I like this movie a lot. I understand it's no colossal, no blockbuster maybe, but I've always liked it a lot. First, I like Jet Li. Second, Freeman is always an added pleasure. Third, I find it so sweet and poetic... yeah, really!
It's the story of Danny (Jet Li), whose mother was killed by Bart (Bob Hoskins) when he was very little. Bart then took him and raised him to obey him like a dog and fight for him anytime he wants. Danny always wears a dog collar, and 'uncle Bart' takes him along when he goes to collect from people who owe him money.
The rule is 'you take his collar off, he beats us to death'. One day, Danny gets distracted by the sight of a piano in the room. He's drawn to it, and there he meets Sam (Morgan Freeman), a blind man whose job is to tune pianos. Sam is very kind to him, and Danny is not used to it.
One day, Bart's car is trapped and shot by people he had Danny beat, and Danny thinks both Bart and his man are dead, so he runs away to the only place that comes to mind: where he saw Sam and the pianos. When he arrives, he faints. Sam takes him home to heal and rest. Danny spends all his days with him and his stepdaughter Victoria. Both her parents were Sam's best friends, so when the father died he married her mother, and when she died too, Victoria stayed with him, of course. "Funny how families get made, isn't it?" Now she's 18, and they are there in Glasgow so she can study music, to be a pianist.
They treat him like a kid, because Bart never taught him or showed him anything. Everything's new to him. Sam doesn't ask him questions about his life, but he's a bit troubled when, at a supermarket, two guys fight causing a bit of turmoil amongst the people shopping, but Danny was totally indifferent. Sam asks him "didn't bother you, you weren't afraid?" and he simply replies "No, they weren't fighting me"
It took them a long time to get him to let her take off his collar; he was terrified, because up until now it had always meant bad things, but when it's finally done, he's like reborn. So cute, too. I love the scene when Sam tells him that as soon as Victoria finishes her study and her recital, they're going back to New York, and he asks Danny if he wants to go with them, because "we think of you as family". awww, he's so happy he hugs him.
Unfortunately, when it seems he has found a new home, a happy life, one of Bart's men sees him and tells Danny he'd better go back with him if he doesn't want to endanger the family that took him in. So Danny goes back to Bart and his old life, to the fight club, but he's changed now and refuses to kill. He doesn't want to hurt people anymore, but after being throwned in there, four people against him, he's forced to defend himself. All four gets hurt, it's unavoidable, but he refuses to kill them. Bart kills one himself with a gun. Later, Bart has the idea of telling Danny that "families should be together, no matter what" , but hearing this Danny doesn't think of his 'uncle Bart', he thinks of Sam and Victoria, so he causes another car accident and this time he takes off his collar himself. He goes back to Sam, and tells them all the lies Bart told him about his mother, but Sam and Victoria help him discover the truth. His mother was a musician, she studyed piano, and when Victoria plays for him the music that his mother played, hearing it he remembers the day she stopped playing to tell him to hide before Bart could see him, then Bart killed her and when he tried to fight him Bart took him. Now Bart and his men are coming to get him, and he tries to protect them as his mother tried to protect him. He tells Sam and Victoria to hide, then fights with all the men Bart sends against him.
When Bart goes to get him himself, yelling "you're a dog, you're my dog" and then telling him to 'come back home', Danny replies "I am home", but Bart wouldn't shut up, he kept talking, provoking him, and Danny is at his throat. Victoria sees this so with Sam she rushes to stop him before he kills him. Since Bart wouldn't stop blabbing, Sam breaks a vase on his head: "shut the hell up. That man could talk some serious shit"
At the end, Sam and Danny are together at Victoria's recital, a lovely, united family, finally happy.
In Italy: Danny the dog
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