7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 4.2 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
After his father' dies young Jim Craig leaves his home in the Snowy River valley to work for a wealthy landlord, who happens to be the estranged twin brother of Jim's mentor, a grizzled old prospector. While fighting to earn his spurs by breaking a herd of wild horses, Jim falls in love with his employer's spunky daughter Jessica. One of the horses escapes and the blame falls on Jim, so he has return to the Australian hills where he grew up, in order to find the horse and come back a man.
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Tom Burlinson, Jack Thompson, David Bradshaw, Sigrid ThorntonRomance | 100% |
Family | 88% |
Western | 85% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.34:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
French: Dolby Digital Mono
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
In a long and varied career, the great Kirk Douglas has taken on just about every genre imaginable from the sword-and-sandal classic Spartacus to paranoid political drama with Seven Days in May to old-school science fiction in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. He certainly knows his way around the American western, including his memorable turn as Doc Holliday in John Sturges' Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957). A movie star so recognizably American was an interesting pick for the pivotal dual role of estranged brothers in a different kind of western, one unlike anything Douglas had made before, because it was set in Australia and dispensed with most of the familiar tropes you'd expect from a story on the American frontier. There were no posses, sheriffs, outlaws, wagon trains, showdowns at high noon or gun battles; in fact no guns were fired at all. There was, however, an expansive and overwhelming landscape that inspired awe in those who appreciated it and could also be dangerous to those who didn't respect it. And there were horses—lots of them. The Man from Snowy River quickly established itself as an Australian classic. Based on a poem of the same name by Banjo Patterson, who also wrote "Waltzing Matilda" and appears on the Australian $10 note, the film was shot on location in the southeastern state of Victoria and celebrated both the land and the spirit of the people who had settled it. But the film was also successful internationally and has become a staple for family viewing, because it tells a coming-of-age story, and despite the intensity of the conflicts among its characters, it has relatively little violence. A love affair plays a key role, but it's a chaste relationship, and the most romantic moment is a dramatic rescue followed by a ride on horseback.
Fox's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray of The Man from Snowy River provides a fine, film-like presentation of this widescreen 1982 classic, which means that grainophobes may not like it. The film's natural texture has been faithfully preserved, and grain is visible in almost every shot, sometimes quite obviously so. No apparent attempt has been made to flatten, freeze, de-noise or "degrain" the image, and the result preserves both the integrity of the image and the look of film—but the latter seems to have fallen out of fashion in many quarters, probably because so many people no longer have an opportunity to see such images in the age of digital cinema. The grain is more obvious in darker scenes, either indoors or at night, less so in brightly lit scenes, but in general the Blu-ray is an excellent example of how film grain is the very stuff of a cinematic image and how a well-crafted hi-def presentation is capable of presenting it accurately with eye-pleasing results. Australian cinematographer Keith Wagstaff opted for a warm, almost pastel palette that emphasizes the story's romance. Even the forbidding mountain range, with its abrupt and dangerous changes in weather, always looks romantic and alluring, and warmer earth tones dominate the screen. Some minor crushing can sometimes be observed in the blacks of night scenes, which is probably attributable to overexposure necessary to render the key figures visible. Digital artifacts were nowhere visible, either by way of filtering or sharpening or due to compression.
The film's original stereo soundtrack is presented as DTS-HD MA 2.0. Dialogue and sound effects are clearly rendered (unless, of course, your ear is unaccustomed to Australian pronunciation, and then there are English SDH subtitles), and the mix makes good use of the left and right channels to separate individual effects according to the action on screen. The rear channels provide primarily atmosphere, although an advanced decoder such as DPL IIx should be able to extend some of the left and right pans into the rears in a properly calibrated system. Bruce Rowland's famous score, which became a bestselling soundtrack album, plays with very good dynamic range and fidelity and provides the film with the epic sweep that every effective western needs.
For anyone used to American westerns, especially those made in the same period as The Man from Snowy River (what might be called "the post-Wild Bunch era"), the film's story may seem to unfold in an odd, even unfocused manner. A large part of the reason, I think, is that American films typically focus on the gunfighters who are either exploiting or protecting townspeople, ranchers, farms or miners, with the latter relegated to a supporting role. (Think of Clint Eastwood's westerns, whether classic, as in Pale Rider, or revisionist, as in Unforgiven.) Sometimes, the "regular" folk are forced to become gunfighters themselves, as happens in Lawrences Kasdan's Silverado, but it's always their role as gunfighters that gives them dramatic heft. In The Man from Snowy River, by contrast, there are no gunfighters, only regular folk. The drama comes from uncontrollable natural forces like the unpredictable mountain weather and the surging brumby mob, and from the equally powerful passions of the human heart. Highly recommended.
The Man from Snowy River II
1988
Two-Disc Special Edition
1954
Deluxe Remastered Edition
1974-1975
1994
Limited Edition to 3000
1954
1990
1991
55th Anniversary Edition
1960
1994
1930
Limited Edition to 3000
1955
1947
2000
1991
1949
Fox Studio Classics
1935
1953
Warner Archive Collection
1962
Paramount Presents #16
1952
2002