Taglinas: How did a crime with this many witnesses go so far?
1999, Claremont, California. Middle-class kids, in their 20s, talk trash, wave guns, hang out in a pack. Johnny Truelove, drug dealer and son of a underworld figure, threatens Jake Mazursky, an explosive head case who owes Johnny money; Jake responds by breaking into Johnny’s house. On impulse, Johnny and a couple pals kidnap Jake’s 15-year-old brother, Zach. Zach’s okay with it, figuring his brother will pay the debt soon. Johnny assigns his buddy Frankie to be Zach’s minder, and they develop a brotherly friendship. Zach parties with his captors as things begin to spin out of control. Group think, amorality, and fear of prison assert a hold on the pack. Is Zach in danger?
Alpha Dog is a 2006 American crime drama film written and directed by Nick Cassavetes, first screened at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2006, with a wide release the following year on January 12, 2007. Starring Emile Hirsch, Justin Timberlake, Ben Foster, Shawn Hatosy, Anton Yelchin, Olivia Wilde, Amanda Seyfried with Harry Dean Stanton, Sharon Stone, and Bruce Willis, the film is based on the true story of the kidnapping and murder of Nicholas Markowitz in 2000. During its opening weekend, Alpha Dog grossed $6,412,775 and was #7 at the box office. The film closed on February 22, 2007 after grossing $15,309,602 domestically, and totaled $32,145,115 worldwide over its six-week release.
Susan Markowitz attempted suicide three times. Jeff Markowitz elaborated, “She is so tortured by what happened that she has tried to take her own life. The last thing that either of us want is to see this picture. How would any loving parent feel about a Hollywood movie that glamorizes their son’s death and allows celebrities to cash in on a brutal, evil murder?” Nonetheless, both Susan and Jeff Markowitz attended the film’s premiere, and Susan stated she was moved by Anton Yelchin’s portrayal of Zack (Nick). After the screening, she embraced Sharon Stone, who played Olivia (Susan).
About the Story
“You ever have that dream: the one where you did something… You don’t know why, but you can never go back?” – Johnny Truelove
Versatile filmmaker Nick Cassavates directs an impressive group of both young and veteran performers in Alpha Dog—inspired by actual events—a film that follows three fateful days when the lives of a group of Southern California teens suddenly dead-ended.
In Alpha Dog, Cocky and headstrong Johnny Truelove (Emile Hirsch) is living the thug wannabe’s American dream as a mid-level drug dealer in a comfortable sector of the sprawling, privileged neighborhoods in Los Angeles’ San Gabriel Valley.
For Johnny and his crew of bros, wannabes and suck-ups—landlocked in their suburban existence and burdened with too much time—their existence is a heady blur of partying and looking for the next thrill. The model of the good life they imitate comes to them from rap music, video games and movies, and they spend their conscious hours copying the thug existence they idolize. Johnny has a wad of cash, a beautiful girl on each arm, a thriving business and plenty of weed to keep all his friends stoned. Young, flush with money and at the center of their self-created universe—life for Johnny and his friends doesn’t come with any consequences. Anything can happen. And over the course of three days under the hot California sun, something does.
Now, Cassavetes provides a startling and all-too-real look at contemporary youth culture with Alpha Dog, which tracks 72 hours in the lives of a group of Southern California teens—three days when everything suddenly spins out of control. The film features a powerful ensemble cast that includes Ben Foster, Shawn Hatosy, Emile Hirsch, Christopher Marqueette, Sharon Stone, Justin Timberlake, Anton Yelchin and Bruce Willis.
When raging hothead Jake (Foster) fails to come up with deal money he owes Truelove, the situation escalates into a battle for dominance that culminates with Johnny and his gang impulsively kidnapping Jake’s little brother, Zack (Yelchin). En route to Palm Springs, the group decides to keep the kid as a marker and slowly begins including him in their schedule, alternating between parties and slack time. With no parents in sight, they grow used to having him around. Under the temporary care of Johnny’s charismatic friend Frankie (Timberlake), Zack now enjoys an illicit summer fantasy of drinking, girls and new experiences.
Out in the desert, everyone soon begins to lose sight that Zack is a hostage, a “stolen boy,” and he can’t just be simply returned. As the hours turn into days, solutions to the Zack problem begin to dwindle. Bad decisions are followed by worse ones. Johnny’s dad (Willis) attempts to track down his son and convince him to return the hostage. With police called in by the boy’s distraught mother (Stone), the situation grows even more complex, and Johnny finds himself out of his league with no idea how to fix it. For Johnny, the line between playing a thug and becoming one soon blurs, and very real, very adult and very dire consequences result for everyone involved.
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Alpha Dog (2007)
Directed by: Nick Cassavetes
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Justin Timberlake, Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone, Emile Hirsch, Anthon Yelchin, Harry Dean Stanton, Regina Rice, Laura Nativo, Frank Cassavetes, Alex Solowitz
Screenplay by: Nick Cassavetes
Production Design by: Dominic Watkins
Cinematography by: Robert Fraisse
Film Editing by: Alan Heim
Costume Design by: Sarah Jane Slotnick
Set Decoration by: Fainche MacCarthy
Art Direction by: Alan Petherick
Music by: Aaron Zigman
MPAA Rating: R for pervasive drug use and language, strong violence, sexuality, nudity.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: January 12, 2007
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