Red Dog

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

The sadist in me loves that the first time you see the character of Red Dog in the film he is lying down dying with a gun pointed to his head ready to put him down. But the rest of the film is a heartwarming telling of tall tales, a little episodic but for the most part very fun. How could they go wrong, it's a story about a dog. Everyone loves dogs right?

What the film does really well is create this legendary figure and a real sense of time and place. It's beautifully photographed and had a great score, when it wasn't being drowned out by another Australian country rock song.

Some performances fare better than others. Some moments fare better than others. But given the nature of the story telling it never dwells on these moments long. They set up some real tear jerker moments towards the end and if you're really into it, I'm sure you'll ball your eyes out.

It was nice to see the late great Bill Hunter on the big screen. It just feels wrong that we won't see him pop up in every Australian film from now on, like we have for the last 4 decades. He will be missed.

It's a nice little entertaining number, crowd pleasing, family friendly and well put together.