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BC in the movies


SeattleSteve
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I just caught Owd Bob on HBO a few weeks ago. It was neat seeing a movie in which working dogs figured so prominently. The white-headed dog playing the bad guy sheep killer was shown "competing" in a trial but appeared to be just flopping around behind the sheep without looking at them. Cute dog though. His rival Owd Bob on the other hand looked like a real Border Collie. I wasn't sure what the moral of the story was. The ending is kind of a downer. One of my poor friends who could care less about dogs was over at the time and forced to watch this movie with me. She was a good sport but found the movie to be very odd.

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I saw that one quite a while ago. I seem to recall that I liked the movie. It seems to me that this was akin to a version of the classic tale Bob, Son of Battle, or whatever it's called. I agree that there were scenes where a dog was definitely working sheep (e.g., the opening scene??) and some where the dog appeared to be talent-free. Damn, I'd like have a few hundred acres and a little bunch of sheep out there - it sure was beautiful.

 

charlie

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Oh, just remembered there was a movie out a couple of years ago with Cuba Gooding Jr. set in Alaska where he took over his Dad's sled dog team and one of the dog's was a BC, who was the angel dog compared to the "real" sled dog's. Can't remember the name, nor was it that good of a movie, but I do remember the BC in it.

 

FYI-also wasn't really representative of Alaska either...

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The sled movie was Snow Dogs. Nanna the BC was actually played by two dogs. One an actor the other a sledding BC.

 

I have to agree with you about the white BC in Owd Bob. He just sort of puppy romped. Not much of a story true, but it was cool watching the one dog.

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If you watch "The Lassie Movie," you won't see a Border Collie, but a Border Collie did all the herding in that movie. My 14-year-old BC, Rip, did most of it. Rip then belonged to Tom Lacy, and Tom's wife, Karen, handled Rip in the movie. She also worked with Tom's dog, Midge (now deceased). I haven't seen the movie, but a friend tells me you can always tell where Rip was standing, because the sheep are looking at him instead of Lassie.

 

Rip was in other movies, but I don't know which ones. According to Tom, Rip once knocked Pierce Brosnan off a porch. :rolleyes:

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Go, Rip! Don't let those Hollywood types push you around, no matter how many legs they have!

 

There's a place up here called the Fly By Night Club, which has hilarious revues spoofing life in AK (as compared to life Outside) and vice versa. It features Spam pretty prominantly, and also a guy called Mr. White Keys, who sings songs like "Spawn Spawn Spawn Until You Die" (while dressed in a giant salmon costume) and so on. They pass out little slips of paper when you go to the show so you can write your "brush with fame" story on it (like, "My pharmacist used to babysit Elvis Presley" or whatever.) I'm pretty sure no one else's would read "My Border collie did all of Lassie's stunt-herding and also knocked Pierce Brosnan off a porch." I'm sure it would be worth submitting... :rolleyes:

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The Lassie movie---I also heard that Howard--Lassie's real name was a real blank. It also got the to point that the movie crew would ask when the "real dogs" were going to be brought out.

 

Whenever some collie person brags on their dogs, depending on my mood, I'll bring up who really worked behind the scenes to make Lassie, er--Howard look good.

 

BTW, a good friend of mine knew Rip when he belonged to the Lacy's and liked him so much, she got a pup out of him.

 

Vicki

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Originally posted by AK dog doc:

Go, Rip! Don't let those Hollywood types push you around, no matter how many legs they have!

 

They pass out little slips of paper when you go to the show so you can write your "brush with fame" story on it (like, "My pharmacist used to babysit Elvis Presley" or whatever.) I'm pretty sure no one else's would read "My Border collie did all of Lassie's stunt-herding and also knocked Pierce Brosnan off a porch." I'm sure it would be worth submitting... :D

I love it! Thank you for sharing this. Rip and I got a big laugh out of it. :rolleyes:

 

Rip isn't a fighter, so I guess he does let other dogs push him around. But he didn't let a Richmond criminal push him around. When a guy tried (with a gun) to carjack Tom's van, Rip attacked him and chased him away. Good dog!

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Originally posted by Pipedream Farm:

I really like Rip too and had the pleasure of learning from his mother, June. (Hi Joan)

Hi, Mark! I'm so glad I got to know June. Obviously, all of Rip's smarts didn't come from Wilson's Roy. :rolleyes:
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I'm glad you mentioned "The Village" Mark. I just saw something on TV about it the other day. It opens June 30th I think. There is at least one scene in which one of the movie's stars appears to be working Jim, but Sharon is out of sight giving the commands. Under normal circumstances, I don't think I would have chosen to see this movie, but because Sharon and Jim are in it, it's now on my must-see list!

 

J.

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I'm glad you mentioned "The Village" Mark.
The other night I couldn't sleep so was watching a special on this movie too on the sci-fi channel. I was kind of drifting in and out...but what is this movie about...is it loosely based on something...the show I watched on it was a bit creepy, but most things on the sci-fi channel are a bit off. I know O/T of BC's...but what exactly is the movie about. I don't tend to like scary movies but may watch this one so I can see the BC's.

 

Yep, the name of the movie was Sled Dogs-thanks!

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We watched most of the SciFi show on M. Night Shyamalan. We couldn't tell if it was a way to hype his new movie by creating controversy about him, or if they people making the show were reaching to find dirt on him.

 

Also don't forget about "Down and Out in Beverly Hills". Not about BCs but the BC did have a major role.

 

Mark

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INU asked

I didn't know lassie collies herd sheep too!?
OK now don't laugh too hard, all you people with working border collies....but yes, a few of the lassie collies still have enough instinct to work and some are used to work sheep. And I'm sure a good border collie could do a much better job of it, but the instinct from their common ancestors is still present in some lassie collies.

 

A couple of months ago, I took young Willow, my Lassie collie, to a "herding instinct test" put on by the local Collie Club, testing with runner ducks. The tester, a sheep guy, did a demonstration with his border collies first, so we would know what we were looking for. It was only for lassie collies in the club, so we couldn't bring Tenaya, our border collie, along for the test.

 

Willow didn't demonstrate much interest in the ducks, but it was pretty amazing to me to see a couple of the other lassie collies really get into it and show some of the herding behaviors I would normally associate with border collies. I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I could really see a difference between the few dogs who did show not just interest, but herding behaviors, and the rest of the lassies.

 

So yes, there are some lassie collies that can (and do) herd sheep. But obviously not Howard!

 

Deanna in OR

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OK folks I'm a bit bored to day so here's the results of a search I did. Get you favorite chair ready and new batteries for the remotes because you're going to be in front of the TV for a long time.

 

 

From Movie Dogs A-D

The Animal

Animal Farm

The Arizona Raiders

Bingo!

Blind Man?s Bluff

Bob, Son of Battle

Born on the Fourth of July

Brigham Young

Cluff

Daredevils of the Red Circle

Drift Fence

 

Movie Dogs E-J

Early to Bed

For Rosanna

Frankenstein (1994)

Galaxy Quest

Harry and the Lady Next Door

Harry Comes Home

Harry the Dirty Dog

Hawk of the Wilderness

Highway to Heaven

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids

The Horse Whisperer

The Hound of the Baskervilles (2000; TV)

The Jack Bull

 

Movie Dogs K-R

Kidsongs

Kingdom of the Spiders

Last Chance Detectives

Little Heroes 2

Little House on the Prairie

The Mighty Treve

The Moon's Our Home

My Friend Flicka (1943)

Nevada (1935)

Never a Dull Moment (1950)

Nowhere Man

Old Hutch

Owd Bob (1997)

Phantom Gold (1938)

Pioneer Trail

Pollock

 

 

Movie Dogs S-Z

Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter's End

Second Sight (TV)

Snow Dogs

The Soul Collector

Stagecoach Days

Summer Fling

The Sundowners (1960)

Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936)

Up The Creek (1984)

Waking Ned Devine

Wild is the Wind

 

This also bring to my mind a movie about a US politician who sends his female campaign director over to Ireland to find his roots only to be told later by his father that he's really Polish and his father changed their name. While in Ireland his campaign director falls for a local that has a smooth-coated BC.

 

On Edit: The move was The Match Maker.

 

Mark

 

P.S. Herding Collies: We sold a ram and bought puppy sheep from a vet in MD who has working smooth-coated collies. These were not BCs, but they did work sheep.

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