In the movie Dog, a desperate and broken Army vet, Jackson Briggs, agrees to transport an unbalanced and equally broken retired K9 down the Pacific coast from Washington to Arizona. Formerly of the Army Rangers, Briggs is desperate to get back to the only thing he knows—combat. His captain promises him a chance to return on deployment if he can get retired Ranger K9 Lulu to her former handler’s funeral 1600 miles away on time. Briggs takes the assignment, figuring it for a cakewalk, but discovers it is anything but. In the end, connecting with Lulu is the key to identifying and confronting his own PTSD.
Dog stars Channing Tatum and is directed by both Tatum and Reid Carolin. Music is by Thomas Newman and consists almost entirely of pop culture hits from the last fifty years, along with a few classical pieces.
When I selected Dog as this month’s movie, I expected a Turner & Hooch type of movie with a military flavor: heavy on the madcap inter-species comedy with a few poignant scenes. Instead, I was caught off guard by how thoroughly woven throughout the film the importance of PTSD and recovery were, not to mention how broken and depraved the main character is at the movie’s start. Eve and I dive headfirst into deep themes brought up in Dog:
- The military mindset
- Maintaining facades
- The importance of empathy
- The importance of believing in something greater
Initial Reactions
Due to the content of this movie, we want to caution against taking family and children to see Dog. It’s both emotionally intense and contains a LOT of foul language and adult themes. It can be considered a niche film and might be best received by veterans and their extended circles. I came out of the theater in a worse mood than before. Partly because I see the damage they depict on the screen in many of my fellow veterans, I was not too fond of the main character, Jackson Briggs, for at least two-thirds of the movie. My impression of Tatum’s moral compass impacts my enjoyment of his performance. I may be unfair in this, but it is what it is.
While some of the commentaries in the movie are critical of the military mindset, I suspect that Dog had the support of the United States Army in production. If not full support, at least tacit approval. They got a lot of the “feel” right for the military elements, even some that are less understandable.
During the first half of the movie, Jackson makes quite a few completely unnecessary stops, leading to him locking Lulu in the car while he goes and practices at a firing range or tries to pick up women in a bar. (The latter scene, which must have lasted for hours since the montage, shows him striking out with four to six women.) These scenes might have helped inform the audience of Jackson’s character—or lack of character—but Eve and I felt like they unnecessarily inflated the movie. If they had come up with more creative ways to show him as a womanizing ne’er-do-well with no moral compass, they might have made Dog more accessible to a broader audience.
It would be wrong to say I enjoyed the movie, but I appreciated it. The film is a story of dual redemptions—both Jackson and Lulu—and I am a sucker for redemption arcs when it is all said and done.
The Military Mindset
There are quite a few lines in the movie that stand out as being unusual—or even cruel—to someone who has never worked around the military (and even some who have). However, the movie also shows Jackson as desperate to get back to military life, lying and cajoling to get back to the only life he understands. I think this is something that many veterans can empathize with. After getting out of the service, adjusting to civilian life is very difficult. Nearly one in three military veterans commit suicide rather than overcome the difficulty of adjusting.
One of the first lines that the movie provides is “Rangers find a way to die.” After news of Rodriguez’s death, the members of his unit gathered together for a wake of sorts. As they remembered him and his service, several times they finished their recollection with the phrase, “Rangers find a way to die.” They explained away Rodriguez’s suicide as a foregone conclusion through this line. When your job is going from one life-and-death struggle to another, the ability to control the circumstances of your death in that way is sometimes a best-case scenario.
The second line that stood out for us was, “The Army has no place for liabilities, and that’s what you are now.” This line underpins the entire movie. Jackson used it to refer to Lulu, but it applied as much to Jackson himself. A critical examination of this line reveals that the sentiment is not wrong. From a personal interaction level to a mission and operational level, you cannot afford to have wildcards like Lulu and Jackson, which can lead to teammates’ death or the failure to achieve mission objectives. Yes, they are broken because of their service, but that does not mean you want others’ lives to depend on them.
There are frequent references to Rodriguez’s “I Love Me” book in Dog. In reality, a little misrepresented in the movie, it is a place for a soldier to keep personal copies of all paperwork—both military and civilian. This representation makes perfect sense when you realize that military personnel offices receive special training in new and unusual ways to lose soldiers’ records. Rodriguez’s “I Love Me” book contains a lot more, including DVDs of Go-Pro footage of Lulu’s work, her “favorite” Grey’s Anatomy episodes, and therapy efforts, like letters from Rodriguez to Lulu. I found it an excellent way to work in exposition while using real-life military tradition without making it obvious.
The final line that jumped out as an example of the military mindset is, “They don’t know what it takes to be a hero.” This is, in general, true. What soldiers are compelled to do in combat by the very nature of fighting for their lives requires choices and actions that permanently affect their very psyche. But does this apply to dogs? I think it does.
Honesty vs. Maintaining Facades
While I was a bit blinded by the military aspects of Dog, one of the things that stood out to Eve was how Jackson was serially dishonest for the first half of the movie. There is an overly long scene where Jackson tries—and fails—to pick up several different women in a bar by saying what he thinks they want to hear. He says and does anything he thinks will support his lies. All of them see through his facade, though, and some even recognize it as a sign of a broken man. More than anyone else, Jackson is lying to himself. He is so focused on overcoming the barriers on returning to combat duty that he ignores the importance of genuinely recovering.
Jackson doesn’t know what he wants because he isn’t being honest. He’s embracing the lies and the debauchery. He is doing the opposite of what scripture advises:
For the one who wants to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit, and let him turn away from evil and do what is good. Let him seek peace and pursue it because the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do what is evil. (1 Peter 3:10-12)
Jackson’s character begins his redemption arc when he is caught in an elaborate lie and forced to face the truth. Later in the movie, when Jackson accuses a homeless man of almost the same type of dishonesty, he is gently corrected by his wiser companion, and he accepts the correction.
Healing Through Empathy
Later in the movie, Jackson stops by to visit Noah, the handler who adopted Lulu’s litter mate. Noah provides a wealth of insight into the recovery that Jackson is only just starting to admit he needs. He comments that when his dog stopped struggling, Noah realized that he could stop struggling. Noah helps Jackson to see that his recovery is entangled with Lulu’s recovery—they can serve each other. Throughout the movie, Jackson refers to Lulu simply as “dog.” It becomes clear that he does so to avoid forming a connection to the doomed animal. But this connection, Noah reveals, is critical to Jackson’s recovery. We see this reinforced in the Word of God as well:
Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone considers himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. (Galatians 6:2-3)
If you give yourself for someone else, you are fulfilling the law of Christ. Focusing on everything wrong in yourself is only depressing, but empathizing with others and seeking to carry their burdens helps to put your troubles in perspective and opens up an avenue for your companions to serve you in the same way.
Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. (Colossians 3:12-15)
“Even just a god—I mean anything.”
The ultimate healing is found in the peace of Christ. It doesn’t matter if your trauma is significant or minor; the actual healing is found in belief and faith in Christ as your Lord and Savior. This is part of the law that is written on the hearts of all humanity, regardless of their personal beliefs:
“Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the LORD’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33)
While this speaks to the situation at the time of Jeremiah, God’s words can also apply to humankind. We have an inherent need to worship God. It is the more fundamental kind of rebellion when we do not do this—ignoring what is written upon our hearts.
They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts either accuse or even excuse them (Romans 2:15)
It is also true that recovery requires an outlet—in the case of the movie, Noah was saying that recovery required talking to someone—anyone—as an outlet.
When Eve’s dad finally was treated for PTSD long after his return from Vietnam, the doctors were impressed with his ability to function in society with such a severe case of PTSD. When investigating what made him functional where so many others were homeless or worse, they pointed to his faith in Christ as a cornerstone for his ability to function.
Belief in a higher power is a common recurrence in some of the most successful recovery programs. However, this is even more effective when you believe that God understands what we are struggling with:
For since he himself has suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted. (Hebrews 2:18)
The Bible reminds us frequently that ours is a God that promises to renew us:
The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little while. (1 Peter 5:10)
Christ’s shared human experience is an anchor for our faith. Our God is a God who understands our suffering and will restore, establish, strengthen and support us.
If you or someone in your family is a veteran in crisis, please seek help.
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