Red Dog

Red Dog (2011) is an Australian family drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Kriv Stenders and starring Josh Lucas and Rachel Taylor. Adapted from Louis de Bernières' novella, it draws on the true story of a cattle dog who became an unofficial mascot for the mining communities of Western Australia's Pilbara region.

Nobody owns Red Dog — he owns the district. He hitches rides on company buses, sleeps where he pleases, and seems to know every worker from the iron-ore mines to the roadhouses stretching across the outback. The film pieces together his story through the people he left his mark on: a disparate mix of miners, drivers and newcomers, many of them strangers to each other before Red Dog wandered through. Josh Lucas plays John, an American who arrives in Dampier and becomes the dog's closest companion — for a while.

One of the highest-grossing Australian films of the early 2010s, Red Dog works because it trusts its material. A dog that roamed freely, was loved by hundreds, and is still honoured with a bronze statue in Dampier — that story doesn't need embellishment. Stream Red Dog online on iFILM.