The Man From Snowy River

In Snowy River country, the Brumby mob of horses is running though the night and Jim Craig (Tom Burlinson) and his father Henry (Terence Donovan) sit in their log cabin discussing their financial situation. Jim convinces his father that they can catch the horses and they will be worth enough so that they do not have to go off the mountain to find work. The next day, Jim and Henry are out cutting down trees to clear land and make a holding yard to capture the horses. While they have a large tree attached to their gelding, the Brumbies come galloping through, which gets their mare Bess excited, causing Jim to let go of the gelding — this causes the chain holding the logs to break and, in the process, the gelding's leg is broken. Now free, Bess gallops off and joins the mob while the log rolls downhill directly at Henry Craig, crushing him to death. Henry Craig's sole heir is Jim, but a group of mountain men challenge his claim after the funeral. The men are adamant that Jim is to go down to the lowlands and earn the right to live in the mountains like his father did. Jim leaves and heads for a long-time friend of his called Spur (Kirk Douglas), a miner with a wooden leg. Spur comments that "a man without a horse is like a man without a leg" and takes Jim outside to a corral where a beautiful dun-coloured horse is being held. After an attempt to argue, Jim finally accepts the horse "Denny" as a gift. The next day Jim leaves the high country for work on the flats, after talking to a man about Harrison's colt sired of old "Regret" (the colt being worth a thousand pounds). When Jim arrives at Harrison's (Spur's twin brother) station to work, he is given a job. Soon, Jim has a run-in with Curly (Chris Haywood), in a barn, when Curly throws down a lit match into the hay, which Jim promptly puts out shoveling manure on it. When it comes time to bring his cattle down from the mountains, Harrison calls in his old friend Clancy. Jim, however, is not allowed to join the other men on the muster, as someone trusted is needed to remain behind to look after the chores for the women. While the others are gone, Harrison's daughter, Jessica (Sigrid Thornton), a very strong-willed, independent young lady, enlists the help of Jim to break-in the priceless colt themselves. The pair is successful. However, just before Harrison and the others return, the Brumbies arrive, exciting all the horses there, and Jim (seeing Bess in the mob) decides to give chase on Harrison's valuable colt. Jim falls from the young colt when it refuses a fence, and then is trampled by the mob. Later, when Jim awakens, Jessica tells him that her father isn't going to find out the truth of the incident. Jim says that he's not going to lie to Harrison and if that means losing his job then that's what happens. However, before Harrison can be told anything at all, he tells Jim to retrieve some 20 stray cattle in the ranges. Jim leaves, soon finding them. While Jim's gone, Harrison notices signs that the colt has been ridden. When he asks Jessica about it, he learns the truth. Furious that Jim put the expensive colt in danger "for a stock horse worth a few shillings", he tells Jessica that when Jim gets back, he's fired, and that she is to go away and be sent off to boarding school. This infuriates Jessica so much that she gets on her horse and gallops away looking for Jim. Once in the mountains, Jessica is caught in a big storm. Her horse, spooked, runs from her, and she falls over the edge of a cliff. However, she lands on a ledge and is knocked unconscious. The next morning, she wakes up and discovers to her horror that she is sitting dangerously close to the edge of a fatal drop from the cliff ledge. Jim eventually discovers Jessica's horse, dead, some distance away. He immediately begins calling and searching for her. Once he finds her, he lowers his stockwhip and pulls her to safety. During this time the two realize they have fallen in love, but that her father will never approve of a relationship between them. Despite that knowledge, Jessica only wants to be with Jim. Jessica tells Jim that her father knows about the colt and the incident with the Brumbies, that he's going to be fired when he returns. Jim tells her that he was given a job and that he must finish it and then take her back to her father. He then takes Jessica to Spur during the interim while he gathers up the strays, where it is revealed to Jessica, that Spur and Harrison are, in fact, estranged brothers. Jim leaves Jessica in Spur's (her uncle's) care so he can take the strays back to Harrison's station. Jessica stays with Spur, and after supper he takes her home, arriving before Jim and Harrison. Harrison, when he returns from searching for Jessica, while grateful to Jim for saving her, soon becomes angry again when he learns of Jim's feelings for his daughter. He accuses Jim of not being capable of giving Jessica the life she deserves, and orders him off the property. When Jim returns to the bunk house to gather his things, he and a drunken Curly and his mate get into a fight. Jim cleans the two of them up and leaves. After Jim has left, a bitter and jealous Curly and friend set the colt from old "Regret" loose. They intend for Harrison to believe Jim is responsible, and that the colt was set free in retaliation for his being fired. While Spur is at the station, Jessica learns that Harrison hates his brother because they were competing for the affections of the same woman, named Matilda, many years earlier, Jessica's mother. At one time during this scene, Harrison threatens Spur with "Get out of here or I'll..." to which Spur adds, "You'll what ... blow off the other one?", slapping his leg indicating that it was Harrison that was the responsible for Spur losing his leg. Later, Jim and Spur are camping out, sitting by a fire talking when they are joined by Clancy, who tells them that someone let the colt loose and that Jim was being blamed for it. At first, Jim refuses to return to the station, bitter about Harrison's disdain for him. Clancy, however, appeals to Jim's pride and sense of justice. The best means of proving he wasn't responsible, Clancy believes, is to help retrieve the colt. Jim at first maintains that helping Harrison after suffering so many insults is too much to ask of a man. Spur and Clancy cleverly tease Jim about whether or not he's really a man, with Clancy claiming Harrison probably wouldn't let him ride with them anyway. Realizing that the only way to prove himself a man is to go on the muster, Jim agrees to go with Clancy to Harrison's the next day. Harrison refuses Jim's help until Clancy steps in, however, saying, "Both he and his horse are mountain bred. I want him along." Harrison relents and the chase commences. It ends for most of the group, however, when the mob gallops down a steep hill. Even Clancy doesn't dare give chase, but Jim, showing the mettle of a mountain man and the quality of his mountain horse, plunges down the steep incline without pause. He and Denny successfully negotiate the treacherous descent, and are later spotted by Harrison's group, still chasing the Brumbies. Then, Jim succeeds in what even Clancy was unable to manage - head off the mob and stare down the old stallion. To everyone's amazement, he drives the entire mob back to Harrison's station solo. Harrison offers Jim the 100 pounds in money he had promised to anyone who could bring the colt safely home, but Jim retorts that it's not the reason he rode, a reference to both his need to clear his name and to his intentions to prove his maturity. He tells Harrison that he'll be back to claim the horses in the mob, and whatever else is his (looking at Jessica). To this, Harrison shouts "You've got a long way to go yet lad.". Spur interrupts him, saying "He's not a lad, brother...he's a MAN.". Then, as Jim tips his hat to Jessica and rides off, Clancy calls him "The Man from Snowy River." Jim rides up to his home in the Snowy River region, knowing that he has earned his right to live there.