Movie Review Page

Review and html by Michael Rule

"The Man from Snowy River" produced by Geoff Burrows and George Miller was released in 1982 and was the largest grossing Australian movie of the time. It won awards for its music score and its popularity.

The movie is not dated twenty years later, because it is timeless. This is due to the realistic portrayal of 19th century rural life in Australia. The characters of Clancy (played by Jack Thompson) and Spur (played by Kirk Douglas), although unfamiliar in these times, are both likeable and beleivable.

Clancy and Spur represent two extremes. Clancy is the Australian hero who tamed the interior. His lifestyle is free and he is regarded a legendary horse rider. Spur is an American gold hunter who was driven to the wilderness and to the depths of a mine, not for the want of a new life, but to escape the ruins of his old life.

The movie expands the boundaries set by Banjo Paterson’s poem and although it explores other sub plots, the theme remains the same. The taming of the wilderness, peoples emotions and their dreams cannot be separated so easily. The order sought by the landowners becomes what the wild horses and the young couple must flee. For their mutual fear of hunger or injury is overcome by their need for freedom and self-determination.

This movie is as big as the issues and land it addresses. Images of wild horses are suitable metaphors for the emotions of love and the wilderness for the search for place and meaning. With the taming of the wild brumbies, what warning is this for our own sense of place in this ancient land?