The Man From Snowy River is one of my favorite movies but does anyone know why Brian Dennehy played Harrison instead of Kirk Douglas in the sequel? He nearly ruined "Return..." for me. I still loved it, but it just wasn't the same with out Mr. Douglas playing the dual role of Harrison/Spur.
shareHello there, Valariejwheat!
From what I remember, I was kind of young my parents talked when this movie was in production, about the fact Kirk Douglas was actually not avaliable, at the time they were shooting the movie. I hope that helps.
Hmm.. I too think I'd have preffered seeing Kirk Douglas instead of the other guy, not that the other guy didnt do a great job, it's just that's not mr. harrison in my head.
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Kirk really helped make the first movie and it really saddened me not to see him in the second, as it did many others.
BTW... if you look at Kirk's film listing you will see that "Inherit the Wind" was released 4 days before MFSR 2. Meaning... that he was probably already involved in that project when asked about MFSR 2.
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That usally Happens in sequals least Tom Burlinson & Sigrid thornton were in it
obsuslly Kirk couldn't be in to places at once so they wrote it that spur had died thats one way couldn't see Bryan denney doing Spur ;)
Kirk was terrific playing 2 parts
Brians good seen him other show rather have a well known actor then someone we never heard off
cheers
while Kirk is a much greater actor than Brian and I couldnt see Brian playing two parts i think his age and his bearing are closer to the part, Kirk was a bit old for the part.
shareActually, the original poem by Banjo Paterson says Harrison is an old man with white hair. Here's the link to original poem that the movie is based upon: http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/patersonab/poetry/snowy.html
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It's pretty tough to top Kirk Douglas, but I have to say that I was very impressed with Brian Dennehy's performance in the sequel. Dennehy has always been very good at playing villains, or tough characters. He also looks a bit more imposing due to his size. Besides, Dennehy still owns one of my favorite Harrison moments: pushing Patton out of the door with the loan application.
shareThe Man From Snowy River (the original) is definitely my favorite movie. I grew up watching this. It's the horses that always had me watching this movie over and over again, but the second draw for me was the fact that Kirk Douglas was in it. Even at the age of 8, I knew who Kirk Douglas was, and I was thrilled that he was in it. So, I was really disappointed that he wasn't in the second movie, and I really didn't enjoy it because of that. Not even the horses could draw me in for this one. Plus, I had no clue who Dennehy (sp?) was at the time, so without Kirk, I just didn't enjoy the sequel. Since this movie I came to know who Dennehy is, but it didn't change anything for me in regard to this movie. I still will always prefer Kirk Douglas in the role of Harrison.
Never knew the movie(s) was based upon a poem. That's pretty cool that they made an entire movie out of it. Just goes to prove the power of the written word (if it's written well enough).
I loved both The man from Snowy River and Return to Snowy River. This is one of the few times that I am happy that they made a sequel and it was almost as good as the original. In the first one, Kirk Douglas really carried the movie, and I missed him in the sequel. I was not impressed with Brian Dennehy's Harrison. He kept banging on the table to make his point and that was too repetitive. Dennehy smiled too much when he was supposed to be angry. That did not work well, IMO. I preferred Kirk Douglas's approach. Of course Kirk Douglas is a legend and it will be unfair to compare Dennehy with him.
However, inspite of that, I enjoyed the sequel because the lead characters were the same and they carried the movie really well. It was more action packed, so it was sort of different from the more poetic The man from snowy river. I loved both movies for the scenery, the horses, the love story. They are a part of my movies collection at home.
A couple of points:
1) I would have liked to see Kirk reprise his role, as well. However, Sigrid Thornton looked more like Brian Dennehy than she did like Douglas.
2) The "smiling when he should be angry" is one of Dennehy's trademarks. You can usually tell when he is about to strike by that move of his.
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