The Man from Snowy River is a 1982 Australian film based on the Banjo Paterson poem of the same name. The film had a cast including Tom Burlinson as "Jim Craig" (The Man), Kirk Douglas as twin brothers "Harrison", the owner of a large cattle station and "Spur", a one-legged miner, Sigrid Thornton as Harrison's daughter Jessica, and Jack Thompson as "Clancy".
Both Tom Burlinson and Sigrid Thornton later reprised their roles in the 1988 sequel, The Man from Snowy River II, which was released by Disney.
Plot summary
The film opens with a montage of the Snowy River country. The Brumby mob of horses is running though the night and Jim Craig (Tom Burlinson) and his father Henry (Terence Donovan) sit in their log cabin discussing their financial situation. Their stock horse Bess starts to spook, and then the sounds of the wild horses galloping is audible. Jim convinces his father that they can catch the horses and they will be worth enough so that they do not have to go off the mountain to find work.
The next day, Jim and Henry are out cutting down trees to clear land and make a holding yard to capture the horses. While they have a large tree attached to their gelding, the Brumbies come galloping through, which gets their mare Bess excited, causing Jim to let go of the gelding — this causes the chain holding the logs to break and, in the process, the gelding's leg is broken. Now free, Bess gallops off and joins the mob while the log rolls downhill directly at Henry Craig, crushing him to death.
Henry Craig is buried beside his wife, outside of their mountain home. Their sole heir is Jim, but a group of mountain men challenge his claim after the funeral. Jim immediately argues the point, reminding them that he is the owner of his father's land now. But the men are adamant that Jim is to go down to the lowlands and earn the right to live in the mountains like his father did. Having no horse, Jim leaves and heads for a long-time friend of his called Spur (Kirk Douglas), a miner with a wooden leg.
Spur comments that "a man without a horse is like a man without a leg" and takes Jim outside to a corral where a beautiful dun-coloured horse is being held. Spur tells Jim "I have no notion of his breeding but he's a mountain horse....He's yours." Jim replies "I can't pay you for him." and Spur says "He's not for sale". After an attempt to argue, Jim finally accepts the horse "Denny" as a gift.
The next day, Jim leaves the high country for work on the flats, after talking to a man about Harrison's colt sired of "Old Regret" (the colt being worth a thousand pounds). When Jim arrives at Harrison's (Spur's twin brother) station to work, he is given a job upon the lawyer's recommendation, but soon has a run-in with Curly (Chris Haywood), in a barn, when Curly throws down a lit match into the hay, which Jim promptly puts out shovelling manure on it. Curly then gets angry that some manure lands on his boot in the process.
When it comes time to bring his cattle down from the mountains, Harrison calls in his old friend Clancy (Jack Thompson) (known in others of the author's writings as, 'Clancy of the Overflow', a 'genius' horseman in the vicinity). When Jim hears of this, he mentions to Curly and the others that Clancy and his father were mates and immediately gets laughed at and called a liar — however, the men have to eat their words when Clancy arrives at the cattle station next day and hands his horse's reins to Jim, offering his sympathy at the death of Jim's father, Henry, saying: "He was a good mate." Jim, however, is not allowed to join the other men on the muster, as someone trusted is needed to remain behind to look after the chores for the women.
While the others are gone, Harrison's daughter, Jessica (Sigrid Thornton), a very strong-willed, independent young lady (much to her father's chagrin), enlists the help of Jim to break-in the priceless colt themselves. The pair is successful. However, just before Harrison and the others return, the Brumbies arrive, exciting all the horses there, and on impulse Jim (seeing Bess in the mob) decides to give chase on Harrison's valuable colt. Jim falls from the young colt when it refuses a fence, and then is trampled by the mob. Lying on the ground in pain, Jim slowly rolls over in enough time to be attacked by the leader of the Brumby mob, known as "The Stallion" (which later turns out to be Old Regret - sire of the colt).
Later, when Jim awakens, Jessica tells him that her father isn't going to find out the truth of the incident. Jim says that he's not going to lie to Harrison and if that means losing his job then that's what happens, and is not fond of the idea of "hiding behind the skirts of women". However, before Harrison can be told anything at all, he tells Jim to retrieve some 20 stray cattle in the ranges. Jim leaves, soon finding them. While he's gone, Harrison notices signs that the colt has been ridden. When he asks Jessica about it, he learns the truth and of the Brumby incident. Furious that Jim put the expensive colt in danger "for a stock horse worth a few shillings", he tells Jessica that when Jim gets back, he's fired, and that she is to go away and be sent off to boarding school, slapping her in anger, proclaiming, "You're as deceitful as your mother!". This infuriates Jessica so much that she gets on her horse and gallops away looking for Jim.
Once in the mountains, Jessica is caught in a big storm. Her horse, spooked, runs from her, and she falls over the edge of a cliff. However, she lands on a ledge and is knocked unconscious. The next morning, she wakes up and discovers to her horror that she is sitting dangerously close to the edge of a fatal drop from the cliff ledge.
Jim eventually discovers Jessica's horse, dead, some distance away. He immediately begins calling and searching for her. Once he finds her, he lowers his stockwhip and pulls her to safety. During this time the two realize they have fallen in love, but that her father will never approve of a relationship between them, despite that Jessica only wants to be with Jim. Jessica tells Jim that her father knows about the colt and the incident with the Brumbies, that he's going to be fired when he returns. Jim tells her that he was given a job and that he must finish it and then take her back to her father. He then takes Jessica to Spur during the interim while he gathers up the strays, where it is revealed to Jessica, that Spur and Harrison are in fact estranged brothers.
Jim leaves Jessica in Spur's (her uncle's) care so he can take the strays back to Harrison's station. Jessica stays with Spur, and after supper he takes her home, arriving before Jim and Harrison.
Harrison, when he returns from searching for Jessica, while grateful to Jim for saving her, soon becomes angry again when he learns of Jim's feelings for his daughter. He accuses Jim of not being capable of giving Jessica the life she deserves, and orders him off the property. When Jim returns to the bunk house to gather his things, he and a drunken Curly and his mate get into a fight. Jim cleans the two of them up and leaves. After Jim has left, a bitter and jealous Curly and friend set the colt from Old Regret loose. They intend for Harrison to believe Jim is responsible, and that the colt was set free in retaliation for his being fired.
While Spur is at the station, Jessica learns that Harrison hates his brother because they were competing for the affections of the same woman named Matilda many years earlier, Jessica's mother. At one time during this scene, Harrison threatens Spur with "Get out of here or I'll..." to which Spur adds, "You'll what ... blow off the other one?", slapping his leg indicating that it was Harrison that was the responsible for Spur losing his leg.
Later, Jim and Spur are camping out, sitting by a fire talking when they are joined by Clancy, who tells them that someone let the colt loose and that Jim was being blamed for it. At first, Jim refuses to return to the station, bitter about Harrison's disdain for him. Clancy, however, appeals to Jim's pride and sense of justice. The best means of proving he wasn't responsible, Clancy believes, is to help retrieve the colt. Jim at first maintains that helping Harrison after suffering so many insults is too much to ask of a man. Spur and Clancy cleverly tease Jim about whether or not he's really a man, with Clancy claiming Harrison probably wouldn't let him ride with them anyway. Realizing that the only way to prove himself a man is to go on the muster, Jim agrees to go with Clancy to Harrison's the next day.
Harrison is none too happy, though, to see Jim turn up on his property next morning for the muster, and orders him removed. Clancy steps in, however, saying that Jim and his horse "are both mountain-bred and know the mountains" better than any of the other riders there. This silences Harrison's protests, and the chase commences. It ends for most of the group, however, when the mob gallops down a steep hill. Even Clancy doesn't dare give chase, but Jim, showing the mettle of a mountain man and the quality of his mountain horse, plunges down the steep incline without pause. He and Denny successfully negotiate the treacherous descent, and are later spotted by Harrison's group, still chasing the Brumbies. Then, Jim succeeds in what even Clancy was unable to manage - head off the mob and stare down the old stallion. To everyone's amazement, he drives the entire mob back to Harrison's station solo.
Harrison offers Jim the 100 pounds in money he had promised to anyone who could bring the colt safely home, but Jim retorts that it's not the reason he rode, a reference to both his need to clear his name and to his intentions to prove his maturity. He tells Harrison that he'll be back to claim the horses in the mob, and whatever else is his (looking at Jessica). To this, Harrison shouts "You've got a long way to go yet lad.". Spur interrupts him, saying "He's not a lad, brother...he's a MAN.". Then, as Jim tips his hat to Jessica and rides off, Clancy calls him "The Man from Snowy River."
Jim rides up to his home in the Snowy River region, knowing that he has earned his right to live there.
Cast
Production
Tom Burlinson has confirmed that it was definitely he who rode the horse over the side of the mountain for the 'terrible descent' during the dangerous ride — commenting that he had been asked about this numerous times, and that he became known as "The Man from Snowy River" because of his ride.[1]
The Craigs' Hut building was a permanent fixture created for the film. Located in Clear Hills, east of Mount Stirling, Victoria, the popular 4WD and hiking landmark was destroyed on 11 December 2006 in bushfires.[2] The hut has since been rebuilt.
Reception
The film "was released to a fair degree of critical acclaim, but more importantly, moviegoers found it to be a likable and highly entertaining piece of filmmaking that made no effort to hide its Australian roots, despite the presence of American star Kirk Douglas in one of the principal roles. "[3] The film was has a rating of 80% on film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.[4]
Awards and nominations
Soundtrack
Bruce Rowland composed the music for the film, a soundtrack that became one of the most critically acclaimed in the history of motion pictures. He also composed the music for the sequel.
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- NBC Sports uses some of the exact music from the soundtrack for their coverage of The Players Championship.
2000 Summer Olympics — Bruce Rowland composed a special Olympics version of "The Man from Snowy River" Main Title for the Olympic Games, which were held in Sydney. The CD of the music for the Sydney Olympics includes the Bruce Rowland's special Olympic version of "The Man from Snowy River".
The Man from Snowy River: Arena Spectacular — Bruce Rowland composed special arrangements of some of the film soundtrack music for the 2002 musical version of "The Man from Snowy River".
See also
References
External links
