The Man From Snowy River, celebrating 50 years since its release, may have had a different look if the movie’s producers and director hadn’t recruited Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas to play one of the lead roles.
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Producer Geoff Burrowes described how director George Miller, co-producer Simon Wincer and himself visited Mr Douglas in his Hollywood home in the United States, to discuss what they had in mind.
They envisaged the two men with history over a relationship with a woman, and had written the parts as two friends.
But Mr Douglas suggested they could be two brothers, adding to the dramatic tension, and he would play both.
“He said I should play both, and we went, ‘Oohh, oh’, Mr Burrowes said.
“We said differentiation is the problem. He said, ‘I’ll show you b*******’ and he disappeared and came back into the room in his underpants with a wooden leg he had used in a previous pirate movie.
“You could only keep it on for a few minutes at a time. He ran around the room in it and said ‘Is that enough differentiation for you?’.”
Thus, ‘Spur’ the slightly comic and failed, penniless miner was born, in contrast to the wealthy landowner brother.
Mr Burrowes puts credit for the success of the movie partly down to the cast.
“Tom Burlinson was an unknown but we were determined to get the best known actors and the most that would attract the interest, hence Kirk Douglas, of course Jack Thompson and Lorraine Bayley.”
Asked how they secured Mr Douglas, who by that stage had already established himself as an iconic Hollywood actor, director and producer, Mr Burrowes said they wanted a stronger nemesis to ‘Jim’, and not many actors in Australia had the gravitas of Mr Douglas. And boy did they find out about that.
“He was a tough man to work with. He insisted on excellence and getting things done properly,” Mr Burrowes said.
“Australians had a reputation for saying, ‘don’t worry, it’ll be right’. You couldn’t do that with Kirk. With him around you had to nail it; it had to be right on.
“And he was remorseless, but it worked to our advantage.
“I had nothing but high regard for Kirk, he lifted us immensely.”
Mr Burrowes described the movie as a timeless story of a boy becoming a man, assisted by a mentor, threatened by almost catastrophic failure and fostered by the inspirational ‘Clancy’.
So ‘Jim Craig’, the hero, had to face ‘enemies’.
“You classify a hero by the scale of his enemies; the wealthy settler, and at his own level, ‘Curly’ the crude and lazy stockman, whom he must overcome,” Mr Burrowes said.
“Meanwhile, the brumby stallion is an existential threat which becomes a realisation of both their capabilities.
“One of the reasons it worked is because we followed dramatic structure so closely. I think we had 19 versions of the script before we were happy.”
Mr Burrowes recalled the challenge of setting up rigs for the huge cinematic cameras on vehicles to capture the most exciting action sequences with the horses.
Cattleman John Lovick, known as a tough and experienced rider, came on board with the film project in the early stages, which opened the door to engaging further local families as the ‘crack riders’ featured in many of the action scenes.
The film went on to become a box office success, grossing more than $20 million.
Mr Douglas died in 2020 at the age of 103.
Action at the Mountain Cattlemen's Get Together at Merrijig on October 1. The day celebrated the 50th anniversary of The Man From Snowy River.
The Man From Snowy River crack rider John Lovick at the Merrijig get together recently.
