a bunch of people in the "business", having a party to help cheer up a filmmaker. Right next to them is either a dead, or a dying man, stranded on the beach. With the exception of his dog - the man is ignored completely. The film industry S.O.B.s are so single-minded and self serving that even when the dog howls, they cannot see or hear it. OR, the people in the film industry know he's there, but can't be bothered to help him! I think it highlights what Edwards is saying about the film Industry in a wonderful, non verbal way!!! I'm sure Edwards intended it to be funny, but he missed the mark, because it's too upsetting to be funny. It would have been more funny had the man sat right next to a party-goer, so close that he can actually touch her, but she is so self-absorbed that she pays him no mind. Or it might have been funnier had the party-goer seen the man gasping for breath and, in one swift move, changed her seat on the beach in order to sit next to someone who is actually alive, hence has the ability to help her! She simply has no time for anyone who cannot further her career! -
ChuckOp — 9 years ago(August 29, 2016 05:11 AM)
It's black comedy, in which you are meant to feel guilty for finding the humor in the situation.
But I just read this interview Blake Edwards did with Larry King and it explained a couple of themes of S.O.B. to me:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0207/27/lklw.00.html
EDWARDS: OK. I had decided that the time had come. I didn't want to live anymore. I went up on a bluff in Malibu where we lived. I had decided on the method, which was probably to slash my wrists, because I figured I could bleed into the lawn and nobody would notice it. And, I got a straight razor blade and I sat down in a chair on a beautiful sunny day looking out at the Pacific.
I'm in my tennis shorts, and as I prepared to do the deed, I felt a wet nose at my ear and I responded. It was my Great Dane and he knew something was going on.
He just knew and I said "Get away. Go away." I pushed him away and finally he became so almost abusive trying to get me to stop doing whatever it was I was doing.
I had locked him up in my studio, but I could see him through the glass because it was all glass studio.
KING: He knew?
EDWARDS: Yes, he knew. He was jumping and running and whining. You could hear him. And I thought well, in a little while that won't make any difference. I won't have to worry about him and I'm ready to do it again. And I feel this wet soggy thing at my crotch, and I look down and it's a tennis ball and our other dog, our retriever had now brought me a tennis ball and he knew what the hell was going on and he kept fetching this tennis ball and I kept saying, "Go away," and throwing the tennis ball.
KING: This is the suicide gone wrong.
EDWARDS: Right. So finally, I figured, I know what I'll do. I'll throw this ball over the cliff. It will go down on the beach. By the time he finds it and retrieves it
KING: You're dead.
EDWARDS: I'm dead, right? So I wind up and I throw the tennis ball and I dislocate my shoulder, and I fall over backwards in the chair and I decided at that moment that today was not the day for it.
KING: The gang that couldn't shoot straight.
EDWARDS: So I turn around and I started back toward the house feeling just terrible, and I thought oh, wait a minute. You know, always the one to worry about other people and I thought that razor blade's in the lawn somewhere. So I went over looking for the razor blade and stepped on it and cut, opened my heel up about that deep and ended up in the emergency in Malibu saying "hurry up or I'm going to bleed to death." That was one suicide attempt.
KING: What a great that's incredible.
EDWARDS: Yes, it's true.
KING: Taught you a lesson, though. You believe the dogs knew, though?
EDWARDS: Oh, they knew. There's no doubt they knew. Absolutely.