Movie Review: The Man From Snowy River

The Man From Snowy River

Recommended For: Ages 10 to Adult

Rating: PG for language and violence

Set in late-19th-century Australia, this family drama follows Jim Craig, who lives with his father, Henry, in the pristine hills of Snowy River country, where stampedes of wild horses routinely gallop through the land. After Henry is unexpectedly struck and killed, Jim is told he's too "green" to take over his own land and is forced to take a job with Mr. Harrison, an American cattle baron who's made a fortune in Australia and is the talk of the country for his pure-bred colt worth 1,000 pounds.

Years ago, The Apple Dumpling Gang was on TV, followed by The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again and Return to Snowy River, a movie we had never seen or heard of before. We decided to record The Apple Dumpling Gang and only The Apple Dumpling Gang. Well...we learned the difference between AM and PM. When setting the recorder, we meant to set it to end at the end of the first movie, which ended sometime in the morning, but accidentally set it for that time in the PM instead of the AM. We didn't realize our mistake until we had recorded The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again and Return to Snowy River. We had recorded the sequel to a movie we hadn't watched. We always meant to eventually watch The Man From Snowy River so we could watch the sequel we had accidentally recorded, but only got around to it Saturday night.

Technical: 4/5

This is an older movie, so you can't expect it to be very technically advanced. That being said, for an older movie, it was very well-done.

Setting: 5/5

The setting was what I thought was cool about this movie. It was set in Australia, in the mountains and the lowlands. This meant the accents were cool. I don't know much about Australia, especially in that time period, but I think it was very well done.

Plot: 4/5

It's not hard to guess that this is at least in part a romance. Now, I'm not at all adverse to a little romance in stories, in fact quite the opposite, but I like it to be done right. The romance in this movie seemed fast. The progression of events of people falling for each other happened way too quickly. They only knew each other for about two weeks when they were kissing. That being said, if it had been slowed down a little, the romance would have been perfect. Not the central plot, clean, honorable, and not too much kissing, not cheesy or weird. As for the rest of the plot, it was...confusing. Good, but confusing.

Character Development: 4.5/5

The characters seemed pretty good. I didn't fall in love with them, but I didn't hate them either. They were developed well, but they probably could have been developed better.

I think this was a good movie and is worth watching.