Dogs

V had work this evening, so it was just me and the dog, home alone. 

When I'm home alone, I usually watch a movie that V wouldn't like. As soon as she left, Winnie came and laid his head on my knee. He looked up at me, lovingly. So obviously I wanted to watch something about a man and his dog. 

If you draw a Venn Diagram of movies V wouldn't like and movies featuring a bond with a dog, the overlap contains one standout winner: I Am Legend.

The movie a slow contemplation of loneliness, and the "Other." I think it's ultimately about curing racism and hate, but what do I know? You laugh at Will Smith's attempts to stay sane, talking to mannequins and horrendously singing Bob Marley. 

The movie is fantastically paced. You slowly piece together a tragic story: 

     Humans cure cancer. 

     The cure mutates into horrible disease, becoming a pandemic. 

     NYC is cut off from the world; a desperate attempt to keep humanity safe. 

     Will Smith's wife and child nearly escape, before dying in front of his eyes. 

     Will stays in NYC trying to find a cure, as all living things disintegrate into soulless super-zombies. 

The only thing keeping Will Smith alive is his dog, Sam. His love of Sam is true, the last piece of himself left untouched. They go everywhere together, and Will risks his life several times to save the dog. Theirs is a special bond, perhaps the last living bond left on the entire planet. 

Sadness strikes. 

Sam contracts the disease while saving Will Smith from death. He rushes Sam home, the last hope being a recent successful trial of a potential cure on rodents. As Will holds Sam in his arms, he realizes that the cure has failed. Sam begins to "turn," and the camera zooms in on Will's tortured face while he strangles the last living thing in the world. 

Total. Loneliness. By this point in the movie, you know that Sam was it. Sam was the last hope. His dog was his last friend, his only friend. It ends quickly. Will tries to kill himself, a suicide-by-zombie affair. He discovers people, realizes that he has cured the disease, and then sacrifices his life to save both. 

I regret watching that movie tonight. That bond between Will and Sam are so real, so believable, that the strangling scene is almost too grotesque. It's tastefully done, but the emotional horror of that moment is too much. My heart rips itself from my chest, and I am spent. 

What a good movie.