YMMV / The Man from Snowy River

• Awesome Music: Bruce Rowland's score, but especially the main theme. It's still used as incidental or background music in unrelated live shows involving horses. Hell, the main theme was even remade for the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000!
• First Installment Wins: The original film is the best by far and certainly the most well remembered. The second film is fine and has some very good action sequences, but never truly lives up to its predecessor.
• Narm Charm: The wild stallion returning to Jim's side and dropping the reins in front of him while he's sleeping is extremely cheesy, but it immediately leads to one of the best sequences in the film which is what saves it from being straight up Narm.
• Signature Scene: The entire chase sequence with the brumbies that makes up the climax of the first film, but specifically Jim's ride down the side of the mountain — a stunt so impressive that it's hard to believe it was accomplished in a single take with no stunt double. They ended up copying it in the sequel because there was no way to improve on it.
• Tear Jerker: The death of Jim's faithful mountain horse, Denny, in the sequel is absolutely heartbreaking.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: the names of Jessica's mother and aunt. Waltzing Matilda is the most iconic folk song in Australian history (it was one of the three contenders to become the national anthem in the 1970's; to this day more people can sing it than they can the winner). On a meta level, there is no character in the actual song named Matilda, just as Matilda Harrison never actually appears in the movie. In the language of flowers, Rosemary symbolizes remembrance; Jessica's aunt is the one who tells her the tangled story of her mother and her two suitors, and is clearly the one who's told Jessica about her mother growing up.

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