Cesar Millan: The Real Story

Release Date: November 25, 2012

Watch Date: May 7, 2023

"Follow Cesar Millan's rise from impoverished illegal immigrant to celebrity dog trainer to international superstar. Join Cesar as he embarks on his live world speaking tour, films his new television series in Spain and leads thousands of dogs and owners on a Pack Walk in Washington, D.C."

    Once upon a time a scientist decided that wolf packs operated with a lead Alpha male, and ever since then humanity has been suffering. The scientist would later retract this theory, but it was too late - society had accepted this as fact. We have men that call themselves Alphas, and other's Betas. We try to be the Alphas when it comes to our pets, which isn't a thing. At all.

    Cesar Millan isn't a bad guy, but he is a guy who profits off of this faulty logic. Maybe he has helped dogs, maybe he is a good dog trainer but he's obnoxious. His constant referral to the people around him as a pack, as himself as a leader, the leaning on old, incorrect, scientific theories. If he's a good dog trainer, it has nothing to do with whether or not he's proving to them that he's the "alpha" and while I don't know enough about dog psychology to be able to weigh in on whether or not his techniques should be considered cruel.

    His point of view on being an American, and success, having come from a background of having been an illegal immigrant is at least interesting. He's lived as a member of the dregs of American society and he's built a legacy for himself and his family which is amazing, and I can't fault the guy for that. I can't fault him, either, for becoming depressed when he thought his world was falling apart. I can fault him for saying that a few months after a suicide attempt he decided he was "done with depression" as that is not a realistic statement for people dealing with severe depression, and a lot of people - at least at the time this film came out - look up to him.

    It's half about his life, and half about his tour, and it's mostly a way to advertise his newest projects. But he's a huge moneymaker for National Geographic, so it makes sense to me that they would spend money creating a long advertisement for him. It's not something that I think a lot of people would choose to put on with popcorn in an evening and watching, not unless you're a huge Cesar Millan fan. Now, as something that pops up randomly one night on National Geographic, maybe I wouldn't turn it off? But I find Millan kind of grating, so actually, I probably would.