Brian Dennehy

Return to Snowy River (1988)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

Return to Snowy River (1988)

Director:

Geoff Burrows

Writers:

John Dixon

Geoff Burrows

Starring:

Tom Burlinson

Sigrid Thornton

Brian Dennehy

Nicholas Eadie

Blurb:

Young Jim Craig returns to his home in the Australian high country. He finds that things are not as he left them – his girlfriend is being pursued by another man, and her father doesn’t want Jim back into her life.

Thoughts:

My favorite part of Return to Snowy River is near the beginning. Where Jim is going to get into a fistfight but is told there are better ways to prove his point, so he completely shows up the asshole. It’s one of those moments where I have a stupid grin on my face while watching. I love it.

I like the rest of the movie, a lot actually, but I never get that feeling again with it. Jim and his whole “I’ve got a start for us” to Jessica is annoying. He didn’t even talk to her before disappearing. It was presumptuous on his part to expect her to wait for him, in my opinion—fairly old school man. Still, you can’t beat the romance. Easily top ten in that category.

There’s not much to say about the filming. There didn’t appear to be any drama behind the scenes. A horse died, sadly, but that’s about it. Michael Douglas didn’t reprise his role, but honestly, Brian Dennehy did a great job, and Douglas wasn’t missed. Oh, and it appears as though the actual title is Return to Snowy River II, though that’s not on my DVD copy. Seriously, I wish they’d release a Blu-ray or add it to Disney+ in HD.

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First Blood (1982)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

First Blood (1982)

Director:

Ted Kotcheff

Writers:

Michael Kozoll

William Sackheim

Sylvester Stallone

Starring:

Sylvester Stallone

Brian Dennehy

Richard Creena

Blurb:

A veteran Green Beret is forced by a cruel Sheriff and his deputies to flee into the mountains and wage an escalating one-man war against his pursuers.

Thoughts:

First Blood is my husband’s movie. I debated on whether or not I would watch it. I’ve seen it once before, and while I don’t have a problem with it, I wasn’t feeling a “deeper” movie. I know, I know calling a Rambo movie deep is funny, but First Blood is a bit different from the other Rambo movies. Yes, there are a lot of explosions and Rambo being a badass, but it starts with him just walking the highway as a Vietnam vet with nowhere to go. He’s arrested under trumped-up charges, and he’s pushed over the edge when the cop’s treatment of him mirrors how he was treated as a prisoner of war.

I haven’t read much about the seventies, history-wise, but I’ve been told that Vietnam vets were treated incredibly poorly. This is a huge contrast to how most people treat vets now. Though, it does seem as though the government has always treated vets poorly, so that hasn’t changed since then.

And now it’s time for “Random Facts from the Wikipedia Article!

-The film was shot in Canada, so the guns had to be brought from the US. Halfway through filming, over fifty of them were stolen.

-Kirk Douglas was originally cast as the sheriff but didn’t like that the ending had been changed from the book. He wanted them both to die.

-The original cut of the movie was over three hours. It was so bad that Stallone wanted to buy the film and destroy it because he thought it would ruin his career.

And that’s the end of another edition of “Random Facts from the Wikipedia Article!”

I think people forget that Stallone can act. He’s not an Oscar winner, but he’s probably the best actor out of all the big 80s action movie stars. He nails the gaze of someone who is done with life, and you believe his breakdown at the conclusion of the film.

There are a lot of complaints about how unrealistic the movie is *rolls eyes* but the most unrealistic scene for me is when the cops don’t shoot him as he’s being led from the police station at the end. I can believe Stallone surviving jumping off a cliff and being in a mine when it explodes, but the cops not continuing to be the dicks they’ve proven themselves to be, was pushing the envelope. Though, I guess there was a large media presence so that probably kept them under control.

First Blood is a good movie and one I recommend for all film fans. However, it’s not one I would choose to own. For me, it’s one of those movies that I only have to see once.