Does anybody know how they did the scene where Jim follows the brumbies down the steep slope? I'm sure the movie was made before CGI and Greenscreen were in common use, so somebody had to have actually ridden down the hill. When Jim goes off the edge of the slope without hesitation, it gives me a thrill everytime!
shareIt looks pretty real, I'm guessing they actually ran the horse down the slope. Even the trees are slanted so that their pointing straight up, when the ground is sloping down.
shareI have looked for a while to find out more about the Rider and the Horse that performed some or all of this amazing stunt. I hope some one out there has the answers.
shareaccording to a Tom Burlinson web site (Google search Tom Burlinson): Was the famous cliff jump and ride real or "movie magic" ? The ride was very real. No trickery involved. Tom did the ride several times for practice and for camera angles.
shareThere are plenty of interviews and articles where Tom talks about doing the stunts etc, all on my website www.tomburlinson.info.
Very intense endurance horse racing was once common in Australia. I have seen a whole field of riders race down slopes nearly as steep as the one in the movie. It looks very dangerous and the sort of thing movie stunt riders would all like to try I'm sure. Recently I saw an article about an American special forces soldier in Afghanistan who while riding on a narrow trial had his horse bolt down the side of the mountain full speed. Remembering this scene from the movie, he wrapped his legs around the horses neck and laid flat back with his head on the horses rump. At the bottom of the slope the horse did a dainty little hop over a small gully snapping him back up right in the saddle. Not only was he lucky to escape death or injury, but the tribal horsemen he was riding with declared him to be the finest rider they had ever seen!
shareIt was real. A camera was set up to follow a dolly down the slope and "Jim" rode the horse to the bottom. No trickery.
shareI knew somebody would know the answer. It's such an impressive scene and now even more so, knowing that it was really him riding down that slope!
shareThis might be a little off-topic, but in "The Return to Snowy River", the scene where Jim crashes going down the slope was not originally scripted...it was the real thing! (yikes!) However, after the footage of the crash was reviewed, they were so blown away they decided they had to include it in the film, so it was written in. The horse was fine, incidentally... ;-)
Having spent a fair amount of my formative years on horses, I have to say, it still gives me goosebumps!
Na na na the slope wasn't very steep at all. They uprooted the trees and set them at a slant to make the slope seem and lot steeper. And then he rode down it, overdoing the whole leaning back thing to make it look like he was galloping down vertically. I'm not saying there wasn't a small slope to start with, but it was nowhere near as steep as that. That would be craziness, asking an actor to ride down that.
share*LMFAO* yeah, they uprooted the trees and set them on an angle. *rolls eyes*
ive personally ridden many, many times down a fire escape road that lies at the same angle the films 'cliff' APPEARS to be at (note: its very likely the angle was enhanced as much as possible with camera tilt etc... but not tree-resetting). its not only possible, its not as dangerous as it might seem IF you can stick and your horse isnt a tool.
on a horse that WAS a total tool, i once did it at a flatchat gallop. not by choice. sitting on his withers full out of the saddle and trying desperately to yank the damn things head up from between his knees *LMAO*
oh no no no
have u been to the slope?
its near my place
and it is VERY VERY steep
the stunt double broke his leg doing it
and the horse didnt know what it was doing until it jumped over the log at the top and landed on the near-verticle slope
it had no choice but to gallop to the bottom
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My understanding of that scene is that it was real, not special effect. However, the American Humane Assosication gave the film an "unacceptable" rating as several horses were killed or injured making the movie due to a complete disregard for animal safety.
shareThat's not true about horses killed in The Man From Snowy River. You're making that crap up.
I wish it was "not true". I love the movie, and that scene in particular was very powerful, but all the wishing in the world doesn't change the facts.
When the movie first came out, I subscribed to several horse magazines, one of which carried reviews by the American humane association. That original review rated the movie "unacceptable", as I mentioned.
When my daughter discovered the movie, I went online researching, hoping my memory was wrong so I could enjoy one of my favorite movies guilt free. Unfortunately, while due to the age of the film info is limited, what I did find supported my recollections of the situation.
"in the making of the film many horses had to be destroyed because of accidents, including the beautiful black stallion (Hare, 1982)"
http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/film/dbase/2002/man.htm
while it does suck that the animals died, I really dont think it's that much of a reason to dislike the movie. You cant help it, and you cant change it.
Just enjoy the beautiful movie that it is.
'Happiness. It made the whole dying thing pretty bearable.'
It was all real. My girlfriend is from near there and she's actually ridden down the same stretch. Her uncle was one of the stunt riders in the film.
shareVery real.
That's what mountain horses do. They live that land, it's in their blood.
It's actually disapointing when someone doesn't believe it's real because it's such an amazing beautiful thing that this animal can do. It's still my favorite part of the movie.
Get's me every time.
Actually.. referring to what someone said earlier..
while it's true that the horse accidentally fell in the sequel.. he was not okay.. he actually did die. They ended up changed the entire end of the movie.
"ya know, if it's not a headboard it's just not worth it!" ~*Rachel
Yeah... I heard years back that his original horse did die during that seen and they had to rush to find one that looked similar. It is sad, but that's a risk they knew up front when they shoot scenes like that. No one was intentionally trying to kill any horses.... it definitely doesn't change the fact that the movie was awesome.
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
Denny the horse did NOT die in the sequel. This is addressed in the FAQ section on a Burlinson fan website. He lived to be 29 years old.
shareyou dont think they would try to cover it up?
many horses died in the origional movie, who's to say none died in the sequel?
the origional was given an unacceptable rating by the AHA.. look it up
Denny DID die.
'Happiness. It made the whole dying thing pretty bearable.'
Not only was it real, Tom Burlinson took allmost all if not all of his own stunts, and he started riding TWO WEEKS before shooting. Honest to God I met the head horse trainer and Tom learned to ride 2 weeks before shooting.
In the sequel the horse did tumble, it wasn't scripted and they wrote it into the script, but the horse did not die. Tom bought it and kept it.
If the final scene we saw was not the originally scripted scene, then what was the point about showing the wild horse all along, the horse that was infamous in the first movie? This crap about not in the script and stuff just doesn't make sense. I think the film went on exactly as it was meant to.
Also, if you were to watch the sequel, they used more than one horse for that scene. There was another horse, more of a buckskin instead of a dun, and this one had a star.
I don't know about the part where he actually "jumps" over the edge, but I seem to remember that the part where he is running down the hill was staged to "look" like he was running down a hill. I saw a clip on it once where they showed how the trees were tilted to look to be facing strait up. So, actually, the horse is running on fairly flat ground and the rider is leaning way back to give the "effect" of going downhill. Then they tilted the picture to make it look real.
I don't mean to disappoint, but, if you just tilt your head to the side, you can tell that the horse is not running down a very steep hill. His body positioning is not right.
All in all, it's still one of the best movies of it's kind. I love all of the chasing scenes and the horses running all out. You just don't see that in movies very often.