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Alpha Dog
Promotional poster
Directed by	Nick Cassavetes
Written by	Nick Cassavetes
Produced by	Sindey Kimmel
Starring	Emile Hirsch Justin Timberlake Bruce Willis Sharon Stone Ben Foster Anton Yelchin
Cinematography	Robert Fraisse
Edited by	Alan Heim
Music by	Aaron Zigman
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	January 27, 2006 (Sundance Film Festival) January 12, 2007 (wide release)
Running time	117 min. (Sundance Film Festival) 122 min. (wide release)
Country
Language	English

Alpha Dog is a 2007 drama film written and directed by Nick Cassavetes, and released on January 12, 2007. The film is based on the true story of the kidnapping and murder in 2000 in California of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz, and the alleged involvement of Jesse James Hollywood, a young drug dealer.

Plot

Set in the year 1999, Johnny Truelove (Emile Hirsch) is a well known drug dealer in his hometown of Claremont, California. He is 19 years old and he owns a three-bedroom house, an expensive car, and has very loyal friends. Elvis (Shawn Hatosy), who does household chores for Johnny to pay his debt to him, is ridiculed for being subservient. Johnny's father, Sonny Truelove (Bruce Willis), supplies his son with marijuana.

At one of his many parties, Johnny meets with Jake Mazursky (Ben Foster), one of Johnny's loyal friends and part-time distributors. When Jake fails to collect a drug debt for Johnny, they fight over the money and in retaliation he breaks into Johnny's house. Johnny wakes up, gets his gun, and observes them, but does not confront them.

Late in the evening Jake's younger, 15-year-old half-brother Zach (Anton Yelchin) visits Jake, who is with his girlfriend. Zach tells them how frustratingly his mother treats him like a small child. Zach's mother, upset, phones and tells Jake he has to bring Zach home, which he does. Zach, scolded by his parents, runs away from home.

Johnny and his friends Frankie (Justin Timberlake) and Tiko (Fernando Vargas) want to take revenge on Jake, but he is not home. They see Zach and kidnap him, hoping to use him as leverage to make Jake pay his debt. Zach is restrained at first, but soon this is undone, because it is unnecessary: Zach starts enjoying the situation. He is then taken to Frankie's house in Palm Springs, California and begins to feel he is amongst friends and enjoys the break from home life with his over-protective mother. He is given alcohol and drugs and loses his virginity. He is confident that Jake will soon pay his debt, and that he will then be released.

Johnny, worried about the legal problems kidnapping poses, calls his father's lawyer. Johnny is told that they can get life sentences for the kidnapping. Johnny asks Frankie to kill Zach. Frankie rejects the offer, after which Johnny claims that it was just a joke. However, Frankie suspects that it was serious and talks about it to one of the girls while they are hanging out at his dad's house. The girl tries to warn her mother but her mother is on Ecstacy at the time and doesn't listen.

Johnny offers Elvis a way to pay back his debt: kill Zach. Elvis agrees. Reluctantly, Frankie supplies shovels and duct tape, but refuses to help Elvis dig a grave. Elvis takes Frankie's friend Keith (Chris Marquette) along, pretending to give him a ride home. Reluctantly, Keith cooperates. While this is happening, Frankie offers Zach an opportunity to escape, but without explaining his concern. Zach does not feel in danger, and stays.

Sonny Truelove and family friend Cosmo (Harry Dean Stanton) show up at Johnny's girlfriend's house in an attempt to stop the situation escalating. They urge Johnny to release Zach and that they will work to get him a short sentence; a prospect Johnny finds unbearable.

Later that night, Elvis, Frankie and Keith take Zach in a car, pretending that they are taking him home but instead drive him to the shallow grave. Upon arriving at the site, two hikers walk past the group and Keith hugs Zach and goes to wait in the car. When they reach the gravesite Zach becomes more concerned but Frankie promises him that everything will be okay. As his mouth is wrapped with tape Zach gets more and more worried but Frankie gives him constant assurances that he will be fine. Suddenly, Elvis hits the back of Zach's head with a shovel, then proceeds to kill him with automatic fire from a Tec 9.

The epilogue shows the after-effects of the crime. Zach's mother Olivia (Sharon Stone) is interviewed; she talks about her suicide attempts and the loss that she has experienced from her son's murder. All of the gang members are currently serving time, with Elvis on death row. Johnny had fled the country to Paraguay but was located by Interpol and currently is awaiting trial. He is facing the death sentence if convicted.

Cast

Legal issues

The Santa Barbara County deputy district attorney Ronald J. Zonen provided copies of virtually every document in his file, and served as an unpaid consultant to the film, motivated by his desire to have Jesse Hollywood captured. Zonen prosecuted Hollywood’s co-defendants and was poised to prosecute Hollywood. This alleged conflict of interest led to the decision by the California Court of Appeal for the Second District, who ruled on October 5, 2006 that based on Zonen's disclosure of the files — which included confidential information and service as consultant to the film — he should be recused from further involvement in prosecuting Hollywood.

On December 20, 2006, the California Supreme Court granted review on Hollywood and a factually-unrelated case, Haraguchi v. Superior Court, involving the recusal of another prosecutor from Zonen's office, thus effectively staying the order to recuse Zonen. It is unclear how long it will take for the California Supreme Court to decide whether Zonen or his colleague will remain on their respective cases.

NBC's Dateline and Fox Network's America's Most Wanted have been covering the Jesse James Hollywood story.

Reception

During its opening weekend, Alpha Dog grossed $6,412,775 and was in 7th at the box office. The film closed on February 22, 2007 after grossing $15.2 million domestically, and totaled $30,774,935 worldwide over its six week release.

The film has a score of 56% on rottentomatoes.com., the consensus being, "a glossy yet unflinching portrait of violent, hedonistic teenagers. Bruce Willis and Sharon Stone chew the scenery, while Justin Timberlake gives a noteworthy performance."

Alpha Dog was released on DVD on May 1, 2007. It includes a DVD/HD DVD combo package where both forms are included in one box.

Trivia

This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles. (September 2007)

Several of the actors' real-life home videos appear during the opening credits, including those of Anton Yelchin, Alex Solowitz, and Ben Foster; the clips include Foster's actual Bar Mitzvah.

The film holds the fourth highest total of most uses of the word 'fuck' (369) in a feature length film, with the word 'fuck' being used more times per minute than even Casino.

The end credits state that Johnny Truelove was caught by Interpol in Asunción, Paraguay on Wednesday, August 10, 2005. His real life counterpart, Jesse James Hollywood was actually caught in Saquarema, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Tuesday, March 8, 2005, at 11:35am.

In another scene at the end of the movie when Johnny Truelove is running away, the background song is a song by "Eminem" titled "Say Goodbye Hollywood" in which Hollywood is the name of the real suspect that Truelove's character portrays "Jesse James Hollywood."

The DVD cover actually mis numbers the witnesses and includes people who were not even witnesses.

Footnotes

1. http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/celebrity/jesse_james_hollywoo/14.html
2. http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B188550.PDF
3. http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/courts/supreme/actions/SL122006.PDF
4. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/alpha_dog/numbers.php
5. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=alphadog.htm
6. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/alpha_dog/

External links

• Alpha Dog at IMDb
• Alpha Dog trailers and photo gallery
• Alpha Dog The Times Review
• Alpha Dog at Rotten Tomatoes
• Alpha Dog at BeenToTheMovies.com (Trailer, Preview, Gallery)
• Alpha Dog review at iomtoday.co.im
• Alpha Dog: The Real Criminals Pictures.
• Blog about Nicholas Markowitz murder
• The True Story Behind the Movie Alpha Dog

• Articles with trivia sections from September 2007
• 2006 Sundance Film Festival
• 2007 films
• American films
• Crime drama films
• Films based on actual events
• Films set in the 1990s
• English-language films
• Films shot anamorphically
• Teen films