Nothing in the 1991 film Dogfight is black and white, no matter what the greyscale filter on the box’s cover art and poster may imply. Or maybe, everything is. A cable classic that found its audience after release, Dogfight couldn’t be entering the Criterion Collection at a better time. With this year’s Democratic National Convention set for Chicago and a national anti-war movement in full bloom across college campuses, it feels like we’ve all been cast in a 1968 remake against our will. Dogfight takes place in 1963, five years before that defining year of the Vietnam War in America, and it’s constructed with a knowing eye, asking what it all meant, what we can learn, and mourning the futures lost when we let it happen. It’s a film we could all use right now.
L-R: River Phoenix as Birdlace in DOGFIGHT. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
The film follows River Phoenix (Our Own Private Idaho; Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) as Eddie Birdlace the night before he ships out for Vietnam with the first few waves of Marines. He’s fresh off the line with three buddies, Berzin (Richard Panebianco (Born on the Fourth of July; China Girl)), Benjamin (Mitchell Whitfield (My Cousin Vinny; TMNT)), and Oakie (Anthony Clark (The Rock; The Thing Called Love)), whose real name also starts with a “B.” They call themselves “The 4 Bees.” They have one night in San Francisco before they ship out to who knows where (but Birdlace is hoping for “a little country near India called Vietnam”), and they plan to make the most of it. They’re going to try and win a “dogfight,” a reprehensible, true-story ritual in the Marine Corps of the 1960s, where Marines compete to bring the ugliest date they can find. There’s a cash prize and machismo on the line. Starring opposite Phoenix, is Lili Taylor (The Conjuring; High Fidelity), as Rose, the girl he regrets bringing because it turns out, he really likes her, and if she finds out why, she’ll hate him.
Lili Taylor as Rose in DOGFIGHT. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
Taylor’s Rose is the co-protagonist of the film, even if she comes in later than Birdlace. This film is taking a hard look at the prejudice of men and of women’s internalized misogyny. It lampoons transphobia and homophobia and critiques the male gaze and the competitive nature of machismo. To do that, as will be discussed often in the extras as a terrible task, the film cast many women as “ugly.” Still, the camera is kinder than its subjects, and every woman is seen as worthy of respect and love, even as the men behave horribly. Lili Taylor, in particular, makes the film with her performance, using social awkwardness, a hanging bottom jaw, and a bad hair day to create the appearance of someone whom Birdlace would consider “ugly” at a glance, then transforming into someone he can’t live without, once she’s able to gather her whits. She manages what so many lesser films attempt when they have beautiful women pull off their glasses and “discover” they are beautiful. Instead, Taylor recognizes that confidence, awareness, and presentation are the real building blocks of appearing “attractive.”
Most easily defined as a coming-of-age drama, the genre-shirking Dogfight is a moving story about young love, young grief, and the tragedy of hope. The love story of Rose and Birdlace is the story of America in the ‘60s, a nation at war with itself and infatuated with itself. The obnoxious jarhead with a chip on his shoulder and the quiet, sensitive artist with a spine of steel. Bob Dylan is free-wheeling down the street, love is about to throw off its price tag, and a generation of American men are hours away from having their innocence and lives stolen from them in the name of a colonial dick-measuring contest for the rich and powerful. All of this is made even more tragically powerful by the metatextual star power of River Phoenix, who stands next to James Dean (Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden) as one of Hollywood’s greatest lost leading youth.
L-R/B-F: River Phoenix as Birdlace, Richard Panebianco as Berzin, Anthony Clark as Okie, and Mitchell Whitfield as Benjamin in DOGFIGHT. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
Few things make the young grow up faster than first love and first loss, and director Nancy Savoca (If These Walls Could Talk, Household Saints) stirs the two together with brilliant poignancy. The camera that follows Phoenix and Talyor is in love with them both and in tune with them both. It showcases economical, emotional picture framing and movement, and the colors are great, too. In the commentary, Savoca speaks about muting the film stock’s vibrancy during the timing process to ground the film in reality, but compared to today’s grey sludge and tan, lazy, and logarithmic looks, it’s practically a Warhol painting. The transfer, supervised and approved by the director, brings all of this out on the disc, and it’s particularly impressive during the night photography, where, if I may appraise the scanning and coloring work thematically, it lets a sense of time and place shine through.
L-R: River Phoenix as Birdlace and Lili Taylor as Rose in DOGFIGHT. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
As for the extras, the box has what’s become expected of Criterion’s less lauded new entrants, a good but not amazing essay by Christina Newman, a conversation with Savoca and Taylor moderated by Mary Harron (American Psycho, I Shot Andy Warhol) on the library set that many will recognize from the Criterion Channel’s output of exclusive extras, and a collection of Zoom call interviews with various heads of departments, which is better than it sounds. That last feature should become a film school classic, providing example after example of practical production problem-solving. However, as good as these new extras are, one can’t help but wish Criterion also threw in something a little more creative for the price tag, such as a film historian discussing how American pop culture was appraising Vietnam at the beginning of the ‘90s versus today, or a critical look at the impact of River Phoenix’s too-short career, as so many James Dean films come with. What comes on the disc is good, Savoca and Lily discussing turning Rose from a catalyst of Birdlace’s change into a fully realized character is fantastic, but Dogfight itself is so spectacular and full of subtext, I just wish Criterion approached the film with the same reverence and dedication for its mission. Recommending Dogfight is easy, recommending you buy it at full price? Less easy. This is one Criterion where it’s probably best to wait for a sale, yet the film demands urgent viewing. It’s a director-approved release, which is worth its weight in gold, but it simply shouldn’t be $40, it should be $30 at most. Just because Perdue has gotten away with artificially inflating the price of its chicken doesn’t mean Blu-ray distributors should do the same.
Dogfight Special Features:
- *New* 2K digital restoration, supervised by director Nancy Savoca, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- Audio commentary featuring Savoca and producer Richard Guay
- *New* Interview with Savoca and actor Lili Taylor conducted by filmmaker Mary Harron
- *New* Interviews with cinematographer Bobby Bukowski, production designer Lester W. Cohen, script supervisor Mary Cybulski, music supervisor Jeffrey Kimball, supervising sound editor Tim Squyres, and editor John Tintori
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- An essay by film critic Christina Newland
- *New* Cover inspired by an original theatrical poster
Available on Blu-ray April 30th, 2024.
For more information, head to the official Criterion Collection Dogfight webpage.
Share this:
Categories: Home Release, Recommendation
Leave a Reply