Multiculturalism In The Film 'Red Dog'

A story of loyalty, outback life and 'man's best friend', Red Dog, directed by Kris Stevens and released in 2011 is based on the real life story of how one dog united a small mining town in the North-West of Australia. The film is set in the 1970s, where a trucker, known as Tom, takes a break at a local pub. He soon finds out that a dog, known as 'Red Dog' or 'Red', is sick in the back of the Pub, and the people closest to Red tell stories about the bonds they formed with him, his adventures across the Pilbara and his search for his one true master. Stevens uses symbolic, audio and technical codes to construct characters and setting to represent the Australian working class man, multiculturalism and the bond between man and dog.

Early in …show more content…
In the opening parts of the film, we are introduced to 'Vanno', the Italian immigrant who never seems to stop talking about his home town back in Italy. The other foreigners are Chuposki and Dzambaski, who are nicknamed 'The ski patrol', because of the ski at the end of their names. Audio and visual codes are used to portray these characters, with all of the immigrants having strong accents to represent their region, with Vanno speaking with an Italian accent and the ski patrol possessing accents that are associated with Eastern European's. Visual codes are also used, Vanno also looks like a stereotypical Italian, with olive skin, black hair and a moustache symbolic to Italians. The large population of migrants in the mining town is because of the large influx of foreigners, mainly from Europe following World War II. Many countries throughout Europe were devastated and many jobs were lost. This caused foreigners to flock to Australia in search of work, and many of them were allocated to mines or factories, which is represented in Red Dog through mainly Vanno and the ski patrol. The way that the men are accepted into the town reflects Australian culture in a positive light, with no racial abuse throughout the film towards the migrants. Audio and visual codes are used to great effects to portray multiculturalism in a positive

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