By Lucy Nixon
Director: Ridley Scott
Writers: Mark L. Smith, based on the book by Peter Heller
Cast: Jacob Elordi, Josh Broli, Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce, Allison Janney, Benedict Wong
Rating: 3/5
Ridley Scott turns 89 years old in about two months. I don’t mean to make a point of ageism about his new film, The Dog Stars. This film isn’t what it is because Scott is almost a nonagenarian. But it’s important to contextualise where this film is in his career to understand it better.
This is his 30th picture in 49 years. A career that covered almost every genre of big studio production, with an impressive resume of critical endorsement and audience approval. Where would we be without Thelma & Louise and Alien, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down?
Scott is ruled by an almost industrious approach to filmmaking. He shifts almost seemingly from project to project, adapting himself to the needs of what he understands the audience wants. Story comes first, followed closely by style, and only at the end, his ego. Scott doesn’t care about what film students say about him. He doesn’t care if there aren’t any books dedicated to unpacking his entire filmography. At 89 years old, Ridley Scott is on a mission to conquer every audience out there.
This is where The Dog Stars lies. A post-apocalyptic action drama, which can prosaically be called a dad movie, hits the right notes to the right audience. The story follows a group of humans after a pandemic wiped out most of humanity (Peter Heller’s book was published in 2012, but it’s not surprising that Hollywood scrambled for stories like this after we experienced our own, very real pandemic).
Hig (Jacob Elordi) lives in an abandoned airfield with his dog Jasper and an older, cranky man, Bangley (Josh Brolin). He often flies to Denver to look for supplies and intel on a local group of barbarians called Reapers, who every once in a while attack the airfield. He also checks in with a local Mennonite group in a peaceful valley, headed by the gentle Aaron (Benedict Wong).
Hig is haunted by the memories of his wife, only appeased by his dedication to Jasper, who is quickly jettisoned to the pantheon of good boys in modern cinema. He’s also obsessed with contacting the people who live in the city of Grand Junction, which lies just outside of the point of no return for his little Cessna aircraft. After an attack, and with nothing left to lose, Hig decides to take that risk, finding the help along the way in Cima (Margaret Qualley) and her father, Pops (Guy Pearce).
At first glance, it feels like The Last of Us without the zombies, but The Dog Stars resembles more the work of Taylor Sheridan and his collection of modern westerns, like Yellowstone. The plane flights are accompanied by beautiful images of the Italian mountains, dubbed for Colorado, and the tune of a weeping country guitar.
Life in the post-apocalypse is decidedly dull until something exciting happens. Elordi chops wood in his Carnhart jacket. He raids a bar looking for Sprite to give to children. He drinks whiskey with his ex-Marine buddy. It’s all very salt-of-the-earth and true American.
It’s not without its shortcomings. Scott relies too much on recognisable visual traits to cut corners, which has been his modus operandi for the last ten years. So the reapers are coded by Indians in westerns, mixed with Hispanic gangsters. At 89, Scott doesn’t seem to understand the unsavoury repercussions of this, or he does, but he figures it’s an easy way to represent a foreign threat, even if his intentions are not that evil.
I did like how the society in Grand Junction contrasts with the rest of the survivors. Allison Janney plays a vicious leader who works hard to create her own idyllic utopia, and diminishes the burley rough men for their lack of class. Again, does Scott truly believe that, or does he just know who he’s talking to?
The Dog Stars is a film that will eventually find its audience, and it’ll work like gangbusters for them. There’s a gentle message of community and anti-isolationism that I don’t think an American director could pull off so well.
It’s harmless in its intentions, but I give credit for speaking a visual and narrative language that a niche group will understand. Ridley Scott read the writing on the wall, and after the pandemic, he noticed that post-apocalyptic fantasies and Taylor Sheridan projects were all the rage. So I cannot really blame him for giving the people what they want.
That’s always been Scott’s style.
