With a gorgeous soundtrack and breathtaking cinematography, it’s no wonder that “The Man from Snowy River” is one of the most famous movies ever to come out of Australia. Twenty-five years later, the film is still touching audiences world-wide, and I was one of them last night, for probably the third time.
Jim Craig (Tom Burlinson) and his father are cutting logs when a herd of wild horses, known as the brumbies, comes dashing across their land. Bess, their stock mare, takes off with them, and the gelding holding back the logs jerks away, causing the logs to fall and crush Jim’s father. Jim, now an orphan, inherits the land but doesn’t have the money to run it, so he heads down to the low country to get a job, ending up as a stable boy for the cattle magnate, Harrison (Kirk Douglas).
Jim’s way with horses earns him the jealousy of the other men, and his new friendship with Jessica (Sigrid Thornton) Harrison’s daughter, earns him the contempt of his boss.
Harrison and his men leave to go round up their cattle, leaving Jim at the ranch. Jessica challenges him to break Harrison’s new thousand-dollar colt and Jim agrees, and together they work on training the horse. With all the time they spend in each other’s company, a sweet romance ensues. When Harrison arrives home and finds that the horse was broken without his permission, he slaps Jessica, and she runs out of the house to find Jim, who has been sent to gather the remaining cattle.
A storm comes up and Jessica loses her way, only to fall down the side of a mountain and land on the lip of a cliff. Jim finds her and pulls her up, then sends her back down the mountain while he finishes the job he was sent to do.
When the brumby mob comes through again, the jealous ranch hands let the pricey colt go, knowing Harrison will blame Jim for it. After all, Harrison has just fired Jim in a fit of anger. But when Jim comes back to help search for the colt, no one can deny him his right to clear his name.
Some of the most spectacular horsemanship you’ll ever see is found in this movie. While chasing the brumbies, Jim takes his horse straight down the face of a cliff – breathtaking.
In the end, Jim leaves the ranch to get his affairs in order before coming back to claim Jessica. I’ll be reviewing the sequel next week, but in the meantime, I’d like to share a few trivia facts:
“The Man from Snowy River” began as a poem by Australian bush poet Banjo Paterson. It tells the story of a perilous ride to capture a herd of horses, including the plunge down the mountain face.
Tom Burlinson had never ridden a horse before being cast as Jim Craig, and only had a few weeks to learn to ride. However, in the movie, you would swear he was born in a saddle.
The plunge down the mountain was not performed by a stunt man, but was in fact done by Tom Burlinson himself, despite his lack of experience on a horse.
This PG movie is one men and women alike can enjoy – and it’s suitable for your family, as well.
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