If ever there was an opportunity to make time for a wonderful double-feature film experience this is it, assuming you are a subscriber to Netflix. Here are the prerequisites:
You have to love dogs—any breed. You will need to have a box of facial tissues on hand so that the tears don’t prevent you from viewing the screen clearly. Be sure that any young children are not in the room; instead, preferably sound asleep because this is not for them. And you must see the films in the proper sequence: first “A Dog’s Purpose,” followed by “A Dog’s Journey,” which is a sequel that continues the other’s story.
Both films, which were originally released in 2017 and 2019 respectively, are based on bestselling novels by W. Bruce Cameron that were published in 2010 and 2012, Deeply emotional dog lover that I am, as is my wife, Linda, I had read and loved both books and already enjoyed both films when they were first released…but could not resist the opportunity to view them again on Netflix.
“A Dog’s Purpose” is directed by Lasse Halstrom. The book’s author, W. Bruce Cameron, wrote the screenplay. Dennis Quaid is brilliant as Ethan, and we are made aware of all the dogs’ thoughts through the perfect voice of actor Josh Gard.
Simply stated, the first of these films is the story of a dog who, from the moment he is first born as a feral puppy is then reborn through four more different lives: as a male Red Retriever raised by a wonderful family and named Bailey…a female German Shepherd…a male Corgi…and finally as a male St. Bernard/Australian Shepherd mix—in every reincarnation fully remembering its previous lives and wondering about his/her purpose in life—finally discovering the answer when at last reuniting with the human, Ethan, the young man who first raised him as Bailey—sometimes affectionately calling him “Boss Dog,” through a life filled with love, trust and friendship.
Sharing his life with Ethan and taking care of his human, he now realizes, has been his purpose in life.
Dennis Quaid as Ethan—now an older adult with this dog of a breed so very different from the one he had loved many years earlier—suddenly reacts with a shock of recognition to something unique this new dog does that Ethan had taught his old friend. Hardly believing what he has just seen, Ethan stares into this new dog’s eyes, accepts what would at any other time have seemed impossible…and speaks his old dog’s names, Boss Dog and Bailey.
When that happens, I dare you to keep your emotions in check.
*****
“A Dog’s Journey” is a different trip altogether.
Much has happened in Ethan’s household between Bailey’s two lifetimes there. Ethan is a much older man now with a wife, Hannah, and baby granddaughter, Clarity June (C.J.). Their son had passed away and his widow, the child’s mother, is a difficult, self-centered woman—an alcoholic who is threatening to move away and take the child with her.
Ethan and Hannah are distraught, knowing that such a move would result in a threat to the baby’s safety and the likelihood that they might never see their granddaughter again. Now that Bailey—as he has once again been named in his new life with Ethan—is aware of his purpose in life. He understands how important it is to him that Ethan be happy and that helping to keep C.J. safe is now his responsibility.
Bailey dies and is reborn as a female Beagle. Unaware of the puppy’s past, a teen-age C.J. brings the sweet little dog home, names her Molly and hides her from the still alcoholic and irresponsible mother she knows will never let her own a dog.
Through this and two more lives—one as a male English Mastiff named Big Dog, and finally as a small, wire-haired male Terrier, Max—the dog once called Bailey weaves in and out of C.J.’s life doing everything possible to protect her as has been so important to Ethan. Until, finally, the now adult C.J.—who knows nothing at all about these dogs’ long-ago relationship with her now aged grandfather—decides to visit him and her grandmother, Hannah, for the first time in many years.
Of course, the moment C.J. drives up to the family farm with Max you can imagine that scene as the little dog recognizes the old familiar smells and then the faces of his beloved Ethan and Hannah. And finally, when Ethan’s own time on this Earth is over, you will have another reason to reach for a tissue.
Some friendships are meant to last for eternity.
