The Man from Snowy River

A Film Review

Editor’s Note:

If you’re a fan of the Western genre, then you’re in luck. Frank Kidd gives us his thoughts on the underrated 1982 film, The Man from Snowy River.

Enjoy.

- Frank Theodat

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This movie is a hidden treasure, and unless watching every Western known to man is your hobby, it’s likely you missed it.

First off, its not your typical shoot-em up. It’s wholesome, and not necessarily because it had to be. It just is. It’s also thoroughly Australian. The story didn’t demand blood and guts, and it never worries about delivering them. But it’s also never lacking in action, and the third act has some of the best hard–riding to ever be filmed.

Tom Burlinson, pictured above, plays Jim Craig, the son of a mountain rancher. The boy and his father live alone, high up in the rugged Australian mountain country. One night, a wild eyed stallion and his herd pay the pair a visit and rile up the livestock. Craig stops his father from killing the horse and convinces him that capturing the herd would pocket them some nice coin. The two of them then build a stockyard to capture the mob of brumby (wild horses) when a freak accident results in his father’s death.

After the funeral, Jim Craig expects to keep working his father’s ranch and to inherit the station, but he is promptly told by a group of mountain men that he must “first, earn the right” to work and live in the mountains–the same way his father did. Manhood, like the mountains, isn’t something you inherit. What the mountains and the wild stallion both symbolize throughout the movie is somewhat nebulous. Is it freedom? Spirit? Self-sufficiency—or are all of these the same thing, parts of a whole? I find it interesting that the stallion never becomes Craig’s “white whale.” It’s something else, something only Craig understands. Throughout the movie the boy respects the stallion, much the same way he does the mountains. In a way, catching the stallion becomes Craig’s “atonement with the father,” to steal a term from the hero’s journey. And for those who appreciate a good’s hero journey, this movie hits all the beats, but it also never feels like that’s what its doing. Its a clever piece of myth making when you can’t really spot the trick.

Anyways, I digress. So the mountain boy, after being told he has to earn the mountains, journeys downward to the low-lands where he finds a job on the giant Harrison ranch working for its stern patriarch (played by Kirk Douglas). He then falls in love with Harrison’s daughter and trouble ensues. Interestingly enough, Kirk Douglas plays two characters in the movie, both Harrison and his estranged brother Spur, Craig’s mentor.

At its heart, the movie is a coming of age-story. The dramatic tension revolves around Craig finding his place, getting the girl, and doing it his way. It’s a movie that glorifies the cowboy ethic, and in some sense the anglo-ethic, the kind of ethic that turned the rugged outback into a place suitable to raise a family. It also takes pride in the masculine rituals that turn boys into men. Ones place in the world is earned through grit, determination, and most of all—honor. And by honor, I mean the values found in natural law. To be a mountain enjoyer, you must know its laws, and you must embody them, otherwise, you’re dead. The mountains demand loyalty, respect, and courage.

For the romantics, there’s plenty. It’s a refreshing love story. Sigrid Thornton plays Jessica Harrison, Craig’s love interest. At times it’s hard to believe just how much natural chemistry they have. Jessica is fiery, and embodies all the spirit of the mountains, spirit her own father doesn’t truly appreciate. She doesn’t want to be broken, she wants to be tamed (

Brady Putzke

wrote that sentence, our resident romance enjooyer).

Aesthetically, it is a beautiful movie, often utilizing gorgeous aerial cinematography that soaks in the Australian landscape. It’s a movie made for the pastoral poaster. It’s also a window into a past where manhood was achieved through initiation. If you have some time this weekend, and can’t decide what to watch, it won’t disappoint.

But before you go, checkout the poem that inspired it:

The Man from Snowy River by A B Banjo Paterson