One of the BEST Westerns? | The Man From Snowy River REVIEW

There's nothing less interesting to me than a western other than a western from fucking Australia. I can't think of anything less interesting to. Me than just pissed off 25 million people. Guess. I mean, listen, I don't have a big love for Australia anyway. They got fucking everything there wants to kill you. Snakes, spiders, fucking kangaroos. All sorts of crazy shit. I've seen some fucking videos of spiders on people's walls. Were they like, Oh shit, it's a fucking huntsman. I'd be fucking out

of that fucking shit. Like Daffy Duck through the fucking wall. He had only one wish to prove himself a man. Make your. Plan with someone. Else's daughter. I didn't carve this place out of the bush. To see Jessica run off for the first fortune hunter to come along. This is the story of Jim Craig, young man whose father dies in the 1800s, late 1800s. In Australia, they're mountain people. After his father dies, he takes a job at the Harrison Cattle Ranch, where he's forced to become a man. This

is directed by George Miller not to be confused with George Miller of Mad Max fame. Also Happy Feet, maybe. Yeah. And it's funny because when I look this movie up, when you first talked, when you first said, this is what we're gonna be watching, I was like, Oh, George Miller, okay, this might be good. That. 3 minutes. And I'm like, nah, nah, nah, this is for sure not the same. George Miller So all that being said, just, just as a, just to let you know, I am historically not a Western movie fan w

ith the exception of a few of them, but I don't really even like the westerns that are like the world famous one, like fucking tombstone and like, you know, all these movies I've seen them. It's not a huge Western fan. My fact, my favorite Western. I don't even know if you ever have heard of this. It's a Western horror movie called Bone Tomahawk with Kurt Russell. Amazing fucking movie. Yes. Have you seen that? Of course I have. Okay, good. So that's sort of my thing. Dusty, why did you pick thi

s movie? Let's get into. What do you like? Oh, well, you're the one familiar with it, so take the lead. Correct? I should have done the opening, but I wanted to hear you do it right. So I'm going corrected. Oh, after actually one of your takes. And then we'll discuss the film and why I selected it. Okay, so tell me what you thought about it and then I'll explain some things to you and you can think about it while I'm explaining it and we could talk about it, and maybe you'll change your mind. Ma

ybe you won't. But I want to hear your takes first. Marvin, you and him. Okay, you go first. I. I actually enjoyed this. I thought the music was really good. I wouldn't call it boring. I don't know what I would call it. Like there's something about westerns where for me, it's just something that you could just enjoy. Bruce Roland won Best Original Music Score. A couple of words for this music score, by the way. Marvin So yeah, okay. Okay. I'm doing it. I guess I like Westerns. I'm glad you like

it. She had only one dream to find out who she was. Why do you keep this portrait of my mother. For me again, just don't really like Western. However, I liked practically nothing about this movie. There was. And this is me just being a dick. Like, I really. I was watching it with an open mind. It's just in the first, the acting was just really fucking bad, in my opinion, especially from pretty much everybody other than Kirk Douglas was pretty fucking on. It was pretty awful in this movie. In fac

t, real quick, speaking of Kirk Douglas, it's amazing to me that if you just close your eyes, how much? Almost identically. Him and Michael Douglas sound. Is. Almost identical voices. Anyway, Kirk Douglas was really the only one who was good in this movie, and he wasn't even good in this movie at times. So I was really quickly taken out of it right from the beginning. You know, father dies and you get the numb. Oh, yeah, that was that was super cheesy. So coupled with like, it is an eighties mov

ie. Yeah, but it's. Prone to have some cheese westerns aren't they aren't excluded from the cheese of the eighties. Well as we've talked about with eighties movies we've covered plenty of them here on the, on the podcast so far. And you typically have issues with the cheesiness of them. No, no, no. Or the. Issues with the C, the graphics, the. Simplicity of. Looks. Yeah, yeah, yes, yes. All right. So some you know, there's the real quick. Go ahead. Real quick. You talked about the acting. I did,

yeah. Yep. Not often. I don't know if I should say this. But you can say, don't fucking bring up Halloween, Marvin. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not going to go. Holloway All right. But I am going to bring up another movie. Hit me with it. Make me nervous. Star Wars. No, I agree with you. I feel like, yeah, Star Wars doesn't have the best acting in. It at all. No, no, no. Okay. No fucking. What's his name? I've said it many times. Fucking what's his name other than his voice acting. He's like no

t a good actor at all. And Keri Russell character, I just call her what I should say. The comparison. Carrie Fisher I need to go to the hospital after this. You said Kurt Russell. I did, yes. Oh, okay. Thank you. You made me feel better. I was real nervous for Carrie Fisher. She really didn't. I mean, she's also really not a great actress. Like later in her life, I think when she did more serious roles and stuff, I felt like she kind of came into of it. But yeah, no, Star Wars doesn't have. Amaz

ing. And blue. Okay. I just wanted to say that. No, no, I agree with you 100%. Only good actor in Star Wars. Really? Alec Guinness and like, you know, Darth Vader fucking it's like but that's a voiceover. So I was like, Yeah, right. But yeah, no, I agree. I thought Jim was I like Jim. I was rooting for Jim and Jordan. Yeah. Yeah. This was like one of his first, I think, movies, and he didn't really have any writing experience at all and actually just went on to make some other horse movies and t

hat was about it. Like, he didn't really do a whole lot with his career. He did went on to make a sequel because this movie was successful enough that it got a big budget sequel. Guy really got into that, that horse. Nish There was a lawsuit from Kirk Douglas about the first one because he didn't think he was getting paid enough. The movie was doing well. Oh my God, there's a sequel. And there's a sequel. Douglas is not in it. Okay? It's more of a Yellowstone style story. So you might actually l

ike the second one better. I like the first one better because of the the cultural ness of it, the story behind it. If you go in watching this movie and you have no idea, you basically see, you know, yeah, kids, kids, dad dies. And the man people say, you have no right to live up here. Go down to the land. Earned the right to live up here. Right. So he goes down. It's a coming of age story falls in love. There's a little bit of pro feminism message in there as well. Oh yes. It was woke true brok

en. Fuck. It's nonsense. Male company will be a pleasant relief in this hothouse of female emotions. JESSICA Poverty. But it's basically just a, you know, it's a coming of age story and, you know, the guy gets help from girls they fall in love. That's that's basically story. It's a it's an adventure romance. Yeah. And I could see how somebody with no notion of its history might initially rejected this movie is based on a poem. Yeah. So I a B Banjo Patterson, who is probably the most famous autho

r from Australia, I want to say if he's not the most famous, he's definitely the most publicly performed. The poem itself is about, which is also in the movie. A racehorse as Colt escapes, is panicked, goes off, joins the brumbies which are wild horses. Right. The character in the poem rides down the mountain to save the horses. That's what the poem's about. So that's what the movie's about, right? And this is a beloved poem from a beloved artist from that country, and so much so that Abby Banjo

Paterson is on the Australian $10 bill and so is part of the poem. Abby Paterson also wrote a bush ballad back in the day called A What's it called Waltzing Matilda, which some consider the unofficial national anthem. They did a vote for it. It came in like second or third a long time ago. Dusty Slim is a famous Australian country music artist who was the first man to be played from space. Oh, yes. Oh shit. The Columbia space shuttle flew over Australia and like 82 they played Matilda Waltzing

by Dusty Slim. That was written by Abby Banjo Paterson. Right. So this guy's a legend in the country. Yeah, right. Like the first scenes when we see the the group of horses, I was like, is this going to be like a a horror western where it's like this group of horses is like terrorizing people. It's like a group of horses running around causing a ruckus. Was they kind of were. But are you referring to that? It was a horse stock footage that was repeated over and over and over again throughout the

movie. The silhouetted horse is just like fucking running. Yes, yes. Yes. Just curious. Yeah, no. I mean, all that stuff is really interesting and I love that stuff. You know, I love that stuff. I fucking rant and rave about it with a lot of old movies like Halloween. And I'm always talking about like the production stuff and how these things came together. I love all that. Just as a movie though, I don't know. Can't get into it, couldn't get into it. I had to stop watching it, actually, becaus

e I was it. Was the. Damn. I'm not even even. Now I watch. I couldn't. Finish it. I finished it. But I'm and I'm not saying this to be a dick or joke or make a joke or anything. I was literally falling asleep in my chair and I had to get up and like go for a walk because I was like dozing off. Who's the bottle is before? So help me out, do it again. So I was talking to my buddy George about this because he knows more about, like, foreign films than I do. And I was like, Did you ever see this mov

ie? He's like, No, I never heard of it. He was saying how Australian like movies and directors in general, in his words, fuck very hard and he was saying that per capita they put out like way more banger movies than the U.S. does because they just don't have as big of an industry. So because of that, like if that like quality versus quantity type of thing, I read a lot of like stuff on the movie after I watched it now because it has it has a good rating on IMDB. I won't reveal what it is yet. An

d I'm like, this is something's not adding up. So a lot of it, I would imagine, has to do with the history and stuff that you were talking about. I'm sure people love the movie. I'm not trying to take that away from anybody. But, you know, people are saying like, oh, the cinematography is beautiful. It has an AFI awards, it has as an AFI award for best achievement in cinematography and best achievement and sound. All right. I don't really know what the achievement in the cinematography for me wa

s. Yeah, of course the landscapes are beautiful, but the way it was shot was just so goofy and like jerky and all over the place that I like. It took the beauty of it away from me like the movie uses. A lot of, like. Scenes were jerky, but not all of it was. Uh, when I say jerky, there was like a lot of very, like, shaky camera stuff going on a lot of the time. And then when they did show like the landscapes, it was like wide angle shots, but like they use these like really fucking fast and like

jarring, like zoom things and like they did, like they used cross dissolves from scene to scene like so often. So a lot of the time I was just like, Oh, well, the landscapes are fucking beautiful, but like it was just, it felt like a little bit all over the place to me. So there was like one specific moment that I was like, What the fuck is going on here with this? Because they showed this like beautiful vista and then all of a sudden they just cut to like the dude with the blond mustache, just

like smiling that he was just smiling at the whole fucking movie. So, like, from. Australian shit, he just like. A lot of the cuts and stuff. The cinematography just to me made like no sense. The horsemanship in this movie is amazing. Like some of the scenes they shot with these dudes running around on these horses was amazing. And that shot where Jim rides down the mountain at the end is actually him riding down a mountain in one single shot. Right. That is impressive. Marvin, what is your fav

orite scene of this movie? When Jim got run over by the horses, I laugh when I shouldn't have. I laughed. At. My fucking. Close ups on the horse afterwards. It kills me, dude. The woman on the eyeball stuck, literally cracked the fuck up, stopped what I was doing, rewound it, recorded it, no B.S. to make sure I had it as the clip for the video later. And awesome. And I wrote it down. The man got stampeded and just walked it off like it was a scrape on the knee. It was nothing. Here's my note. Ho

rse eyes zoom. Hilarious. Not so fucking funny. In reality, a horse won't run over you they'll jump over you. That's why he jumped. Everybody's getting fucking trampled in this movie. That dude. Oh, my God. Yeah. And I guess, you know, there was another scene, too, I thought was really funny towards the end where they were like, there was that, like, huge, like, horse running sequence. And they crossed the river, like, randomly. This is a dog swimming in the water that I don't think I've seen do

g before unless I just kind of like zoned out. I don't know where that was. Well, it's just a bunch of horses leave a ranch. Some of the dogs are going to follow them. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I don't know, I, I also so like, again, I didn't think the writing was that strong and then the acting really wasn't that great. But I honestly don't even understand the character arc. Like, I get it, like the coming of age thing and like he got he has to go be a man. But how did he become a man? Just b

y like going to gather some horses and bringing them back to the ranch. Abby Paterson wrote a lot about that. The hardness of the bush life. And yeah, because he he grew up in this area and he actually helped tame the Brumbies back in the time. And so that's why he did a lot of poetic, poetic writing about it. And that's like the, the stylized version of western or western westernized Australia. Like we have Western, you know, U.S., which is John Wayne and yeah, right there stylized is, is, is w

ritten down by Banjo Paterson and even like Crocodile Dundee and the character that Hugh Jackman played in Australia. Drover These like these characters are based off the type of man that Banjo Paterson writes about, which is a rugged bushman. Sure. And his story is, is he has to earn his right to live on the mountain because it's a dangerous place. And those decisions have consequences for everybody around which you find out in the second movement. Yeah, no, I mean, I get it. I just didn't feel

like there was any real conflict for in which he like would rise from that occasion. It was just like, the horses are over there. I got to go get him. And I again, I'm sure it's difficult in real life. I just I don't know that the movie translated it to me because I. Was, like, conquering, like, fears, too. Like, yes. The horses are what killed his dad. So the whole time he's trying to is kind of trying to get revenge on these this group of horses. And then he finally, like, overcomes them. I a

lso think you guys talking about the score in the score won an award. I didn't think the score was good at all. There was a couple oh, there were a couple moments where I was like, oh, this is cool. Like the, you know, with the music. But it was the placement of it. Editing. Editing was the biggest problem in this movie. That's what it was, because there were moments I at the score, I almost felt like I don't know if this movie wanted to be because like for the first half of the movie, there was

like these random moments where like eighties and nineties, like sitcom music would like swell up like piano music. And then later in the movie, it was like these grand orchestral performances that would swell up, and they're like making out and shit. And I was like, What is this? What is the placement of this music? I don't know. It was great. Oh, my God. The most epic makeout scene of all time. There's a trick to that one. There's no trick. It's all. Let me have a go. No, I. That this hand. U

p. I enjoyed the cast in this. What was Harris? The Harrison guy's brother. The one. The minor guy. You know the guy? Yeah, that's for sure. Yeah. I thought he was hilarious. You know, that was the same actor, right, Marvin? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought he was hilarious. He said a lot. He said a bunch of funny shit. Tony Bennett is. Amazing to me. He was messing with the maids and stuff. It was pretty. Funny. Yeah, yeah. He's no. Dusty. The guy in the bunkhouse reminded me of you. Oh, yeah, the o

ld. Man. Yeah, he tells me. Yeah, yeah, man can be hard to find in the woods. You welcome my fire anytime. The one who is kind. Of like. Yeah, I'm going to. Sleep. Oh, that was the one that that was the one that did my favor. The one the one that was, like, cool headed. And he was like kind of sticking up for you. And when you first got to the bunkhouse. He was the one with the who was like, he's a man from Snowy River. Credits. Yeah, yeah. When Spike corrected the that was the Ritz Harrison guy

, he was like, He's not a lad, he's a man. Yeah. I was like, Yeah, I love that shit. Yep, yep. That's amazing. I was impressed, though, with the fact of how woke the movie was for being a eighties movie. They took every chance they could get to fucking be like, you know, shut this stupid man up. This is well, this is, you know, this is like late 1800s, early 1900s. Yeah. And, you know, this is ladies go to ladies school and become ladies and marry. Yeah. Rich landowning white man. Right that is.

Better. Came out now. She was she was against it. She's like now. See and. Even her her hand, you know. Yeah. It was like she's got an eye. She got an eye for stock horses and breeding. She knows what she's doing. Like, why are you limiting her talent? If a movie if a movie like this came out now, you'd have fucking Dave Rubin and fucking Matt Walsh on fucking YouTube talking about how fucking, you know, mask men. Yeah, masculinity is dead fucking stupid assholes. I kind of wanted that. And I p

icked this because for one, it's my birth, it's my birthday month. And so this is one of my favorite Western movies of all time. It doesn't like most people that love Westerns have never even heard of this. Some people have, but it's a great one because it's an Australian Western. Mm hmm. Yeah. It's. It tells a good story that anybody can watch. I think even your kids, there's a little bit of language and a little bit of violence, but. Right. I mean, what kids are watching these days, I don't kn

ow. It's Marty Mild. My grandma loves Westerns and this is one I would love to watch with her. I think she. Would enjoy. This. I was thinking that the whole time my grandfather, Big John Wayne Guy always watching like westerns and old movies. He was fucking love this movie. Yeah. I love it. I feel like Westerns just have the infinite replayability value. Yes, there's. Something about them. I don't know. Just put them on and just easy going. And I cannot get into westerns, man. Like I said, it's

very rare that I like. This movie has some deep stuff like. Yeah. Harrison's Spurs. They had that little love triangle going on with his wife. Yeah. This? Yeah. It's the story of, you know, Jim growing up and then, oh, my God, I can't here. And Jessica. Yeah, she's Jessica's learning about her family's past and the history there of the two brothers warring over the same woman. Right. Crazy. Yeah. One guy bet on the cult, which is the rich Harrison guy. And he got rich, and the other guy's in min

ing, but he was gold mine. And she is like, she really, like, liked him, but it was like, whoever has the money gets the girl. Yeah, it's sad too, because in part two, he's dead. And, like, they found gold, like, a year or two after he died is what they said. Oh, he's rich as gold mine was. Oh, wow. Way to rub it in. Yeah. I mean, this movie went on to spur the careers of some of these actors. Like I said, Tom, Brilliance. And this is one of his first cigaret drawn to the girl who played Jessica

. She had already been a successful TV actress and continued for more years after that. Tony Bonner, he played the head the head guy at the the cowboy lodge or whatever. He's in one of my other favorite Westerns, Quigley Down Under. And then Jack Thompson is probably the biggest star here. He was in episode two of Star Wars. He was in Broken Arrow Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Great Gatsby. So he's he's an established actor. But yeah, it's a fun movie. I like it. I enjoy it. I kin

d of wanted to pick 9 to 5 because I wanted to have a conversation. A woke, and maybe. We'll save that for another time. And that one. Is and. Is another ahead of its time. The Jane Fonda most. Woke ass movie. Jane Fonda, 9 to 5. Yeah, yeah, I see. I haven't seen this one either. Yeah, don't worry. We'll get there eventually. I've seen every movie that has ever existed. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. This is a favorite Western and I want to get it out of the way because it's a cultural film and this is why w

e do this, because maybe that. Okay. And to end on it, I think the composing is great. I love this soundtrack. I'm glad it got an award. I think the seven autographs is good. Is the acting great? No, sometimes it's really good. Sometimes it's really poor. Is the writing that great? It's okay. I think this movie is better than the sum of its components because of what it is. As far as the story for Australia in the history of Banjo Paterson. Yeah, no, I can get behind that stuff. I mean, the folk

lore to clarify on the score, it wasn't so much the score itself, it was the placement of it is what I found goofy as fuck. Yeah. So it was. Nominated for a Golden Globe as well, except this little known director, producer by the name of Richard Attenborough, made a little town by the name of Gandhi, so did not get the best foreign film Golden Globes out here. That's fair. But it probably would have had O Dickie anywhere. And I mean, it's like a movie. Well, I'll tell you what, Marvin, you have

any last things to say about this? Any final thoughts? No. All right, good. Over here on IMDB, it's got some pretty high accolades. It's, uh, it's sitting on IMDB at a 7.20. Marvin We established a new rule last week. We don't fuck with twos and threes and eights. It's, it's, it's zeros and fives. That's it. Those are the numbers. All right. Oh, so you, you know, if you're going to give it a 7.2 around and that shut down. Oh, so no, just old numbers. He tried to pull some fucking 6.8 shit on me

last week. I had to shut him down. So six. Point eight. No, really, it was. Like 5.8 is what I saw. Oh my. Yeah. So I mean, I got to give, you know, listen, I understand all those things you said about it and I appreciate those things and I appreciate the movie for its impact on Australia, but didn't really work for me. So I have to go ahead and give this a five, probably my lowest rating. So. Wow. Yeah, I guess that's fair. I can't. I like it. That's not fair. There was just nothing about it. T

hat's not his game. I know. Dan doesn't like Westerns, so any time he grades one critically, I'm going to easily dismiss it because he doesn't have any solid standing as far as westerns are concerned. I agree with you. I won't know. Whatever he wants. He just needs to see more for it to just work for you to see if you liked it. And I like it. So I wanted to share it. I listen, my opinion, my rating means nothing. You're right. Now liking Westerns has a big is a big part of it. If I liked Western

s, I might have got into this more with an open mind. But, uh, yeah, you could just. Bias from the jump, not me. I enjoy some of the dialog. I think it has some cheesy dialog. So we said no decimals that. Five, five. Half. Minutes. I'm doing a 7.5, I'm doing 7.5 for. That's very that's very high. That's right too. I don't know if it's good enough for an eight. I think 7.5 is a fair score. A story of triumph. We look at God, a story of love, a story of a boy who becomes a man. The man from Snowy

River. Tell you what I will say. This the story of it all seems interesting. Let the Coen brothers remake this shit and then. Then come talk to me. I would. I would actually be amazing. Yeah. Did you see them? Did you see there? There was. I mean. What was the main one? Yeah, it was a remake. It was, uh, one of why is wrong with my brain. Tonight talking about True Grit. True grit? Yeah. That was good movie. Yeah, that was a good one. Better than the rest. I like the original better, but it was

a good remake. Yeah, that's one of the few ways. To do better than this is John Wayne, Rooster Cogburn. Don't tell me that. I fucking don't like John Wayne movies at. All. True Grit, huh? Yeah. Just once let us know in the comments. Folks, if you've seen this movie, what you thought of it, am I being too critical? This is your first time here. And you like what you watched. Consider subscribing, and you can check out the rest of our movie reviews that we do each week on the playlist over there.

We will catch it in the next one. So you must.