If you’re in the mood to cry, you should watch Dog Gone on Netflix, a new film about a missing dog that is currently streaming.
Puppy Gone, directed by Stephen Herek and written by Nick Santora, stars Johnny Berchtold as a college student who adopts a dog on the spur of the moment, and Rob Lowe as his long-suffering father who wants nothing to do with it. Gonker, the dog, escapes one day. Father and son embark on a quest to find him, and along the way, they learn something about their relationship.
Regardless of how ridiculous they are, dog films always manage to make spectators cry. And in the case of Dog Gone, knowing that the film is based on the true story of a lost dog who eventually returns home makes the film even more moving.
Warning: the dog survives in both the film and the genuine story. God bless, right? No one wants to watch the dog die!
Continue reading to learn more about the Dog Gone actual story and the film’s accuracy.
Is Dog Gone an adaptation of a genuine story?
Yes. The Netflix film Dog Gone is based on the nonfiction book Dog Gone: A Lost Pet’s Extraordinary Journey and the Family Who Brought Him Home by Pauls Toutonghi, which is based on the true tale of a family who lost their dog, Gonker, in 1998 and conducted an exhaustive search for him.
How closely does Dog Gone resemble the actual events?
While Dog Gone is based on a true story, certain alterations were made to the scenario for the film. Fielding Marshall (portrayed by Johnny Berchtold) is a senior in college when he adopts a yellow lab retriever and names it Gonker in order to impress a girl. According to a 1991 New York Post article, Fielding Marshall adopted a golden retriever mix after his daughter died on the operating table and his wife abandoned him.
As is common with films based on true occurrences, the plot is relocated to the present day rather than the 1990s, and the timeframe of actual events is accelerated. In reality, Marshall adopted Gonker and raised him for years before he went away. As depicted in the film, the real Gonker suffered from Addison’s disease, a condition that need monthly injections of synthetic hormones in order for the dog to survive. This meant that when he ran away on the Appalachian Trail one day in October 1998, Marshall had less than a month to find him alive.
It is true that the actual Marshall’s parents assisted him in searching far and wide for his dog, and the local media covered this hunt. In the film, however, the hunt goes viral on social media and becomes a global endeavor, with Zambians participating. This was not the situation in reality; social media did not exist in the 1990s, and the tale of Gonker’s escape did not make national news until October 25, 1998, 15 days after his disappearance.
However, while making a feature picture, the stakes must be raised. On Amazon, you may purchase the book published by Marshall’s brother-in-law on the Dog Gone real tale if you wish to learn more about what actually transpired.