There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around – Tom Burlinson and Sigrid Thornton are reuniting for more Snowy River magic!
Forty-one years after The Man From Snowy River premiered, the co-stars will return to theatres for a special concert event.
Symphony orchestras will perform the film’s iconic score live during screenings.
WATCH NOW: Sigrid Thornton admits she’s thrilled to return to SeaChange. Article continues after video.
Following four sold-out sessions in Melbourne in August, new dates have been announced for Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Hobart and Canberra.
“It’s a perfect candidate for a concert performance like this – what a beautiful way to see it,” Sigrid told the Daily Telegraph last week.
After each performance, Tom, 67, and Sigrid, 64, will share fun anecdotes and memories from filming. And as our own walk down memory lane shows, a lot went down on the set of the sweeping 1982 epic…
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Tom Burlinson played Jim Craig
Tom, who played the film’s hero Jim Craig, is actually Canadian. He grew up in both Canada and the United States before his family made Australia their home. The Man From Snowy River was Tom’s first movie role.
Although he was a novice rider, Tom performed many of his own stunts, including the famous gallop downhill when Jim took his horse, Denny, over the cliff to go after the brumbies.
Tom was asked many times if he wanted to do the scene and he didn’t think twice!
Sigrid Thornton played Jessica Harrison
Sigrid starred as Jessica, Jim Craig’s love interest and the daughter of landowner Harrison.
Although she had been working for several years –including a stint on Prisoner – the SeaChange star said the film marked a “definitive turning point” in her career.
Of course, there is no Jessica in Banjo Paterson’s original poem. Sigrid said this made things tricky when it came to researching the character, as she had nothing to go off. Luckily, she and Tom had an “immediate rapport”.
“From the audition process onwards, we just got on like a house on fire,” she told the Daily Telegraph.
Jack Thompson played Clancy
Despite his real-life riding experience, Jack Thompson was seriously injured on set.
“I’d been a station hand, a drover and worked with [horses] as an actor, but I came to grief when making this picture,” he said
Jack, who played the legendary Clancy, severely damaged his left leg when the horse he was galloping on fell into a rabbit hole.
As a result, he turned up at rehearsals for his next movie in a wheelchair!
“I got a secondary infection and nearly ended up with osteomyelitis,” he once admitted.
Kirk Douglas played Spur AND Harisson
Hollywood great Kirk Douglas was one of the few international names in the film.
However, he wasn’t the first choice for the roles of twin brothers, Spur and Harrison – both Robert Mitchum and Burt Lancaster were wanted.
It was never intended that one actor would play both brothers in the film, but once Kirk got the idea in his head, apparently there was no turning back.
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Tom Burlinson on Kirk Douglas
Tom later said that Kirk wasn’t easy to work with.
“I was 25, but I looked about 17. Kirk apparently said to the director early on, ‘The kid’s too pretty.’ He was not an easy person,” Tom dished.
However, he did add, “But I know The Man From Snowy River would not have been the movie it became had Kirk Douglas not been on it.”
For her part, Sigrid found Kirk to be a good mentor, saying at the time, “You can certainly learn a lot from someone who is so generous with his knowledge.”
The Man From Snowy River filming location
Although the setting is the breathtaking Snowy Mountains in NSW, they never shot there.
In fact, the movie was filmed in the Victorian High Country.
The Man From Snowy River soundtrack
The film’s universally acclaimed soundtrack was composed by Bruce Rowland – who also arranged the 1988 sequel Return to Snowy River – and it won him an AFI Award for Best Score. Snowy River was also nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes.
“[Bruce] seemed to understand instinctively that the film required a majestic score – really sweeping, epic – there’s nothing small about the score,” said Sigrid.
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