Benji (1974)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Best movie of this year hands down!

Very Cool!!!

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Why do adults come onto IMDb and crucify children's movies with their sickening reviews as if they're stupidly comparing these children's movies with adult movies?Oh, yes...it's because they're "STUPID!!"This is a children's movie about a sweet little dog...but, dingleberries title their stupid and negative reviews with:"Arf! Arf! Benji Is Strictly For The Fire Hydrant;""Best Viewed Under Sedation;""Pretty dreadful--but kids might like it;""BENJI is Bad;""Benji (The Movie) Bites Big-Time."These movie reviews were written by brain-dead adults who're never slowed-down by thinking; and/or, not remembering (not knowing) that this movie is for "children!" One clown even mentioned "kids might like it"...but, was too stupid to realize what he was writing, or, writing about...A KID"S MOVIE!Why are these adults even here reviewing this movie!?!? They mustn't have children of their own...or, they must be sedated; making love to a fire hydrant; and/or, making stupid statements like 'kids might like it!?!?' No kidding...REALLY!?!? As I wrote, they're likely sickos who have no children!?!? Who'd reproduce with a moron who hates "Benji?"It's a kid's movie, you DOPES!Maybe these adults' lives are so boring that they have nothing better to do than tear-up a good kid's movie!?!?"Pretty dreadful--but kids might like it" says it all for the kinds of pathetic adults who see the world through psycho-vision and never once stop to see anything or anyone at all...especially, children!Lovely adults writing sweet reviews on a children's movie..."NOT!" These reviewers are the fate of America...PROBABLY...but, I hope not! :(I saw this movie as a child, and, I showed it to my child, and...we agree! "Benji" is a great movie! :)

You know the movie could have been a lot better when the animal - in this case, a little dog - is the best actor on the screen! The acting in this film is so bad, so amateurish, by dog got embarrassed watching this. He ("Rusty," our Golden Retreiver) could have done a better job than the people in here.By now this is almost a trite story: kid finds animal, pet is not liked nor wanted by one of the parents but the "pet" winds up saving one the kids and is now a hero and an official member of the family. Sound familiar? I remember this movie being a big hit, but never got around to seeing it until the mid '90s on VHS. I was shocked how bad it was. Why so much fuss over a film? Was it because there was so much sleaze in the early '70s that a nice family film stood out in the crowd? Possibly. There wasn't a whole lot of wholesome entertainment in the decade of the '70s plus a lot of people are suckers for cute little animal stories. Who could resist this cute little dog? Not me. But the movie I can resist: it's a Grade B storyline with horrible acting. Recommended only for small-dog animal lovers and I mean "lovers" because even the average pet owner will fall asleep trying to watch this film in this day-and-age.

Although I did initially see Benji as a kid in 1974, I want to talk about some interesting facets of the film for adults instead.Just a brief comment on showing the film to kids, though. It's probably going to be more of a gamble at this point in time for kids to watch Benji. There's a chance that older kids will be bored by the pacing, content, and general lack of humor. They'll probably hate the music, too. For younger kids (say, maybe 8 or younger), there's a better chance that they'll be entertained merely by seeing cute dogs do unusual things and also that they'll identify with the two child stars, who are about their age. But during the climax of the film, there is some more intense material (at least the ideas involved--the actual images are relatively tame) that may disturb some children.I think that Benji is probably a safer gamble for adults at this point in time, but you have to approach it in a particular way, not necessarily approaching it either nostalgically or as a kid's film. Viewing Benji at this point in time, it played as a dog's film, told from a dog's perspective. While this is not the only film to tell a story from an animal's perspective, producer/writer/director Joe Camp does something unusual in that he plays things mostly seriously and realistically. There is a bit of tongue in cheek-ness to the whole affair--and one section that is a very funny outright spoof of late 1960s/early 1970s romance films, and the events are idealized slightly in a way that we might imagine a dog to idealize them, but overall, Benji is played straight, not for laughs or melodrama.That fact is the cause of some unusual structural properties. Dogs' lives tend to be far more routine than humans' lives. Benji, as extraordinary as his life happens to be, is no exception. He's a stray who has a long daily routine that involves visiting various friendly people to obtain food. So the first half hour of the film sees Benji, from his perspective with a few third person omniscient intrusions, cycle through his daily routine two times.On the third run-through, things begin to get more dramatic as his routine is broken up slightly--both in a positive way when he finds a girlfriend by the way of a Maltese and in a negative way when some shady characters intrude into his otherwise abandoned home. Although I agree that an interesting, entertaining film could have been made out of just showing Benji go through his routine, that would have been relatively avant-garde, and Camp maybe decided that his dog-perspective film was unusual enough already, so the principal story turns out to be these intrusions which set up more classical dramatic conflicts.And Camp did a fine job of designing the film in the way he did. The climax works as well as it does only because he has taken us through Benji's lengthy daily routine a couple times. The climax and the build-up to the climax hinge on Benji hurriedly traveling his circuitous daily route a couple more times, and what pushes the events over the edge to success is that Benji has to strain to think more like a human.I wouldn't have picked up on any of these things seeing the film as a preteen in 1974. But they are there, and for adults, this is an entertaining film as much for its unusualness as for any other reason--you just have to watch it with this in mind. This is what films might be like if dogs made them. And if you decide to show Benji to your children and explain these unusual qualities to them, you might just find it a more enjoyable experience for both of you.

If Wayne Malin is correct, I have to be either a little kid or a dog lover. Busted! I plead guilty to both counts. I loved the movie, even the slow-motion idyllic relationship-building of Benji and Tiffany. But the theme-song nominated for Best Song at Oscars? That's pretty incredible. Did I think it reasonable that the inept kidnappers took the children to the very (abandoned)house Benji lived in -- no, but give me a break, it's a children's movie! And a charming one at that! Kid's are not always that discriminating.I missed the movie all those years, finally seeing it on TV. I've been trying to identify the breed of our little dog that was dumped in front of a neighbor's house last year. She looks a lot like Tiffany, Benji's girl-friend. Does anyone know what breed she was? I'm devastated to learn that Frank Inn, the trainer, died four years ago. Wonderful job, Frank! Thank you for a charming, heart-warming story!