Once in a while you run across a simple, sort of quiet movie that far exceeds your expectations. Last of the Dogmen is such a movie.
How the film did back in 1995, when it was released in theatres, is unknown to me. Like most fans, I first saw the film when I rented it on videotape. It's been on HBO (as recently as May of 2005), and now it's available on DVD. Tom Berenger stars as Lewis Gates, a troubled widower who blames himself for his wife's accidental death. Barbara Hershey is the co-star; she plays Prof. Lillian Diane Sloan, an intellectual with a passion for Native American history. They're an odd couple, and it's difficult to see how (or if) they could have any sort of romantic relationship.
But Last of the Dogmen isn't really a love story; it's a story about Native Americans, about adventure, about a dream we probably all hold in our hearts about living freely.
Is it hokey at times? Sure. It's narrated by Wilford Brimley, which gives it a sort of Saturday-morning-western-on-television feel, which I don't mind at all.
Is the plot plausible? I'd have to give away too much of it to answer that question, and there's no way I'm about to do that. I can tell you that it concerns the possibility of discovering a "lost tribe" of Native Americans, who have remained free in the wild.
Is it worth watching? Very. There's drama, adventure, some action, some understated passion, even an occasional bit of light humor. The movie was both written and directed by Tab Murphy. I believe he went on to write scripts for Disney movies; The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tarzan, etc. Anyway, the point is this: Last of the Dogmen is a fine movie, and there are precious few of those out there.
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