A Dog Called... Vengeance

I sat down to watch El Perro on a late TV showing, I had never heard of it but a friend recommended it and I had nothing better to do anyway; and soon I found myself deeply engrossed into the story. It is in structure a very simple chase story, but the struggle between Jason Miller's laconic fugitive and the larger-than-life, metaphorical dog following his footsteps has an epic proportion. Every time you think the film has run out of ideas, something happens to keep you interested; it contains some great action scenes, but also a resounding political message (the director, Spaniard Isasi, meant the dictator to be an alter ego of Francisco Franco). This film shows how much a small budget can be stretched with imagination and intelligence.