***SPOILERS*** Not your average dog movie "Dusty" is a Dr. Jeckel & Mr. Hyde type version of a dog who can be as sweet loyal and friendly, which Dusty is, during most of the film. Being a Kelpie/Dingo mix-breed Dusty's wilderness comes out at night and he becomes a scourge to the sheep ranchers in the area. With him hunting for food in and around the farmland and plains where he was brought up to be a Kelpie sheepdog.
Bought as a puppy by outback bushman Tom Lincoln, Bill Karr,it wasn't until much later that Tom, and the family that he worked for, realized that Dusty was not only half domestic dog and half wild Dingo but had became too attached to him to have Dusty put down. Being at first a champion sheepdog as Dusty grew up into adulthood his wild side started to take over. He soon began to slip out of his chained harness and roam the woods and valleys for pray where he occasionally attacked and brought down a local rancher's lamb.
Not having the heart to kill the very likable and courageous dog Dusty is given the chance to escape into the wilds but his loyalty and dedication for old man Lincoln kept his coming back to civilization. This exposes the dog to being shot and killed by the sheep ranchers like Tom's friend and employee Harry Morrison and his son Jack, Noel Trevarthen & Nicholas Holland. Dusty for his part became so adapt to the ways of the sheep ranchers and their hired guns like Railey Jordan, John Stanton, by being a sheepdog himself that he outsmarted and outmaneuvered them every time that they tried to catch and or shoot him.
It was also the fact that he was Tom Lincoln's dog and only real friend in the world that the old man had also had the ranchers, as well as hired gun Jordan, keep from going all out to shoot trap and kill Dusty. Being kept in the woods and around cattle country by Tom had Dusty chase and hunt wild game instead of sheep. Dusty's respect and love of Tom also had him keep his wild side in check while Tom was still alive.
With Tom dying alone in his tent in the woods has Dusty risk getting shot by coming back to sheep country in order to get Harry to come back into the wilds in order to bury the old man but Dusty's concern for Tom may also cost him his life. Really touching ending to the movie "Dusty" that will have you crying uncontrollably. Without giving too much of it away it's, happily, no downer with Dusty back in the wilds as his Dingo side takes over. No longer having anyone, like Tom Lincoln, to draw him back into a world that he always felt he didn't belong to Dusty is now fee at last in the wilds.
Wounderful soundtrack and beautiful photography of the Australian countryside will have you glued to the screen but it's Dusty and his kind and sensitive master Tom that will really get you hooked on the movie.
