“Max” Commands Your Attention
By Amy Fernandez
Good, bad, or indifferent, if there are dogs in a movie, we wanna see it. Get ready for a good one featuring a breed we don’t often see on the big screen. Billed as family action/adventure, the story is built around a military-trained Belgian Malinois and his fate after his handler, U.S. Marine Kyle Wincott, is killed during their tour of Afghanistan. Max is subsequently shipped stateside following a diagnosis of canine PTSD. His options are slim until Kyle’s family adopts him. The plot recounts on his subsequent transition from military K-9 to family pet and growing bond with Kyle’s young brother.
The story is packed with Oscar-worthy canine performances running the gamut from precisely executed action to heartrending interspecies empathy, all the work of top Hollywood animal trainer Ray Beal. Maybe you don’t know his name, but you‘ve admired his work for decades. Beverly Hills Chihuahua, 101 Dalmatians, Snow Dogs, As Good As It Gets are just a few of the blockbusters that feature his dogs work.
Recently, Ray shared a few insider details about this project. “Any film with a dog as the main character requires multiples. These are long days; they need to be on the set for 12 hours.”
Casting calls netted five Malinois that portrayed Max. “Normally we like a dog with lots of energy because it’s easier for us to slow them down than pep them up.” That’s no problem for this breed, but there was another, trickier requirement that exhibitors know all too well – showing expression on dark faced dogs – which describes most Malinois. “We needed dogs with a little lighter face.”
All five looked alike but each one brought something different to the role. “One was more athletic. He did most of the running and jumping sequences. We had a younger female for the fight sequences with the Rottweiler.” It might ruin those realistic scenes for you, but generally it’s harder to establish rapport between dogs of the opposite sex. “So we used a male and female. We would let them play together and then separate them. We did that over and over until every time they saw each other they wanted to play. The fight sequences are actually just roughhousing. We dubbed in the growls and snarls later.”
Don’t worry; viewers aren’t shortchanged on canine reality. Ray calls them “golden moments, those little things that can’t be planned or staged. Maybe the dog would lick someone or get up and give the camera a special look when it wasn’t supposed to do so. The actor would ad lib and go with it, and you just hope they got it on camera because you could never get it exactly like that again.”
Those nuggets added texture to the role, but mostly, orchestrating those awesome performances came down to nuts-and-bolts training. “It needs to flow. That’s the hard part; bringing that out in an animal and making it look natural. The dog needs to look like it belongs with the actor in that scene, not like a trainer is cueing the dog right outside camera range.”
Multiply that by five and consider the difficulty of this task. “They were what we call green dogs that had never been trained at all. You have 16 weeks for prepping, learning their marks, climbing ladders, laying down, speak, shake hands, etc. , then we shoot the movie.” No pressure here! “And they just triumphed. They got along well with all the actors and came through all this stuff they had never seen before. They really made the project enjoyable.”
Ray is justifiably proud and the film is a great showcase of the Malinois at its finest. However, he realizes the potential downside to public acclaim. “They are portrayed as what they are, high energy working dogs. It’s not a breed for everyone. They take a lot of time and attention and get destructive without a job to do. Anyone who expects this dog to sit around their house and do nothing is barking up the wrong tree.”
Max opens June 26. It will be a nice break from your summer show routine.
Short URL: https://caninechronicle.com/?p=81026
Posted by chesliepickett
on Jun 20 2015. Filed under Current Articles, Featured.
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