The Story of Underdog: One Man's Impossible Dream
Underdog tells the story of Doug Butler, a Vermont dairy farmer who makes the kind of decision that most people only fantasize about. He's got a stable life, a home he knows, a routine that works — but it's not the life he wants to live. So he chases something bigger: the dream of becoming a dog musher in Alaska. Director Tommy Hyde spent a decade following Butler's journey, capturing intimate moments in cinéma vérité style that strips away the Hollywood gloss and leaves you with something raw and real. The film doesn't promise triumph or neat resolution. Instead, it asks a harder question: what does it cost to follow your heart when the world isn't built to support it?
Behind the Making of Underdog: A Decade-Long Portrait
Tommy Hyde's approach to Underdog is methodical and patient in a way that feels almost old-fashioned. Rather than compressing Butler's story into a tidy 90-minute arc, Hyde embedded himself over ten years, allowing the narrative to breathe and shift with real time. That's not a common commitment in documentary filmmaking, where funding pressures and audience expectations usually demand faster payoffs. The result is a 82-minute film that feels simultaneously intimate and sprawling — you're watching not just moments, but seasons change, dreams evolve, and reality push back against ambition. Hyde's cinéma vérité approach means minimal narration, no talking-head interviews, just footage of Butler living his life: in the barn, on the road, training dogs, failing, trying again. It's the kind of patient observation that Movie OTT often finds in festival documentaries rather than mainstream releases. The film carries an IMDb rating of 4.5/10, which tells you something about how divisive this kind of unvarnished storytelling can be — some viewers find it profound, others find it slow or frustrating.
What Makes Underdog Stand Out: The Quiet Power of Persistence
What's striking about Underdog is that it doesn't try to convince you Butler's dream is noble or even sensible. The film just shows you his life, and lets you make up your own mind. You see the financial strain, the doubt in his eyes, the way his family navigates his obsession. You see him working brutal hours to fund his passion, you see him age across the decade of filming, you see the gap between his imagination and the actual world — that's where the real drama lives, in that space between wanting something and being able to have it. Most documentaries about dreamers want to celebrate the dream. Underdog does something trickier: it honors the person without necessarily endorsing the pursuit. Doug Butler becomes a kind of modern Don Quixote, as the original plot summary suggests, tilting at windmills in the form of Alaskan wilderness and dog teams. The thing nobody mentions is how lonely this kind of commitment can be. You're watching a man choose something that isolates him, that costs him, that doesn't guarantee anything. That's not inspirational in the conventional sense — it's something more complicated and, honestly, more human.
How to Watch Underdog Online
Underdog is currently streaming on Prime Video, where you can watch it as part of your existing subscription. The film's 82-minute runtime makes it a manageable evening watch, though fair warning: it's not the kind of documentary that fills the time with rapid cuts and dramatic music. If you're looking for where to stream Underdog and want a one-stop resource for current availability across platforms, Movie OTT tracks streaming inventory in real time, so you can confirm it's still available on Prime before you settle in. The intimate, slow-burn nature of the film means it works best when you've got time to sit with it — not something to half-watch while scrolling your phone.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Is Underdog based on a true story?
Yes. The film documents the real life of Doug Butler, a Vermont dairy farmer who actually pursued dog mushing in Alaska. Director Tommy Hyde filmed this documentary over the course of a decade, capturing Butler's genuine journey with no scripting or reenactments.
Q: Who directed Underdog?
Tommy Hyde directed Underdog. He spent ten years following Doug Butler's story, using cinéma vérité filmmaking techniques to create an intimate portrait without narration or interviews.
Q: What is the runtime of Underdog?
Underdog has a runtime of 82 minutes, making it a relatively compact documentary despite covering a decade of one man's life.
Q: Where can I watch Underdog?
Underdog is currently available to stream on Prime Video. Check the Where to Watch widget at the top of this page to confirm current availability on your preferred platform.
Q: What's the IMDb rating for Underdog?
Underdog has an IMDb rating of 4.5/10. The film is divisive — some viewers respond to its patient, unvarnished approach to documentary storytelling, while others find its slow pace challenging.
Final Thoughts on Underdog
Underdog isn't for everyone. It won't satisfy you if you're looking for a feel-good triumph narrative or a cautionary tale with a clear moral. What it offers instead is something rarer: sustained, unblinking attention to a real person trying to live differently. Doug Butler's story won't resolve neatly, and that's the point. Sometimes dreams don't pan out the way we imagine. Sometimes they do, but the cost is different than we expected. Hyde's decade-long commitment to this story — capturing Butler across seasons and years, watching him age and change — is itself a kind of love letter to persistence, even when persistence looks like failure. It's a film that trusts you to sit with ambiguity.