Underdog

Doug Butler is a force of nature with a good heart and an indefatigable positive attitude. "Underdog" follows Doug on his long path attempting to make it to a dog sledding race in Alaska as he faces the daily challenges of running a family farm in Vermont, without any sugar coating.

You'll learn as much about the rigors of running a small family farm as you will about developing a dog sled team - on a shoestring budget.

Doug seems to be constantly in motion, so much so that I doubt that Tommy Hyde, who made the film, could keep up with him or get him to sit down long enough to talk about his situation, which works to our advantage, I think, as we see Doug being Doug which tells us what we need to know.

Very interesting and heart warming with a sharp edge of reality. Well worth watching.

Doug Butler is captured in all his energy, humor, optimism and grace in the face of daunting challenges. Butler's comfort with the director allowed us astonishing access to the highs and lows of a dairy farmer's precarious existence. Like the best documentaries, the film often feels like a scripted narrative - a testament to the 300 hours of filming time and the filmmakers' skillful storytelling and editing.

Most importantly, Doug's story couldn't arrive at a better time in American life - we all could use some of his relentlessly big heart and good cheer. Share this film with others - it will stick with every person who watches.

Underdog is a wonderful celebration of Doug Butler, a Vermont dairy farmer with a very big personality huge dreams of racing his dogs in Alaska's famed Iditarod. The low budget documentary is heartfelt, heartbreaking and heart melting all at once. This independent film shows the daily struggles of farming and how truly hard it is to keep a farm alive in this modern economy; the audience experiences birth, the sad death of farm animals, and the joy of the palpable love between Butler and his dogs. I will forever hold the images of Doug kissing his dogs, and them loving him back. His exuberance for life is infectious and spills over the hardships he faces daily.

Underdog is a heartwarming, heart-wrenching, hopeful, and hilarious vérité film. It shares Doug Butler's rollercoaster of a journey on his farm in Vermont and finding his way to Alaska. I found myself with tears in my eyes one moment, and then cackling alongside Doug the next.

The filmmaker beautifully captured the passage of time, and vulnerable moments with Doug, someone who clearly doesn't open up too often. Those glimpses into the hardships of Doug's life added a layer of complexity that make the high-points that much higher, and left me cheering Doug along at every turn.

Loved this film.

You will find yourself immersed in Doug's life. His dairy farm and all the struggles of running a family business, his passion for dog racing, the seasons changing in Middlebury, Vermont.

It chronicles his struggles, but also his joys. You will be rooting for Doug in no time.

It is a window into rural America, the plights of small farms, and dogsled racing.

I enjoyed this film very much, it was, as another reviewer said it, "heartwarming and heart-wrenching" but definitely worth seeing.

Another important theme that comes up in the film is the higher suicide rate among farmers. I believe this film is relevant both for city dwellers and people that live in rural areas. The film maker and the subject of this documentary hope to help bring this film to rural places to start a conversation around this pressing topic.

Go see this film, it's the sweetest, most authentic movie I've seen so far this year.