In many ways, "Dingo" can be thought of as a thinking-person's Crocodile Dundee. It tells the story of a young man who has lived in the Australian bush all his life, and had a cathartic moment at age 12 when veteran jazz-blues trumpeter Billy Cross (Miles Davis) lands his plane on the local airstrip and plays an impromptu jazz session. As Cross is about to leave, the boy tells him that the music is the best thing he'd ever heard. Cross then says that if the boy is ever in Paris, he should look him up. Twenty years later, and the boy has become a trumpeter who has always remembered this invitation. His wife and friends tell him he'll never get to Paris. The movie follows the man's passions, and with a spaciousness and sparcity that fits in well with the glorious outback. Colin Friels is perfect for the role.. playing the bush-bred trumpet-playing 'dogger' who is constantly after a dingo who will not be caught.. just as in his own life, he hangs onto that twenty-year old dream of going to Paris. In Paris there is salvation, both for him and the aging, damaged Billy Cross (played minimally, but effectively, by Davis). And the jam in the Paris nightclub must rank as one of the great filmed sessions in Jazz history. If you love jazz or blues, you must see this film. If you love the Australian bush, or wish to understand it, you must see this film. If you are in neither category, see it anyway.
