User reviews

In 1899, in Australia, Alice May Richards (Tushka Bergen) is the daughter of the horse breeder James Richards (Frederick Parslow), who is the owner of the ranch Minnamurra. Alice has a crush on the wrangler Jack Donaghue (Steven Vidler) and the wealthy trader Ben Creed (Jeff Fahey) has an unrequited love with her. James is in a bad economical situation and his despicable neighbor Allenby (Shane Briant) wishes to buy his real state, but he does not accept the offer. Meanwhile Donaghue associates to a man called Bill Thompson (Richard Moir) to convince his neighbors to give money to raise a league of horse breeders of their own. Creed uses his company to secretly help James while Alice is sent to the house of her aunt to learn good manners. Creed decides to investigate Thompson and finds that he is a con man and he warns his neighbors and Donaghue becomes his enemy; however Thompson flees with their money and Donaghue's reputation is ruined. Out of the blue, James dies and Alice returns home and learns the financial condition of her family. Alley uses his henchmen to blow-up Creed's cargo leading his company to bankruptcy and buying the mortgage of Minnamurra that belonged to Creed from the bank. Now the only chance for Alice to keep her family property is selling the horses to the British army. But she needs the help of Creed and Donaghue to take the animals to the British ship in a short time. Further, both men love her and with whom will she stay?

The unknown "Minnamurra", a.k.a. "Wrangler", is a surprisingly good romance with western that takes place in the turn of the Twentieth Century in Australia. The story is engaging and full of action, with the battle of a scummy wealthy rancher against a family of horse breeders and his neighbors. There are breathless scenes with horses and great performances of the cast. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Alma de Pistoleiro" ("Soul of Gunsling")

For anyone who enjoyed "The Man from Snowy River", here is another great Australian horse flick. The movie cover shows Jeff Fahey, and so there's an assumption that he is the wrangler. He is actually a Merchant (Ben) who calls on a particular wrangler friend (Jack) when business requires the movement of horses. But in the course of events, Jack gets deceived and manipulated by a con man into thinking Ben is trying to steal their business. And a debutante named Alice, being young and naive, doesn't understand Ben's financial maneuvers when he tries to save her father's estate. And so Ben is this nice guy trying to help people that he cares about, but misunderstandings end up making his efforts more painful. This movie features Jeff Fahey at his finest, and it is a mystery to me why it didn't become more popular.

Jeff Fahey and Tushka Bergen in a fairly tense story of a battle between little ranchers and a big one down under. The big one is greedy and crooked and wants everybody's else's land including Bergen's family ranch. When her daddy dies she is left alone to try and stop him but gets an ally in Fahey a local business man. Of course that turns the bad rancher's sights on him and the bad guy sets out to ruin Fahey's business so he can't help Bergen. It comes down to a last desperate cattle drive that the bad men are willing to kill to prevent. 2.5 stars out of 4