Family movie nights are a great way to get discussions rolling, especially when you have a classic story with a good story line. We introduced our kids to The Man From Snowy River last week.
At the time of this post, the movie is available on Amazon Prime and Netflix.
The Story:
The movie takes place in Australia, but could very well have taken place in the Western United States. Our main character is Jim Craig, who lives with his dad in the Australian frontier during the 1880s. When his dad dies in an accident, Jim is sent to town to live with his dad’s friend, “Harrison.”
While there, Jim takes care of the horses and even tries to break in Harrison’s colt while he is away. Meanwhile, Jim falls in love with Jessica Harrison. When Harrison gets back, it’s obvious that he disapproves.
Then, Jim goes back to the frontier and learns that his mentor, Spur, is the estranged twin brother of Harrison. He finds out the history of Jessica’s mom and her relationship with Harrison and Spur.
Harrison convinces his entire crew to bring his prized colt back after he escapes. Jim proves himself a man capable of great things by not only does he capturing the colt, but he rounds up a heard of wild horses.
I’ll stop there so I don’t spoil the rest of the movie for you.
Our Reviews:
I’ve only seen this movie a few times. My impression this time is that I enjoy it more now than in the past because it has a much richer story line than most pop culture movies put out in the last few years. There is no bad language that I can recall and the relationship between Jim and Jessica is clean, as expected for the time period.
One of my favorite quotes, “My father raised me to be a man,” is inline with the philosophies of the Thomas Jefferson Education model that we are using. We are not raising our kids to be teenagers. We are raising them to be adults.
My 12 year old son, Caleb, liked the movie and rated it with 4 1/2 stars. He liked that it illustrated how he lost many of his relatives, worked hard, and became an amazing horse rider as well as teaching horses. He rose from diversity.
My 10 year old son, Jared, thought it was great and would like to watch it again. He likes horses.
The other kids were in and out of the living room where we watched the show.
Now it’s YOUR turn!
What are your favorite quotes? How would you review the movie- is it family friendly (especially for 10 years old and up)? Please share your thoughts! I look forward to reading what you have to say.
