Okay this is easy to mock - dialogue where they talk about the impossibility of taming mountains, Mountain Men forcing Jim Craig to go down to the low lands until he becomes a man (huh?), Jim running off with his horse at the end instead of a girl.
But so much of it is wonderful - the gorgeous scenery, the sumptuous production design and costuming, the photography, the sheer novelty of a story with this setting and locale, the rousing music. Tom Burlinson is perfect in the title role - he was never as good when he grew up a little bit more; Sigrid Thornton is very pretty, and well cast, even it's a shame she didn't have more to do (for all her character talks about feminism she's still stuck at home); Lorraine Bayley grapples with her exposition expertly enough and Chris Haywood provides a decent enough villain; Jack Thompson adds genuine star power as Clancy, but not as much as Kirk Douglas does, glowering his way through twin roles. He's very effective, imposing, and was missed in the sequel.
The horse riding still takes the breath away, the story holds (it is in the melodramatic tradition of early 20th century Australian stage plays). A film of heart and excitement - real cinema.
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