“Baxter” is the story of Baxter, who is a Bull Terrier … who thinks things, and is envious of humans, and wants to meet a human who is “like” him. He wants to be a part of the human world, he wants to understand. But those humans keep getting in the way.
First impressions, favorite moments:
— all of the extreme close-ups of Baxter’s face. Baxter is a bull terrier. The camera gets right up in his face. Sometimes all you see are his eyeballs. He looks so pathetic – the face is so hilarious – and the profile. The profile was too much as he stared longingly across the street at the house of the young couple.
— the VOICE of Baxter the dog. Baxter speaks in a male voice, very low and gravelly, and he sounds like he could literally go off the deep end and snap emotionally at any moment.
— I loved the words of Baxter as well. He spoke in very blunt cut-and-dry terms. He was living with “the old lady” (a chaotic unhappy time in his life) and she wouldn’t let him go outside, and he became obsessed with the couple across the street. He had “unnatural thoughts”. He would sneak to the window to stare at them. Multiple shots of the profile of the dog’s face as he looks out the window, which was funnier every time I saw it. The Old Lady closes the door of her bedroom, and he can’t go in there. Here comes the voiceover:
“She does things in there I’m not allowed to see. So I go to the window and imagine that I am smelling the garden.”
All said in this kind of barely-psychotic voice-over voice.
— I loved the shots of Baxter running like mad behind the kid’s bike (before their relationship turned sour as well). Oh, he was so happy – he was running SO HARD – with this little bow-legged run – but you know that in his heart, this is one messed-up dog, who has already killed The Old Lady and tried to kill “the creature” (the newborn baby of the couple across the street) – so his glee at running down the street is intensely disturbing.
— Baxter in the damn tutu. Baxter, with that psycho male voiceover voice, in a tutu, being made to stand on his hind legs and dance.
Baxter confesses that it “hurts” not to obey the command “Heel”.
The indignity of it all. The indignity of being a dog.
I’d see it, but I doubt Emily would mail it to me.
You know, my wife normally loves cute animal films, and I usually hate them. But if you and Emily like it….
Well, it doesn’t sound like something we’d want Jake to see, but…
I think it was after toasting Tony Blair, we talked movies after we talked politics.
I also love Baxter’s description of the Creature: “I’ve never seen anything so weak and stupid”.
The final moment with the boy looking out across the street at the young couple is the icing on the cake of this film.
I tried looking for it, but it seems to be out of print. I absolutely must see this movie and I demand that someone send me a copy. DEMAND!
Dean –
This is in no way, shape, or form a “cute animal film”. It is a French film, it is a bit sick, and very subversive. Not for kids. There is human nudity (because he spies on his owners having sex and he has “unnatural thoughts” about it – and then there is … well … there’s no other word for it … Baxter rapes a young female dog who is in heat. You know she wanted it, though!! And afterwards, Baxter is very ashamed. The close-up of his “ashamed” bull terrier face is hysterial.)
But definitely not a kids movie!
Sheila – we should just keep passing it around. Send it on to Michele and Dean.
Okay. Next up – Michele.
Maybe if we all keep writing about this, we could spark enough interest to pass Baxter around all 50 states!
A Baxter revival. A grass-roots resurgence.
Vincent Canby would be pleased.
Oh, and Bill…I believe the line was “I have never seen anything so weak and mindless…almost hairless…I thought that they were ashamed of it, that they were apologizing…”
I love the revival idea. If we hype it enough, maybe it will even be released on DVD!
And the copy must make its way past Rodya at some point. I always promise to mail him things and then flake out.
Where does Rodya live?
Should the relay go:
Michele to Dean to Rodya…?
Michele first, since she’s in your region. Rod’s in St. Louis. Dean’s midwest somewhere, right?
Dean’s in Michigan somewhere.
So I believe, in terms of longitude and latitude – Dean would come first – although I would have to check on a map.
Ah, I love Baxter!
I rented it, probably six or seven years ago, and LMAO. The matter-of-factness of Baxter’s descriptions of his various problems is frequently hilarious, but in places it can also break your heart. It is a great movie – excellent call, Red. We need to start a grassroots Baxter DVD movement.
(I’m momentarily playing hooky here, so unfortuantely can’t stay long)
Emily gets all the props here …
She basically would not rest until Bill McCabe and I had both seen the film.
It is now going to begin its perilous journey across the US.
But it certainly is nice to see that someone else has seen this weird and great little movie.
I’m going to have a copy of my own arriving in the next few days, so I can aid in the circulation efforts.
Thanks for the exact line, Emily. I’m thinking of making it my next tagline for my blog.
Don’t forget “toothless”, Bill! I think the exact quote is in the Blogcritics review.
I know I love dark comedies, and Ron does too, I’d love taking a peek at that movie, sounds like a scream.
Laura,
I’ll send mine to you and Ron, just e-mail me your address. I’ve forgotten.
Not a prob Bill, thanks.
The Dog Who Thinks
When I met up with Sheila and Bill in NYC last year, I told them about my all-time favorite movie, Baxter. Unfortunately, it’s a very hard film to get your hands on, so I mailed my VHS copy to the…