First off, don't even attempt to watch this if you're not an avid dog lover. To be a true dog lover (excuse the pun... 'True' is also the name of the dog in the film's title) one not only feels an affection and admiration of dogs; they compulsorily get in tune with the mind of dogs with their patience, their gentleness, their playfulness, their wildness, their intelligence, their loyalty and their sense of wonder, amusement and dare I say, inherent Buddha Nature (living in the moment, being non-judgmental...). As one who has learned a lot about the inherent philosophy of dogs and has had the great luck to know the pure joy of their loving company, I can say that I loved this film. I also cried harder than I ever have for my dearest pooch who died over 25 years ago. I miss her every day.
Still, this film will have its detractors and I will say that I can understand why people might find this film 'difficult' or even unwatchable. It starts with a B&W vignette of a naked woman lounging around her parlor, then there's a vignette about Dirk Bogarde that seems to veer away from the subject of dogs, a vignette about a redneck family who raise dogs, horses and other animals, segments about war, surfing, Haiti, Liz Taylor, 9/11 and Martin Luther King, all interwoven with home movies of Weber's dogs and occasional clips form classic dog movies like Lassie & Rin Tin Tin. Is there something to this seemingly incoherent mess?
I think for most people it will be a giant headache. It worked for me because A) as a Dirk Bogarde fan (!) and a lover of home movies, I could have watched that vignette forever (Bogarde also presents some of the film's theme: "being me is being the person I always was... that child in the meadow... having that innocence again, the freedom, that possibility of life before you, to exist to live as simply and as happily as I can") and B) I somehow watched this movie from the perspective of True, the addressee of the proposed letter. How does life sum up in the mind of a dog? When I go shopping for food or go surfing or gardening or watching a movie, I think of my dog and I try to share that experience with her. I show her pictures in magazines and read her poetry so indeed, I feel a kinship to Bruce Weber for essentially doing the same with his dogs in this film (and I cradle my pooch in my arms and sway when I listen to music as I did while watching this film). This is a symbiotic vision of man and dog of this crazy often beautiful and often tragic world that we live in. From a dog's perspective, it's pretty crazy, sad and funny. Maybe if more humans could see how unnecessary our prejudices and our need to bend the world into our selfish desires really are, we'd have a better world. The movie invites us to let go of our instinctive prejudices (got a problem with nudity? Your dog is naked... what's the big deal?) and just see the world through dog eyes. Maybe happiness isn't as illusive as we think it is.
