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ADULT DVD REVIEW INDEX
DOG WALKER (1994)
Evil Empire DVD (region 0)
d. John Leslie; scr. John Leslie; cast. Steven St. Croix, Kristi Lynn, Christina Angel, Isis Nile, Jon Dough, John Leslie, Lana Sands, Maeva
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Potent Blend of Sex & Violence Too Problematic for Adult Studios
Adult star John Leslie began acting in hardcore in the so-called “golden era” of the 1970s.
His ambitions steadily grew to the point where he began directing films and videos through the 1980s and beyond. Although many of these works were indifferent attempts, now and then Leslie demonstrated an almost over-reaching ambition: in such films as Curse of the Catwoman and Chameleons: Not the Sequel. However, his contemporary reputation as a visionary in adult cinema rests on one film in particular, Dog Walker, often regarded as having some of the darkest imagery in the field. Dog Walker was originally set up for industry leader VCA but Leslie argued with executives over what was acceptable to be shot for a porn film. As the studio thus enforced its own strict production code, especially regarding the still highly problematic combination of sex and violence, Leslie was forced to go elsewhere. Leslie was determined to take the risks necessary to produce Dog Walker and terminated his lucrative arrangement with VCA to do so. Leslie then used his own funds to produce Dog Walker on film rather than video. The resultant release was highly controversial but became one of the most highly regarded adult films of the year, and the decade, earning several awards despite many opponents in the industry who felt it was too bleak and too pretentious to present its sex as in any way enjoyable.
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Synopsis (contains spoilers)
Dog Walker contains a layered plot. Steven St. Croix plays a jewel thief who delivers some stolen diamonds to his criminal contacts.
They refuse to pay him his due and instead set out to intimidate him into acquiescing to the greater organization. St. Croix is distraught at this and leaves. Outside in the street, he is apprehended by mysterious thugs who rough him up. He returns home to find that things have changed for the worse: he is beaten up by two thugs who then forcefully fuck his wife (Kristi Lynn) just as she scorns and mocks him about the end of their relationship. He goes to the head crime boss (veteran Jamie Gillis) who basically says that he is owned: property. There he sees an attractive, silent woman (the debuting Christina Angel) whom he increasingly begins to obsess over, thinking her his true fantasy woman. Gillis instead casts him out of the organization to which he belonged. He goes to a friend (John Dough) who gets him a room in a cheap hotel where he goes to a bar and is propositioned by a whore (Isis Nile) whom he takes aside to fuck after accepting her pimp’s deal. Later St. Croix is roughed up by corrupt cops just as his friend Dough scores with two women (Lana Sands and Maeva). St. Croix finally meets the female object of his obsession but after their encounter finds himself back in the alley he was in earlier, about to be stabbed by another crime boss.
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Fetishized Death, Oblivion & The Nihilistic Fantasized Sexual Compensation for Lost Potency
Dog Walker is a film about a two-time loser whose world collapses around him through forces he cannot control.
After being sexually humiliated he retreats into behavior which seems to indicate his desperate need to find an identity. He obsesses over his ideal woman, the femme fatale figure Angel, as if this will somehow rescue him, unaware that Angel is a personification of death and that his obsession with her has all been a death dream, a few lingering sexual fantasies after he is stabbed in an alley. Leslie uses the end of the film and its suggestion that was has previously transpired in a narrative combination of fantasy and reminiscence to suggest the psychological collapse of a man who has lost his sense of a future. Playing narrative games throughout, the film emerges as the fragmented portrayal of a man who desperately tries to regain his sense of independence – expressed as his sexual obsession with Angel – but who is doomed in the attempt. Sex in Dog Walker is rough and raw, more about power than passion and is presented with a kind of despairing fascination, making the film a bleakly nihilistic vision. Although never truly anarchic, the film flirts with a misanthropic view of humanity which finds its expression in explicit emotionless sex as an expression of personal authority and gender power relations. Sex is a fantasized weapon of conquest and possession in this distressing film.
Leslie is concerned here with the link between sex and death. It is in a growing realization of his own death ultimately that St. Croix is able to attain his fantasized ideal woman but it is in death that he realizes it is all an illusion.
For Leslie thus, sexual obsession is in a sense a death dream, a longing for a fantasy sexual figure to possess and conquer as if that alone will somehow stave off the inevitable loss of control over circumstances and life. The first sex scene is thus so set up to taunt St. Croix as a expression of power to humiliate him and his subsequent efforts are all to re-establish his lost pride, re-assert his façade of masculinity. This psychological juxta-positioning of a man whose sexuality represents his battle for self-assertion but whose needs propel him into the appreciation of his own dying sense of control works effectively in this film. Although Leslie is not as adept at handling the more complex transitions as the concept demands, the intent is there and the effort most intriguing, making for a complex and deliberate adult film which fully deserves its status as one of the most provocative of recent efforts in the porn genre. The equation of fantasized sexual fulfillment and death makes much of Dog Walker a bleak exercise in personality dissolution and also a worthy effort to use aspects of film noir’s oppressive world view in a hardcore pornographic context, ambitious and thought-provoking.
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The Grubby Seediness of Smarmy Human Sexuality
The fullscreen visual transfer effectively captures the grimy shot-on-film look of what Leslie intends as a rather grubby and seedy view of human sexual nature.
It uses grainy textures, slow-motion and a sense of fragmented narrative disconnectedness to expose its story of a man attempting to regain control through sexual obsession with a fantasized woman. The film balances reality, reminiscence and fantasy well, blurring the distinctions between them in a surprisingly stylish effort. Compositions are frequently studied and there is a noirish use of tilted angles and overhead shots. Editing rhythms are fluid and the sex scenes utilize hand-held camera work most effectively. The sex is always raw if emotionless and somewhat cold in affect despite their excitingly prurient stimulation. The use of shadows and colored lights in night scenes is effective and there is a restless, hard intensity to much of the film that makes it a very tough and terse work, edgy when necessary. Sex scenes are starkly presented and wholly deglamorized as the fragmentary narrative juggles different layers of reality. The Isis Nile scene makes good use of a peep show booth and an interplay of points of view and the recurrent intercutting of sex scenes with violent scenes suggest their inherent interrelationship in the expression of power fantasies. The sex incorporates a variety of practices (including a fine anal penetration of Maeva) and all cum shots are facial.
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The Surreal Edginess of Street Sax Blues
The sound transfer is an engaging enough Dolby Digital stereo, preserving the fine and even suspensefully edgy score, its bluesy aspects frequently segueing into street noise to aurally suggest a noir work.
There is some industrial grinding noise in the background, for a David Lynchian sense of factorial working, making for an added grimness to the ambience in many scenes. The offbeat and raw-feeling score underlies many of the sex scenes and the expected sounds of passion which range from the demure Christina Angel to the aggressive come take me nymphomania of Kristi Lynn. There is a clever use of dialogue spread out over two different scenes in different locations to give the impression of one conversation covering different layers of reality. In addition is a curious and even distressingly other-worldly echo in the scenes with Isis Nile adding a note of aural surreality to the proceedings. The use of a saxophone in the background is effective as is the frequent filtering in of the sounds of the outside world. At times, Leslie allows the ambience to concentrate on the sounds of passion, underscoring and contrasting both the fantasized dimension to the sex scenes and their stark authenticity as porno movie numbers. The use of single instruments over some of these sex scenes also adds to this sense of stark examination. Maeva’s French accent adds a little taste of the exotic to her scene.
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Special Fetish Menu a Treat for DVD Fans
There are numerous special features on the DVD. Of interest is a fetish menu offering quick links to an assemblage of scenes divided into blowjob, anal, masturbation, cumshot, butt shot, pussy eating, rimming, fondling, tit sucking, 69, female body and anal finger.
It is a comprehensive breakdown and listing of the sexual practices depicted in the movie. Also to be found are several out-takes of select scenes (notably including Kristi Lynn and Christina Angel) and a photo gallery of stills from the movie. There is a brief biography of director John Leslie from a reminiscence by an acquaintance as well as a history of the production of the movie itself. Found also are details of Leslie’s musical endeavors as harmonica player and singer for the John Leslie Blues Band as well as CD ordering information. There is a short distributor website information page as well as previews for a variety of other John Leslie titles – for the narrative movies Fresh Meat and Dirty Tricks as well as extracts from parts 1, 4 and 5 of Leslie’s hit The Voyeur series. Sadly lacking is more information about Dog Walker itself. Although there is enough about Leslie to form an introduction to the man, the features do not contextualize Dog Walker in his work and although reveal the film’s reputation do not seek to examine the film in details. As Dog Walker is a film of considerable ambition, some additional insight via commentary or director interview would have been especially welcome.
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Dog Walker
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