Red Dog (2011)

Director Kriv Stenders

Based on a novel by Louis de Bernières which in turn was inspired by a real incident, Red Dog is the most popular Australian movie of the past year. Told in flashback as the eponymous pooch lies sick in the back room of a remote pub in Western Australia, a variety of tough guys relate how the Red Dog became a local legend around the remote coastal town of Dampier and brought together a community of lonely working men. Red Dog is played in the film by an Australian breed of sheepdog known as a red cloud kelpie, and there's now a bronze statue of him in the area. The film gathers incidents from every dog movie you ever saw, from Rescued by Rover and Rin Tin Tin to Greyfriars Bobby and Lassie Come Home. It's guaranteed to bring tears and laughter to popular audiences, and those who turn up their muzzles at it are on a canine to nothing. The movie received considerable support from the controversial Rio Tinto mining company on whose land much of the film was shot, and they are no doubt hoping to gain some friendly public relations warmth from the Rio Rin Tin Tinto effect. - Philip French / Observer