Banjo Patterson’s ‘The Man From Snowy River’
The Man from Snowy River”. The film had a cast including Kirk Douglas in a dual role as the brothers Harrison (a character who appeared frequently in Paterson’s poems) and Spur, Jack Thompson as Clancy, Tom Burlinson as Jim Craig, Sigrid Thornton as Harrison’s daughter Jessica, Terence Donovan as Jim’s father Henry Craig, and Chris Haywood as Curly. Both Burlinson and Thornton later reprised their roles in the 1988 sequel, The Man from Snowy River II (the film’s original Australian title). The 1988 sequel film was later released in the United States by Walt Disney Pictures under the title Return to Snowy River and in the United Kingdom under the title The Untamed.” – Wikipedia
Like most viewers, I found this an enjoyable film even though Roger Ebert thought it was kind of corny even though he liked the scenes that show arial shots of herds of horses. Many critics point out that while Patterson provided a great ending, the ride to that ending the was bumpy. The film did well at the box office.
One thing I liked about the film was its popularization of the work of “Waltzing Matila” poet Banjo Patterson who was not a one-shot wonder with that poem. He lived from 1864 to 1941 and was known as an Australian bush poet, journalist and author.
He began as an attorney and then started writing under the pseudonym of “The Banjo,” his favorite horse. Patterson’s image appears on the $10 note and on a 1981 postage stamp.
While he is best known for his songs and poems, he wrote two novels An Outback Marriage and The Shearer’s Colt and the “The Cast-Iron Canvasser” collection of short stories.
According to Wallis and Matilda, Patyerson “travelled to South Africa in 1899 as special war correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald during the Boer War, and to China in 1901 with the intention of covering the Boxer Rebellion but he arrived after the uprising was over. By 1902 Paterson had left the legal profession. The following year he was appointed Editor of the Evening News (Sydney), a position he held until 1908 when he resigned to take over a property in Wee Jasper.”
“Waltzing Matilda” will, I think, always be his enduring claim to fame as generations of readers try to sort of the word meanings in this ballad.
–Malcolm
