Well Deserved Praise

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

I read in another review (here on IMDb) that Lee Marvin was ill during the shooting of this film and that this was a total waste of his talent. I agree that Marvin's role is rather minimal, and in that sense it never becomes a great role in the twilight of his career, but he doesn't do bad at all (especially now that I know about his condition during the shoot), and there are plenty more actors and actresses who do their bidding, especially Miou-Miou as a woman who likes sex but, for a change, is not discarded as a slut, and the extraordinary David Bennent (well known for his part in 'Die Blechtrommel'), playing a career-criminal in the making.I don't mind that there is no real main character here, just like there is no genre here that really dominates; it's a mix of heist-gone-wrong, man-on-the-run, a gorefest (with a lot of rather casual, bloody killing), raw drama about a dysfunctional farmer's family and their helpers (some pimps and thugs and cops and hookers show up as well), a little (sort of, though rather twisted) coming-of-age drama and a formidable ending which gives much room to especially Marvin and Bennent to shine, but Miou-Miou in a red dress in the rain should not be missed either.No, it's not a perfect movie, but it's a hell of a lot of gruesome fun! A big 8 out of 10.

Although I haven't seen every one of his movies, I am reasonably confident to call "Dog Day" the strangest movie Lee Marvin ever appeared in. Why he decided to appear in it, I have no idea, especially since he was still a big star back home in the United States. Fans of Marvin will likely be disappointed by the fact that Marvin doesn't appear in this movie as frequently as he does in his other movies - in fact, he almost becomes a secondary character. The other characters in the movie are a real weird lot, disappearing and reappearing seemingly at random, and acting in random ways when they do appear. Certainly, the movie at first does command your attention because you've likely not seen anything like it before, but it soon becomes tiresome, and you likely won't care what happens at the end when it eventually gets there.

***SPOILERS*** After a blotched robbery with half a dozen people, including an eight year old boy, getting killed American gangster Jimmy Cobb, Lee Marvin, is on the run, with the French Police hot on his tail, in the French countryside with the couple of million dollars he heisted.Burying the money in a nearby wheat field Jimmy doesn't realize that he's been spotted by 13 year-old Chim,David Bennent, who's got big plans for himself in becoming the towns next Godfather. Drgging up the money when Jimmy was still on the run Chim replaces it with a bag full of rocks and uses most of it to party around town, like drinking booze smoking cigars and carousing around with hookers, thus throwing suspicion on himself. Back at Chim's family's farm where Jimmys hiding out the man of the house, I'm not quite sure what relationship he has to Chim, the piggish and coarse Horace-Victor Lanoux-is busy abusing, whom I assume is Chim's older sister, his wife Jessica,Miou-Miou. It's in this strange and dangerous environment that the fugitive Jimmy Cobb finds himself in.It doesn't take that long for Horace's family that includes his always drunk brother Socrate, Jean Carmet, and nymphomaniac sister Segolene, Bernadette Lafont, to discover Jimmy and hold him hostage until the police arrive with them getting a fat reward for his capture. It's later when the greedy Horace decides to get Jimmy to tell him where he hid the millions of dollars he stole, and keep it all for himself, that things begin to get a bit crazy at the Horace Farm. Crazy enough to have Jimmy want not only to be capture but even end up dead in order to avoid being stuck with the Horace crew! Which to Jimmy would be a fate far worse then death itself!A number of side plots in the movie have to do with Horace and his wife Jessica trying to use Jimmy as a scapegoat in crimes that they themselves plan and end up committing. This in both Horace & Jessica knowing that that the fugitive from the law Jimmy, not them, will end up being blamed for them. There's also the tragic domestic, or house maid, Gusta-Marguerite Muni-who's always being threaten by Horace to be sent to a nursing home. This in Horace knowing perfectly well that she's terrified of being sent there and would end up killing herself if she was. The movie soon get completely out of hand with Jimmy, the man on the spot, getting romantically involved with Jessica who's using him as a pasty or fall guy in the planned murder of her abusive husband Horace. This all leads to Jimmy ending up murdering, as well as being framed for murdering, at least another half dozen, not including those killed in the bank holdup, persons by the time the movie is finally over!***SPOILER ALERT*** With the money gone and him having no hope for escaping the police dragnet Jimmy's only hope now is to get himself killed and finally be put out of is misery. Even that wish on Jimmys part is in jeopardy with the Al Capone or John Gottie wannabe Chim, now calling himself Aniro De La Crouchie, wanting to capture Jimmy alive and become famous for doing it!As it turned jimmy did deny, by personally blowing his own brains out, Chim from taking him alive but it was fun loving Doudo Doudo, Joseph Mono, the grease monkey and all around handyman at the Horace Fram who ended up with all the stolen cash. The perpetually lucky Doudo Doudo came across the stolen money, after Chim dug it up and reburied it, and thus ended up not only leaving the crazy Horace place but moving into a swanky penthouse in Paris and ended up living happily ever after.

This is essentially a trash film that luckily does not take itself too seriously. It is well aware of its nature as entertainment and uses themes familiar from such films as "Deliverance" and "The Hills Have Eyes" in a sort of parodic context.It features a family living in rural France where the father is a brutal and violent pervert, his brother is same but worse, the son (about 10) is following on the same track and the father's sister is a nympho. Key in lots of tasteless moments (the clubbering to death of two Swedish (topless) campers, the suicide of the grandmother when they threaten to take her to old folks' home, the spending spree of the 10 year old kid in a cathouse and so on)and what you have is a fairly entertaining exploitation picture with a European touch.You know whether you'll like it or not! Definitely not for the fans of Lee Marvin...