Despite the distinction of being the lone acting showcase for international jazz great Miles Davis (in no great stretch, portraying an international jazz great), Dingo has been seldom revived since its premiere. Hopefully, the Dark Star release will remedy that and give a deserved encore to the offbeat music drama.
In 1969, a plane carrying the band of jazz star Billy Cross (Davis) lands by chance at a remote Australian bush village, Poona Springs. Cross makes the most of it with an impromptu free concert on the tarmac. One of the Aussie boys listening enraptured grows up to be jazz-crazy John `Dingo' Anderson (Colin Friels), who fronts his own party band whilst living a self-employed life as a general handyman and wild-dog exterminator (realistically portrayed, no Crocodile Dundee comedy).
His wife Jane (Helen Buday) and the community (who prefer country-and-western) tolerate Dingo's jazz aspirations, his lonely horn practice in the bush, and his routinely writing to Billy Cross in faraway Paris hoping to collaborate musically. In truth, years of Dingo’s letters have been intercepted by Billy’s not-totally-unsympathetic French managers.
After a boyhood friend with a crush on Jane tries to entice the Andersons to relocate to the big city and make John settle down with a mundane job, the protagonist uses his savings to impulsively fly to Paris to force a meeting with his idol. What happens then may be a pure jazz-music fairy tale, but as directed by Rolf De Heer (acclaimed for much more challenging art-house material such as Bad Boy Bubby and Ten Canoes) it is intelligent and entertaining stuff that leaves a smile on your face.
It also cannot hurt to be an excellent promo for jazz reaching across social and international boundaries. Davis does perform a few numbers, seemingly more comfortable in front of a listening audience than in a scripted scenario, but Friels provides the proper thespian support in counterpoint.
Some profanity and midlife-crisis drinking and fisticuffs would likely have fetched Dingo a PG-13 rating from the MPAA. As with Round Midnight, music-oriented film collections, perhaps even customarily non-fiction ones, with jazz proclivities should lend an ear to the singular item, and perhaps note that a Dingo soundtrack album resulted. Highly recommended for Miles Davis-focused library programming.
Discover more titles for your film collection in our list of music movies.