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Dogfight (1991)

Dogfight (1991)

7.6

A bittersweet coming-of-age romance that subverts expectations of masculinity

Movie

United States of America
English
Drama, Romance
1991

TLDR

Rest in peace, River Phoenix.

What it's about

San Francisco, 1963. The night before he leaves for Vietnam, Eddie Birdlace plans to attend a “dogfight”, a competition with his fellow Marines to bring the ugliest date. Eddie brings a shy girl named Rose, but he finds himself falling for her as the night goes on.

The take

At first glance, Dogfight seems to be just a standard love story: a Marine falling in love with a woman just before he’s sent overseas. But underneath, there’s a rebuke at American masculinity that needs to be acknowledged. As Eddie and his friends make bets at the expense of their dates, Dogfight rightfully portrays this treatment as casual, unthinking cruelty, and it’s the exact cruelty that they inflict on themselves, the same obedient mindset that continues to push them to various wars around the world at that time. River Phoenix evokes that startling realization with the gentle way Eddie starts to treat Rose, and as the night alternates between his date and the shenanigans his buddies go through without him, Dogfight questions the way boys come of age, this mindset, and what it means to grow up.

What stands out

River Phoenix.

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