Director Simon Wincer
Starring Jon Blake, Sigrid Thronton & Peter Phelps
Rated PG
Score 6/6

In 1917 when the British forces are bogged down in front of the Turkish and German lines in Palestine they rely on the Australian light horse regiment to break the deadlock.

Okay, perhaps it would have been historically relevant if I had of sat down to review this later in the year in October. But considering weekend I have been looking through my shelves of DVDs for my copy of The Lighthorsemen and finally found it yesterday I thought I should watch it now because by October that little voice in my head that prioritizes movies would have been on to other movies.

For those of you who might be wondering most of the characters in the film were based on real people. It is also interesting to note that several pieces of footage from the climactic scenes were re-used in the episode “Palestine, October 1917” of the television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles which was also directed by Simon Wincer.

One last thing before we get into the actual review, if you decide to sit down and watch it yourself I recommend that you don’t watch this on a tiny computer screen, this is the kind of movie that needs to be watched on a television or an actual cinema screen.
I might not talk about it a lot in my other reviews but it is really fun to notice how movie making has changed over the years and how somethings are for the better while there are somethings that might be considered a lost art. One thing that is a lost art, the movie trailer. How many times in recent years have you complained the trailer gave away all the good scenes? I believe that The Lighthorseman is an example of a GOOD trailer. By ‘2020’ standards (granted yes, the movie is rated PG) the action sequences even the iconic charge of the Light Horse is toned down several notches. It did not even venture close to the territory of the big loud action movie. I got the impression that the direct really did not that much to challenge the audience. Also there was a cleanliness that suggested that the world wasn’t lived in. It was great how it deals with the question of courage and the idea of what is to be a man.
There is some beautiful camerawork that made me think that perhaps I should have busted out my projector so that I could have taken in the full impact of some the scenes in desert. Now what I loved about the final charge is that the music used in the scene gradually becomes less noticeable up until the point its just the emotion of the scene and your heartbeat that is driving the cinematic moment.
Even though he is not featured heavily in the movie I enjoyed Bill Kerr’s performance as General Sir Harry Chauvel particularly the moment where he dictated a message to General Sir Archibald Murray. The Lighthorseman is a great example of the early work of many iconic Australian Actors such as Gary Sweet, Sigrid Thornton and Peter Phelps and other actors such as Jon Blake whose work I am not awfully familiar with.