Sunday, August 12, 2018

War Dogs from a Teenage Perspective : A Review of Max

I like dogs. I also really like working dogs.  The fact that people can train them to do important work always amazes me and enjoy seeing how loyal they do their jobs.

With that in mind, I decided to rent Max which is the fictional story of a German Shepherd that helped Army troups in war zones.  Max was a loyal dog who did his job well, but there were complications involving people to this story and Max is narrowly saved from death.

I initially rented this movie for my family.  However my kids were a bit young for the subject matter of this PG rated movie.  There are definitely complicated themes in this movie, and young children will probably not understand all that is going on.

Acting in this movie was well done. I believe the target audience might be teenagers and dog lovers.  There is definitely a teenage vibe coming from this movie as far as how to relate to other family members and deal with grief and distant parental relationships.  The other thing about this movie is that it is fiction.   I realize that the old show "Rin-Tin-Tin" was also fiction, but true stories have a little more impact I think.  I have also viewed the movie Megan Leavey which is another German Shepherd army dog movie.  That one was even less of a family movie, but both of them delivered in showing the value of trained working dogs in a war.   I liked them both.   I liked Max, but I also would have preferred A. either more true tales of working war dogs, or B. more of a kid-friendly look at war dogs and less teenage drama. 

Max was a good movie.  It showed the challenges of a war dog even showing the effect of PTSD on animals.  Don't expect mind-blowing plot points or deep philosophical points in Max and you will probably enjoy it quite a bit.  It shows the value of war dogs, and in some ways I enjoyed it more than the recent movie Megan Leavey.   Good movie and 3.5 stars out of 5. 

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