April 18, 2024 • 8 mins
Sigrid Thornton is Aussie acting royalty and the movie that catapulted her into the stratosphere The Man From Snowy River has been turned into a live show and it’s coming to Perth so she told Russell Clarke and Lisa all about it.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We love a cinematic experience with the full symphony orchestra.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
No, that is one soundtrack, and well.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
And you talk about big soundtracks in the history of
Australian movies, doesn't come much bigger than The Man from
Snowy River. And they are going to be live in
concert at Crown Theater next Friday and Saturday. You can
get your tickets through Ticketmaster. And of course who do
you think of when you think of the Man from
Snowy River? You think of Secret Thornton, Sacred Thornton's joining us.
(00:33):
Good morning, good morning, Good morning, Ralph in the morning.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
You can you hear me?
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Okay, we can hear you perfectly. This is the Bruce
Rowland you know soundtrack of The Man from Snowy River,
always incredible, and now it's going to be with a
fifty four piece symphony orchestra doing it. Just so tell
(01:01):
us how this works. I believe the movie is on
the screen and the orchestra accompanies that, and that's exactly.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
How it happens, Lisa. It's it's a new form.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
We're relatively because the technology allows for that to happen. Now,
so that the orchestra's on the stage, the film is
also on the stage on a large screen, and the
technology such that, you know, the soundtrack played live by
the orchestra can fit seamlessly into the original soundtrack in
place of the of the recorded soundtrack the original recorded soundtrack.
(01:36):
So it's a really wonderful new way of watching film one.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
And I've always considered the soundtrack, not just the soundtrack
songs and what have you, but the score to be
such an important character in and of itself in a film.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
No question about it. It really is. And in this case.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Too, Bruce just somehow from the word from the from
the time he we knew he was going to be
composing the soundtrack, and at that time people didn't know
who Bruce Roland was as a film composer because it
was his first feature. But he just had the spirit
and romance and majesty of the film so beautifully.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
It's an incredible soundtrack.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, it's an epic.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
You get that wide open space feel, do you do?
You still get goosebumps whenever you hear the opening notes
to Jessica's theme.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
I kind of.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
It's when before we started this tour, I hadn't seen
the film for you know, quite a long time. And
it's not like I sort of sit there watching what
there is a there is a movie where some an
older actor sits and watches their old their old films
endlessly through the night. I'm not one of those people,
(02:51):
but but it.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Is, it is.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Jack has just been glorious to revisit the film and
to to share memories of making the film and to
see it again in this new iteration is very exciting
and rewarding.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
And you and Tom Burlanson are here with it A right,
you're in the audience a lot. Well, well you're on
the stage, I should say.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Yeah, yeah, we're on the stage and we talk to
the audience with the well, we have a conversation for
the audience as it work.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
And we share memories and stories.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Anecdotes really about the film making process and our own
personal kind of feelings and experiences.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, yeah, that's fun, Sigarette. What do you think it
is about the Man from Snow River? You know that
stayed so fondly in people's memories and hearts all these years.
I mean, the movie now is quite some time ago,
but the story is an old story and it just
it lives on, doesn't it. In Australiana.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
There are lots of reasons, I think Russell. I mean, originally,
of course, the film is, you know, and importantly it's
based on loosely on the Banjo Patterson ballad, which everybody
knows and knew.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
A lot of people knew before.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
The film was ever made. They knew that ballad, know
the work of Patterson. So it was a stroke of
genius really to kind of to do this kind of
riff on the original poems.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
So that's part of it that I.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Think initially captured people's imaginations. But I think the film
somehow had this struck at just the right time, struck
a corse with Australians who hadn't For many Australians, most
Australians really had not seen that kind of that countryside,
(04:45):
the dreadful Alpine region of Victoria depicted on film in
such a beautiful way. A lot of that country was
and still is inaccessible, you know, by anything other than
sort of horseback or drive or shopper, and that's what
used to film it, you know, And so it was
an undiscovered part of Australia.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
It was a it's a.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Very romantic story. It's it delivers on what it sets
out to do. It's a very and it's a very
It was interesting when we first screened the film before
a sort of public audience, and this is before its
actual commercial release, that there were a couple of kind
of charity screenings that happened before a large audience and
(05:28):
people were coming out saying it made them feel so proud,
and that was something that perhaps I hadn't expected. So
there were there were a lot of a number of
things that struck cause with people that we couldn't have anticipated.
And no one ever knows what, you know, how film's
going to be received, but this thing went through the
roof and do so actually in this context.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
And it was good timing too, because there was a
time there when the Australian cinema was going through a
bit of a renaissance, really, wasn't it. I mean, there
were some big movies around the early eighties that and
people a comfortable going to see Australian movies.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
They did, and it opened that up, which was well,
it helped to open that up for a long long time.
To know, it was the biggest box office you know,
the biggest box office movie in Australian history, bar.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
None including an international film. So it did.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
It really kind of captured people's imaginations and it did make.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Them feel proud that we could make movies ourselves.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yes, well it was and you know you say it
was the early eighties. It was a period in Australian
cinema where I think it really became Australian. I feel
as though some of those seventies movies still had a
funny kind of an english person doing an Australian accent
vibe about it, even when they are Australian. But it
doesn't get any more quintessential than the Victorian high Country
(06:48):
and this, you know what we were seeing, what we
were hearing, horses, beautiful young people and Jack Thompson, I mean.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
And you had everything like that. You wouldn't make a
film like that today because it is It is a film.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Of its time.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
There's something about it that that's why it's become a classic,
because it captures a moment in time and a moment
in Australian filmmaking history that I think will perhaps never
be repeated in just that way. That and have many
other elements, and that is perfectly fine.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Yeah, do you remember where you were when you got
the call to say that you got the role of
Jessica Harrison.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Well, I didn't get a call. Actually, it was a
conversation because I was working with the director, the late
great George T.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Miller, not Ma.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
He's known as he is known as affectionately as.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Noddy and or Snowy George.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Okay, and because he's not to be confused with mad
Max George Miller. But George and I had done a
few pros already, a couple of projects at least I
think at that time, and I was working with him
on a mini series and he just made this proposition
on one lunchtime and I said, great, I'm in.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
I mean, yes, I happen to be.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
I was lucky enough to be the first person, first
cast member involved with it with the film.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah, well that's fantastic. Well it is next, as I said,
Friday and Saturday, April twenty six and April twenty seven.
You can get your tickets through Ticketmaster Sigurd Thornton. It
is always lovely to catch up with you.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Likewise, Lisa and Russell, thank.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
You very much, Secret John appreciate.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
It's for you. Seeing you next week.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, I see you next week.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Any person late
We love a cinematic experience with the full symphony orchestra.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
No, that is one soundtrack, and well.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
And you talk about big soundtracks in the history of
Australian movies, doesn't come much bigger than The Man from
Snowy River. And they are going to be live in
concert at Crown Theater next Friday and Saturday. You can
get your tickets through Ticketmaster. And of course who do
you think of when you think of the Man from
Snowy River? You think of Secret Thornton, Sacred Thornton's joining us.
(00:33):
Good morning, good morning, Good morning, Ralph in the morning.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
You can you hear me?
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Okay, we can hear you perfectly. This is the Bruce
Rowland you know soundtrack of The Man from Snowy River,
always incredible, and now it's going to be with a
fifty four piece symphony orchestra doing it. Just so tell
(01:01):
us how this works. I believe the movie is on
the screen and the orchestra accompanies that, and that's exactly.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
How it happens, Lisa. It's it's a new form.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
We're relatively because the technology allows for that to happen. Now,
so that the orchestra's on the stage, the film is
also on the stage on a large screen, and the
technology such that, you know, the soundtrack played live by
the orchestra can fit seamlessly into the original soundtrack in
place of the of the recorded soundtrack the original recorded soundtrack.
(01:36):
So it's a really wonderful new way of watching film one.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
And I've always considered the soundtrack, not just the soundtrack
songs and what have you, but the score to be
such an important character in and of itself in a film.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
No question about it. It really is. And in this case.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Too, Bruce just somehow from the word from the from
the time he we knew he was going to be
composing the soundtrack, and at that time people didn't know
who Bruce Roland was as a film composer because it
was his first feature. But he just had the spirit
and romance and majesty of the film so beautifully.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
It's an incredible soundtrack.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, it's an epic.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
You get that wide open space feel, do you do?
You still get goosebumps whenever you hear the opening notes
to Jessica's theme.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
I kind of.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
It's when before we started this tour, I hadn't seen
the film for you know, quite a long time. And
it's not like I sort of sit there watching what
there is a there is a movie where some an
older actor sits and watches their old their old films
endlessly through the night. I'm not one of those people,
(02:51):
but but it.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Is, it is.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Jack has just been glorious to revisit the film and
to to share memories of making the film and to
see it again in this new iteration is very exciting
and rewarding.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
And you and Tom Burlanson are here with it A right,
you're in the audience a lot. Well, well you're on
the stage, I should say.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Yeah, yeah, we're on the stage and we talk to
the audience with the well, we have a conversation for
the audience as it work.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
And we share memories and stories.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Anecdotes really about the film making process and our own
personal kind of feelings and experiences.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, yeah, that's fun, Sigarette. What do you think it
is about the Man from Snow River? You know that
stayed so fondly in people's memories and hearts all these years.
I mean, the movie now is quite some time ago,
but the story is an old story and it just
it lives on, doesn't it. In Australiana.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
There are lots of reasons, I think Russell. I mean, originally,
of course, the film is, you know, and importantly it's
based on loosely on the Banjo Patterson ballad, which everybody
knows and knew.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
A lot of people knew before.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
The film was ever made. They knew that ballad, know
the work of Patterson. So it was a stroke of
genius really to kind of to do this kind of
riff on the original poems.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
So that's part of it that I.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Think initially captured people's imaginations. But I think the film
somehow had this struck at just the right time, struck
a corse with Australians who hadn't For many Australians, most
Australians really had not seen that kind of that countryside,
(04:45):
the dreadful Alpine region of Victoria depicted on film in
such a beautiful way. A lot of that country was
and still is inaccessible, you know, by anything other than
sort of horseback or drive or shopper, and that's what
used to film it, you know, And so it was
an undiscovered part of Australia.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
It was a it's a.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Very romantic story. It's it delivers on what it sets
out to do. It's a very and it's a very
It was interesting when we first screened the film before
a sort of public audience, and this is before its
actual commercial release, that there were a couple of kind
of charity screenings that happened before a large audience and
(05:28):
people were coming out saying it made them feel so proud,
and that was something that perhaps I hadn't expected. So
there were there were a lot of a number of
things that struck cause with people that we couldn't have anticipated.
And no one ever knows what, you know, how film's
going to be received, but this thing went through the
roof and do so actually in this context.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
And it was good timing too, because there was a
time there when the Australian cinema was going through a
bit of a renaissance, really, wasn't it. I mean, there
were some big movies around the early eighties that and
people a comfortable going to see Australian movies.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
They did, and it opened that up, which was well,
it helped to open that up for a long long time.
To know, it was the biggest box office you know,
the biggest box office movie in Australian history, bar.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
None including an international film. So it did.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
It really kind of captured people's imaginations and it did make.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Them feel proud that we could make movies ourselves.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yes, well it was and you know you say it
was the early eighties. It was a period in Australian
cinema where I think it really became Australian. I feel
as though some of those seventies movies still had a
funny kind of an english person doing an Australian accent
vibe about it, even when they are Australian. But it
doesn't get any more quintessential than the Victorian high Country
(06:48):
and this, you know what we were seeing, what we
were hearing, horses, beautiful young people and Jack Thompson, I mean.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
And you had everything like that. You wouldn't make a
film like that today because it is It is a film.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Of its time.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
There's something about it that that's why it's become a classic,
because it captures a moment in time and a moment
in Australian filmmaking history that I think will perhaps never
be repeated in just that way. That and have many
other elements, and that is perfectly fine.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Yeah, do you remember where you were when you got
the call to say that you got the role of
Jessica Harrison.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Well, I didn't get a call. Actually, it was a
conversation because I was working with the director, the late
great George T.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Miller, not Ma.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
He's known as he is known as affectionately as.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Noddy and or Snowy George.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Okay, and because he's not to be confused with mad
Max George Miller. But George and I had done a
few pros already, a couple of projects at least I
think at that time, and I was working with him
on a mini series and he just made this proposition
on one lunchtime and I said, great, I'm in.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
I mean, yes, I happen to be.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
I was lucky enough to be the first person, first
cast member involved with it with the film.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah, well that's fantastic. Well it is next, as I said,
Friday and Saturday, April twenty six and April twenty seven.
You can get your tickets through Ticketmaster Sigurd Thornton. It
is always lovely to catch up with you.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Likewise, Lisa and Russell, thank.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
You very much, Secret John appreciate.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
It's for you. Seeing you next week.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, I see you next week.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Any person late
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