Last night I watched two horse movies, both from Australia. The first, The Silver Stallion (also called The Silver Brumby) had beautiful cinematography, fantastic horses, and a weak, slow-moving plot. I know the Silver Brumby series of books is very popular in Australia… not well-known here in the USA. The horses are worth watching… they were incredibly beautiful creamy-silver Palominos along with a lot of other horses whose breeds I wasn’t familiar with. All Brumbys are wild horses – that’s what they call them in Australia.
The second movie was another Australian horse movie, and much livelier.. The Man From Snowy River. The plot includes a young man’s journey into adulthood, a romance, and lots of gorgeous horses!
The Silver Stallion had two story lines. One was of the author of the Silver Brumby series of books writing her first story, and reading it to her young daughter. The other story line was the fictional life of a beautiful young stallion, Thowra. As the movie progresses the young daughter has a hard time discerning reality from the fiction. Though the plot was weak and slow-moving, the movie is extremely popular – especially with fans of the Silver Brumby series of books.
Though I loved watching the gorgeous Thowra and his horse-associates, I had to laugh at some of the fight scenes. They trained these beautiful horses to pretend to fight with each other. It was kind of cute.
The Man From Snowy River had human characters you could really care about. A young man’s father is killed, a girl’s father won’t let her be the outdoorsy horsewoman she really wants to be. You know they have to fall in love, and they do. Great movie!
My daughter and I really enjoyed The Silver Stallion together as well. Those horses are breathtaking. You know, I thought I’ve watched The Man From Snowy River, but I don’t remember it. Either it didn’t leave an impression with me or I’m mis-remembering. Perhaps I’ll rent it to resolve the question, “Have I or haven’t I?”
It really is worth watching twice… I loved watching The Man From Snowy River this week, and I know I’ve seen it before – but that was a long time ago!