Dogfight: una storia d'amore

The most atypical River Phoenix role, the furthest from his own personality comes in this film. In Dogfight River plays a young Marine recruit who along with buddies Richard Panebianco, Anthony Clark, and Mitchell Whitfield who are on a last night's leave and are heading from their Treasure Island base for a night of fun and frolic in the San Francisco of November, 1963.

The guys are about to participate in a really mindless and sick ritual called a Dogfight. The guys seek out the ugliest woman they can find and bring her to a designated bar where they're judged. The 'winner' gets a prize of whatever monies the Marines have collected among themselves. Talk about objectifying the female body in a negative way.

Phoenix hooks up with sweet and shy Lilly Taylor who really moved me with her performance. She and her mother run a coffee shop and she's a quiet kid into folk music, her favorite being Joan Baez.

While the other three have the usual night on the town for the Armed Services, Phoenix and Taylor find they connect in ways that they never dreamed possible. As they get to know each other the audience sees a more typical River Phoenix.

I remember seeing this when it first came out. It had a limited release and was restricted to art houses. The theater I saw it in was memorable too, it was the only one I've ever been in without a concession stand, not even concession machines. I guess in this no frills theater I was lucky they had rest rooms.

Phoenix and Taylor make a very lovely couple. It's a good picture for River, but Taylor was the one who really blew me away.

On the day my friends and I learned of River Phoenix's unfortunate death, we planned to have a movie marathon that weekend. Apparently other people on campus had the same idea. By the time we got to the video store, all of the better known movies (Stand by Me, Mosquito Coast, My Own Private Idaho) had already gone. Someone happened upon Dogfight, of which none of us had ever heard. We decided to give it a shot.

What a fabulous movie! The "first kiss" scene will probably never have an equal: most movies show a first kiss as a passionate, perfect moment rather than an awkward and tense one.

Dogfight captures the feelings of the mid to late 1960's in San Francisco. It accurately shows the characteristics of young U.S. Marines destined for Vietnam. They are insensitive and cruel to the young women they invite to the 'Dogfight' because of their youth and the situation they find themselves in as G.I.'s. Being in the Air Force during this period I could relate to their crudeness as a posture taken by some young men as a defense against their environment. Being insensitive was a way to deal with their situation over which they had little control. The movie also accurately portrayed how young G.I.'s bond with other young guys who in civilian life they might not have bothered to befriend.

The love story involves a girl invited to the 'Dogfight' (a contest to see who could bring the ugliest girl) and the young Marine who brings her. She breaks through his shell of indifference and they become friends and lovers.

Lilly Taylor and River Phoenix are terrific. Their characters ring true and my wife and I cared very much about what happened to them.

Phoenix's return to S.F. after his tour in Vietnam was just as I experienced it. Although I was not returning from overseas when I returned the Bay Area in 1969, I discovered that the San Francisco of 1965 was totally gone and replaced with a foreign land.

'Dogfight' is accurately nostalgic for those of my generation and perhaps older. Younger viewers get to enjoy a truly good love story. They also get a glimpse of life as a young G.I. during that uniquely explosive period of change and social upheaval in America during the middle to late 1960's.

With the exception of that home video my ex made with her new boyfriend, "Dogfight" is the most upsetting film I've ever watched. The plot involves US Marines bound for duty (and possibly death) in Vietnam, having one last night on the town in San Francisco. As a challenge to each other, the lads partcipate in a game called dogfight, where the guy who brings the ugliest date (the "biggest dog") wins.

Even more disgusting than the game itself is the way Lili Taylor's character, the gentle Rose, gets roped in--eagerly getting dressed up and even touching up her makeup before the contest. It breaks the viewer's heart to see a young woman so trusting walk into something so degrading.

Without spoiling the plot for those who haven't seen the film (you owe it to yourself to do so) it's assumed there is always chance for redemption. River Phoenix, who died tragically just two years after the film's release, is memorable as a soldier who struggles with human contact. And Lili Taylor absolutely shines as the victimized but amazingly forgiving Rose, though it's hard to accept her as "ugly"--I think Lili Taylor is really cute and I'd give anything to go on a date with her.

I went to see this film because I am a River Phoenix fan, but when Ms.

Taylor appeared on the screen my breath was taken away. Never before

have I witnessed a more likable charater as well as an incredibly

sincere performance by such a young actress. I also was curious as to how anyone could tell a story about the Vietnam

war in a new way. Bob Comfort, the screenwriter is a genius as is Nancy

Savoca, the director. The closing scene is brilliant in its use of silence and facial

expressions. The war footage is minimal but poignant. This is a perfect

film and one of the best films eve