Luc Besson is known for his iconoclastic movies, as he continues to challenge the beliefs of his audience and seemingly cares little about a potential uproar. Besson’s movies occasionally lack realism, at least to some extent, but the main focus of his projects is to move people. Whether it is in discomfort, hope, or confusion, the director has managed to evoke a myriad of emotions within his audience. Besson has been an established filmmaker for over three decades now, which seemingly allows him to explore his creativity beyond society’s expectations and maybe even its limits.
One of his most recent movies, which was released in the United States at the beginning of 2024, has received split opinions, as it combines a variety of strong emotions. The dark thriller DogMan, which was written and directed by Besson, delivers a distressing story of childhood trauma and complex struggles with healing from cruelty. Even more unsettling is the fact that Dogman was inspired by disturbing true events.
What Is Luc Besson’s Dogman About?
Director Luc Besson’s arthouse movie focuses on the life of Douglas Munrow, who is portrayed by Caleb Landry Jones. The antihero in the movie is brought into a police station where he is interviewed by a psychiatrist. When he recounts his traumatizing experiences, flashbacks reveal that Doug suffered severe abuse at the hands of his father. As a form of punishment, Douglas was locked away in a kennel and was forced to stay there next to dogs that were used for fights.
While the father’s intention behind this is clear, the outcome was surely unexpected. Instead of falling victim to the dogs, the animals turned into Doug’s protectors. He was able to teach them complex commands, which served him to achieve personal justice for all the unimaginable suffering. Growing up hidden away from society, Douglas developed certain habits as a social outcast, predominantly relying on his connection with his dogs. To him, it isn’t humans that can offer him comfort, but it is his dogs.
The True Story Behind Luc Besson’s DogMan
Considering the cruelty that Doug opens up about in DogMan, it is difficult to fathom that Luc Besson’s movie is inspired by true events. The writer and director, who likes to dip into the arthouse genre, was moved by a heartbreaking event, in which a five-year-old boy was simply thrown into a kennel with aggressive dogs and left there to fight for himself. While the incident was extremely shocking in itself, Besson developed a particular interest in what went on in the boy’s mind. How was his mental health affected? How did he respond to the trauma? And, at a later stage, how can someone move on from such suffering?
Apart from drawing from what happened to the previously mentioned boy, DogMan’s Douglas was fundamentally created by taking all of Besson’s previous characters from his movies of the last few decades and merging them into one. The reason for this was that, ultimately, the creation of Douglas is about his mind, behavior, and his reactions, which are intended to capture the complexity of human struggles in his movie.
DogMan Explores the Complexity of Human Struggles
Childhood trauma sets up a difficult foundation for someone’s future, and it always leaves those who are affected with having to make an important choice. It is nothing unusual that unresolved trauma can lead to significant issues later in life, and go as far as to make problematic choices. As for DogMan, the story kicks off with whether Douglas will be able to endure, overcome, and eventually heal from the traumatizing experiences he was fighting to survive or if he will fall down further and let darkness engulf him in his entirety.
Throughout the movie, it becomes clear that even though Doug never experienced any form of human affection, he still found love in a different way. He built a profound relationship with his dogs, caring for them as they cared for him, which makes DogMan one of the best dog movies out there, even if the story is intense. The dogs helped the character to stay on the right, even if sometimes twisted, path, and learn what unconditional love is. Despite all the trauma and abuse he was forced to experience, the character in DogMan made the decision to avoid continuing on the wrong path in life, and he had the mental strength and will to choose goodness on some levels.
Luc Besson’s DogMan works as a reminder that a human monster is not always just purely evil. Sometimes a look underneath the surface is enough and also necessary, and maybe a softer side and the deepest point of someone’s real character can be discovered. There is often an intense longing for love buried far beyond the twisted hatred which resulted from trauma.
DogMan, in a way, is all about freedom, and how Doug broke free from the constraints of the kennel only to then be caught in the constraints of trauma. However, Besson ensured that there is hope, no matter how deep-reaching the emotional pain is. Ultimately, it is the director’s aim to convey the message that it is possible to break free from trauma and find hope and comfort in the most unexpected things or beings. DogMan is available to rent on AppleTV.
Check out our interview with DogMan‘s Caleb Landry Jones and find out what he has to say about his experience making Luc Besson’s movie.
