As an Indian-lover and a dog-lover, what more could I want than 'Last of the Dogmen'? The best thing about the film is Zip the dog, played by Zip the dog. He is really something. This film was written and directed by Tab Murphy, and it is a tragedy that he has not directed another film since (and this was his first). He did an excellent job. Tom Berenger is superb as the rough cowboy type who rides out into the wilds, with his dog, as a tracker and bounty hunter. Berenger plays this role with particular intensity, as if it meant a lot to him and was not just a job of acting. Barbara Hershey is also excellent as the professor obsessed with Indians. The story is about the survival in a 'lost valley' in the Oxbow region of Montana (actually shot in Alberta, Canada, presumably because Montana is not wild enough anymore) of the descendants of a band of Cheyenne Indians called 'the dogmen'. A lot of real Indians are cast in the film, speaking genuine Cheyenne, as Barbara Hershey astonishingly does herself. These Cheyenne are living a traditional life just as they did in the 1840s, and Berenger and Hershey become hooked on this 'real life' and don't want to leave to go back to the falsities of 'civilisation'. This is a moving fable, dealing with the issues of the 'loss of the wild', the crushing of Native American culture by the unspeakable brutalities of white settlers, the betrayals of trust which deprived the Indians of their habitats, and the continuing psychological perversion of bitter people who want to stop the innocent enjoyment of life by shattering the dreams and the enforcement of degradation upon those too weak to protect themselves. Congratulations to Tab Murphy for this brave testament, and may he find other ways to continue bringing these messages to us, even if he has to rely on smoke signals.