RED DOG is a delightful Australian man-and-his-dog story based on the novel by Louis de Bernieres, which in turn is based on a true story.  Like the novel, the film is really a series of vignettes sandwiched between the arrival of a stray dog in a mining community and his permanent departure some ten years later. Though a bit too twee for its own good, RED DOG will win you over with its good nature, likeable characters and its unusual setting.  

In the 1970s, the largest community in North West Australia, between Perth on the West Coast and Darwin on the Northwest Coast, was centred around Dampier, where the shipping port and railway lines meet the iron and salt mines. The mines are almost all owned and operated by the large conglomerates Rio Tinto, Westrac and Woodside.  Like the Alaskan oil rigs in the USA, the well paid jobs in the area known as the Pilbara, attracted men (and a few women) from all over the world: some searching, some escaping, and some, like John (Josh Lucas), just passing through. 

The stray dog, called Red Dog, as his fur matched the red earth of the Pilbara, shows up one day on a Dampier roadside and is adopted by the community of mine workers who cherish his company. But when the charismatic, sexy American John arrives on his motorcycle to become the mine’s transport driver, Red becomes a one-man dog. At first jealous of John’s relationship with the pretty company secretary, Nancy, Rachel Taylor, Red soon adapts to a routine with the happy couple. Then tragedy strikes.

With a light touch, the film sketches in the lives and personalities of the men who share Red prior to John’s arrival, all of whom meet one day in the bar to tell Red’s story to a lorry driver passing through. This framing device brings the story up to date for Red, back from two years of travelling through Western Australia where he became a legend, has been poisoned. The vet gives him a 50/50 chance of pulling through. As Red lies in the back room fighting for his life, the mining community reminisce about their lives with Red in what amounts to a premature eulogy. It is these stories that are dramatised in the film.

Red Dog succeeds where the 2009 man-and-his-dog film Hachi: A Dog’s Tale, starring Richard Gere, failed. Director Kriv Stenders and writer Dan Traplitz (The Squeeze, Breakin’ All the Rules) combine light humour with some sincerely touching moments but stay clear of Hachi’s mawkishness. They also place the story firming in its setting, whereas Hachi was removed from his native Japan.

Wisely, while giving the individual community of workers their due, the filmmakers keep the focus on the wonderful red cloud kelpie named Koko who has a personality all his own.  We hear about how a film’s director or producer ends up marrying or going out with the leading lady (or man), but in this case, producer Nelson Woss adopted Koko after the film was released. Man and dog are living happily ever after in Australia.