Poster of Mad Dog and Glory

Mad Dog and Glory

Comedy, Crime, Drama

Director: John McNaughton

Release Date: March 5, 1993

Where to Watch

Don’t stone me, but I didn’t like Mad Dog and Glory even though I absolutely adore Bill Murray. While I enjoyed the concept of having Robert DeNiro and Bill Murray play against type; the great visual allusions to the Garden of Eden and some new twists on what initially appeared to be a crime drama, I couldn’t get past the basic premise of the movie no matter how much the filmmakers tried to make it palatable. A woman is a slave, and I’m supposed to be sympathetic to Mad Dog because he is a nice guy, concerned for her, but basically accepts her job description: she must make him happy and does not HAVE to sleep with him as part of her job. See, it is OK because she isn’t a prostitute, and she chooses to sleep with him. She just has no choice with whom she gets to spend time with and is initially owned by someone. And he says and means that it is OK for her to go if and when he frees her. Glory exists so that Mad Dog can become a real man: not be lonely, stand up for himself, take chances, live. If she was happier, and the plot’s implications were less sinister, she would be a manic pixie dream girl. Instead she is just a victim or worse an object, a bargaining chip, not a complete person. What will freedom look like to her? What does she do with herself when she isn’t making Mad Dog happy?

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