With the 100th birthday of Kirk Douglas last month, I thought I should check out another of his films soon. Of the ones I hadn't seen yet and wanted to, only this one was available streaming.
Not knowing the Banjo Petersen poem that inspired the movie, at first I thought it was a western, but the main accents give away an Australian setting in the same period as the Old West. Late teen Jim Craig has plenty of experience with horses, not all of it good: Brumbies (Aussie for wild horses) cause a fatal accident for his widowed father and make off with his mare, forcing Jim to look for a paying job. With the help of his dad's mining partner, Spur (Douglas), he finds ranch work under American transplant Harrison (also Douglas), who turns out to be Spur's estranged brother. Being a mountain boy makes Jim both valuable and an outsider. He soon finds that the best part of working there is proximity to Harrison's daughter, Jessica, who wants to pursue the same line of work as the men. But stubborn Harrison has other ideas for both of them.
As you may have guessed, Spur and Harrison seldom appear on screen at the same time. When they do, it's a less advanced trick than we find in the Back to the Future series. At least the brothers, while both recognizable as Douglas, don't look or sound uncannily similar. Leave it to the old pro, then in his late 60s, to dominate his every scene -- albeit not too much for the other actors.
Apart from him, probably the most impressive thing about the film is its considerable handling of horses. Not only do they appear frequently, but there's a particularly impressive one-take scene in which Jim rides down a worryingly steep slope.
At the same time, I'm rather disappointed that the characters don't seem to bother naming their horses. Not even the Brumby leader who's plagued them for decades. Maybe it just wasn't a common practice in 1880s Australia.
Oh, about that Brumby leader: The rearing, literally dark horse is played up like a terror out of legend. The most melodramatically directed moments all concern him. These, more than anything else, made me wonder whether I should keep bothering to watch.
The other factor that got to me a little was the recurring theme of feminism versus contemporary sexism. Obviously, Harrison doesn't respect his daughter's boyish wishes, and he blames her aunt for putting them in her head. Even Jim finds this a stumbling block in his budding relationship with Jessica. As much as I agree that women should have the same career options and whatnot, having the age-old point driven home gets tiresome fast.
Things do get more interesting in the third act. By then, Jim has grown a bit, and both he and Jessica have to decide the best path to take in light of Harrison. We also learn more about the conflict between the brothers. And yes, there remains some equine-based adventure.
I can see how the movie enjoyed enough popularity for a sequel. That said, it's not one of the better pieces I've seen to include Kirk Douglas. Just one of the happier, I suppose. Which does make me feel readier for the next likely downer of his I'll see.
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