Alpha Dog

Alpha Dog (2006)

Timing: 2:2 (122 min)

6.65/10
1328

All about film

Video 2

Photo 24

Actors and characters

Release date

2006-01-27

Country

Germany, United Kingdom, United States

Production

Universal Pictures, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, VIP 2 Medienfonds, Capitol Films, A-Mark Entertainment

Genre

Crime, Drama, Thriller

Budget

$9 500 000

Revenue

$32 400 000

Website

Director

Nick Cassavetes

Actors

Emile Hirsch, Bruce Willis, Amanda Seyfried, Justin Timberlake, Shawn Hatosy, Ben Foster, Harry Dean Stanton, Matthew Barry, Fernando Vargas, Vincent Kartheiser
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Sidney Kimmel, Chuck Pacheco, Andreas Grosch, Andreas Schmid, Avram Butch Kaplan, Marina Grasic, Jan Korbelin, Steve Markoff, Robert Geringer

Operator

Robert Fraisse

Composer

Aaron Zigman

Artist

Audition

Matthew Barry, Nancy Green-Keyes

Editing

Alan Heim
All team (24)

• The film's release was postponed for a year because a criminal – the prototype for the main character – was caught.
• "Alpha Dog" comes from the English "alpha-dog," the lead dog in a sled team, the leader of the pack.
• To better prepare for the role, Ben Foster asked for help from one of his friends who had previously suffered from methadone addiction. The friend introduced him to a group of people who gave Foster full access to observe their lifestyle.
• The scene where Wanda Haynes (Heather Wahlquist) shouts “Heil” in Jake Mazurski’s (Ben Foster) apartment was entirely improvised. The cast, pleased with the successful improvisation, supported and developed it. The film's director, Nick Cassavetes, decided to leave the scene in the film.
• Ben Foster risked his vision by frequently using glaucoma eye drops to dilate his pupils, thereby simulating the effect of drug intoxication. At night, during filming, he had to hide behind bushes, and during the day he constantly shielded his eyes from sunlight. Even while talking to Nick Cassavetes, he had to communicate with his eyes closed.
• The tattoo around Jake Mazurski’s (Ben Foster) neck features lines from the Bible (Psalm 108, Verse 14) written in Hebrew: “May his mother’s sin not be blotted out.”
• The film begins with genuine home video footage of some of the actors playing in a film they made as children. The last child shown is Anton Yelchin (Zach Mazurski).
• The word “fuck” and its derivatives appear 310 times in the film.
• During the fight scene, Sharon Stone hit Ben Foster so hard that he started to bleed from the nose.
• The film was the closing film of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.
• In one of the scenes, a poster for the film 'Scarface' (1983) is visible in the background.
• On July 13, 2009, Jesse James Hollywood (the inspiration for Johnny Truelove) was sentenced to life imprisonment.
• The film features well-known boxer of Mexican descent, Fernando Vargas.
• During a fight in a club, Jake Mazurski (Ben Foster) is hit in the head with a bottle, leaving his head and left ear covered in blood. After the fight, the blood disappears mysteriously in a fraction of a second.