"This is a thriller, and it is also a complete metaphor," said Samuel Fuller of this controversial feature that was only released theatrically ten years after it was completed. Paul Winfield portrays an animal trainer who takes on the task of deprogramming a "racist dog"-an animal that has been trained to attack blacks. Fuller makes his case that the animal has been infected with "a disease created by Man" but the film was nevertheless viewed as a mine-field by the producer-distributor network. Winfield's growing intensity as he attempts to cure the dog, a score by Ennio Morricone, and soulful animal performances (thanks to creative point-of-view cinematography and editing à la Franju) lift White Dog far above its pop-cult niche. The film made at least three critics' Best Ten lists for 1991-Amy Taubin, Jonathan Rosenbaum, and J. Hoberman. Hoberman: "...by America's greatest living narrative filmmaker...not only a marvel of abstract sensationalism...it's also the most unflinching critique of racism U.S.A. ever made by a Hollywood white man."