The Man from Snowy River (1982)

Tom Burlinson is Jim Craig, a young man forced to grow up fast after his father is killed in a logging accident.

He heads from the Snowy River area where he was raised to the low lands to get a job so he can afford to keep his father’s land.

He winds up working for Harrison (Kirk Douglas), a well-off rancher who has a pretty daughter (Sigrid Thornton as Jessica) and just purchased a prize colt.

Left behind when Harrison and the other men heads off on a cattle drive, Craig secretly sets about breaking the colt with Jessica’s encouragement.

He succeeds, and the two grow much closer over the course of the process.

But trouble comes when a herd of wild horses — and same herd that caused his father’s death — romps by.

Spotting a mare named Bess that used to belong to him, Jim hops aboard the colt and gives chase, only to be thrown and injured.

When Harrison returns, he discovers what happened, threatens to send Jessica to finishing school and promises to fire Jim.

Neither happens because Jessica runs away and winds up in the cabin of an old miner named Spur (also Kirk Douglas), the uncle she never knew she had.

Seems both brothers — Harrison and Spur — fell in love with Jessica’s mom. She vowed to marry the first one who made his fortune.

Harrison won that race, but has been haunted ever since by fears that Matilda wasn’t faithful to him and that Spur might have fathered Jessica.

Meanwhile, Jim Craig is going to have to prove his ability as the man from Snowy River yet again.

A ranchhand has set that prized colt free. It’s joind the wild horse herd. And they’ve blamed the colt’s escape on Jim.

Tom Burlinson as Jim Craig, meeting Jessica for the first time while helping her control an unruly colt in The Man from Snowy River (1982)

Sigrid Thornton as Jessica Harrison, the willful young daughter of a well-off Australian rancher in The Man from Snowy River (1982)

Review:

The plot summary can’t do the film justice because this is a marvelous movie, certainly one of the best Outback Westerns ever made.

Having Kirk Douglas around in two roles certainly helps. He’s a commanding presence as the ranch owner; he tackles the role of an eccentric old miner with relish.

But the real magic here is the relationship between the characters played by Tom Burlinson and Sigrid Thornton. That they fall is love is predictable, but it happens on film in a way that makes it seem entirely natural.

Oh, and let’s not forget the chase of the wild horses that serves as the film’s climax. Because it’s some of the best horse chase footage ever committed to film.

Burlinson and Thornton returned to co-star in the sequel, “Return to Snowy River” (1988). Kirk Douglas did not. His role went to Brian Dennehy.

Kirk Douglas as Harrison, the rancher who knows his horses better than his growing daughter Jessica in The Man from Snowy River (1982)

Kirk Douglas as Spur, the aging miner who was once in love with Jessica’s mother, Matilda, in The Man from Snowy River (1982)

Directed by:
George Miller

Cast:
Tom Burlinson … Jim Craig
Terence Donovan … Henry Craig
Kirk Douglas … Harrison / Spur
Tommy Dysart … Mountain man
Bruce Kerr … Man in street
David Bradshaw … Banjo Paterson
Sigrid Thornton .. Jessica Harrison
Jack Thompson … Clancy
Tony Bonner …. Kane
June Jago … Mrs. Bailey
Chris Haywood … Curly
Kristopher Steele … Moss
Gus Mercurio … Frew
Lorraine Bayly … Rosemary Hume

Runtime: 102 min.

Jack Thompson as Clancy, the guide Harrison relies on to find the wild herd of horses in The Man from Snowy River (1982)

Tony Bonner as Kane, Harrison’s foreman, wondering whether it’d be best to call off the hunt with bad weather coming in The Man from Snowy River (1982)

Memorable lines:

Spur to Jim Craig: “It’s a hard country. Makes for hard men.”

Spur, trying to convince Craig not to try to catch up with the wild horse herd in order to recapture a lost mare: “Don’t throw effort out to foolishness.”

Harrison, explaining how he wound up ranching in Australia: “Go West, young man. Go West, they said. So I went West, 10,000 miles further than they intended.”

Curly to Craig, regarding his blossoming relationship with Jessica: “I heard you broke in more than the colt while we were away. Did you have to use your spurs, boy?”
The words, naturally, prompt a fight between the two.

Jessica, about the Snowy River country: “It changes so suddenly, doesn’t it? One minute, it’s like paradise. The next it’s trying to kill you.”
Jim Craig: “Yep, that’s how it can be up here. But if it was easy to get to know, there’d be no challenge. You’ve got to treat the mountains like a high-spirited horse. Never take them for granted.”
Jessica: “It’s the same with people too.”

Sigrid Thorton as Jessica Harrison, comforted by her father (Kirk Douglas) and snapping at the young man she just met in The Man from Snowy River (1982)

Lorraine Bayly as Rosemary Hume, the aunt who is helping Harrison raise Jessica in The Man from Snowy River (1982)

David Bradshaw as Patterson, the man who helps Jim Craig get a job on Harrison’s ranch in The Man from Snowy River (1982)

Tom Burlinson as Jim Craig and Sigrid Thornton as Jessica Harrison, watching her father’s prized colt in The Man from Snowy River (1982)