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Alpha Dog (2007) DVD Review
Alpha Dog (2007) DVD Credits:
Alpha Dog (2007) Directed by:
Nick Cassavetes
Alpha Dog (2007) Written by:
Nick Cassavetes
Alpha Dog (2007) Cast:
Emile Hirsch, Justin Timberlake, Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone, Ben Foster, Anton Yelchin, Dominique Swain, Charity Shea, Heather Wahlquist
Alpha Dog (2007) Released by:
New Line Cinema
Region:
1
Alpha Dog (2007) DVD Release Date:
30th April 2007
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Alpha Dog (2007) Synopsis:

Inspired by actual events, "Alpha Dog" revolves around a mid-level drug dealer from the San Gabriel Valley whose thirst for power led him to become, at 19, the youngest man ever to appear on the FBI's Most Wanted list. Emile Hirsch stars as teenage suburban drug dealer Johnny Truelove, an ambitious young man whose lifestyle is a mecca for guns, sex and drugs. When a "client" cheats Johnny and a deal goes bad, he devises a plan to get his money back by kidnapping the client's younger brother - but it's not a typical kidnapping when it turns out that everyone knows and likes the kid. So what now? Things take an unexpected twist as Johnny and his crew get caught up in the dangerous and violent world they once idealized.

Alpha Dog (2007) DVD Review:

Inspired by the true events which took place in the suburbs of Los Angeles, Alpha Dog is an impressive work of gritty teenage stupidity. Living in the suburbs of Los Angeles and working marijuana sales to the middle-class teenagers in these cities, these young wannabe thugs attempt to live the lifestyle of a drug dealer. When there are problems with money egos begin to collide until each tries to prove that he has the most control by acting with the most dominance and power, which inevitably leads to unspeakable violence over insignificant issues.

Johnny (Emile Hirsch) and his father (Bruce Willis) are a father/son drug dealing team, but Johnny begins to build his own criminal empire in the suburbs, acting as tough as he thinks he is supposed to act. When Johnny finds himself up against someone who won’t pay him his money, it begins a brutal and petty feud, which eventual ends in the kidnapping of an innocent fifteen-year-old who just happens to be related to the dealer who owes him money. Zach is dealing with his own teenage issues when Johnny and his friends stumble on him and decide impulsively to hold him ransom until they get their money from his older brother. Although Zach is taken and roughed up a bit at first, it isn’t long before he just treats the entire mishap as an escape from his parents, a vacation from the realities of life. This vacation includes long nights of partying and dubious amounts of marijuana, but more than anything else it is a vacation from his overbearing mother (Sharon Stone), so he never tries to escape while his parents are worried and his brother plots revenge selfishly.

Alpha Dog certainly seems to be a cautionary tale, especially in the detailed way that each witness to the crime once it went to trial is pointed out and given a name, however brief their interaction with the situation might have been. Although it is plain to see that there are remarks being made about parenting, the obvious blame is on the irresponsible parents who are far too lenient on their children, but not even the parents of the kidnapped survive. Although he was only fifteen he had already begun to talk back to his parents, especially his stifling and overprotective mother (Sharon Stone), another extreme parenting style which seems to have pushed some of the problems in the film as well. One parent admits to takes ecstasy to her daughter and another has his son grow marijuana for him while another parent watches over her son while he sleeps and controls him until he ends up acting the same way as the rest anyways. Whether or not the two extremes of parenting were partly responsible for the devastating series of events is certainly debatable, and it also certainly paints a disturbing portrait of middle class lifestyle in America. The kids always have enough money that they don’t ever have to worry, but not enough that they aren’t seduced by the lifestyle of a drug dealer.

The more remarkably disturbing and demoralizing Alpha Dog seems to get, the more it seems a fitting choice for Nick Cassavetes after his last two films, The Notebook and John Q, which proved that he has an incredible sensitivity and empathetic nature as a filmmaker. Cassavetes carries this same caring nature over into Alpha Dog, specifically showing the weakness in his characters without judging them mercilessly. The facts are shown as carefully as possible, as to carefully handle this recent disaster based on real events, without exploiting the situation for entertainment’s sake.

The DVD special features include a making of featurette, which is an average staple on most DVDs by now. There is also a witness timeline, as each witness is shown in the film, but there isn’t a whole lot of additional information to be found that isn’t in the film, other than hearing what the witnesses saw in their own words.

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Alpha Dog (2007) DVD review written by: Ryan Izay

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