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The Light Horsemen Film.

From: larry-751@excite.com
Date: 12/15/00
Time: 7:33:16 AM
Remote Name: 207.134.200.30

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Unfortunatley my message has got repeated 3 times & due to errors & a stupid first sentence no longer makes much sense! The film under discussion is obiously Simon Wincer's 1987 "The Lighthorsemen". I know it very well, having had a hand in the Lumivision laser disc complete version! The first, largely fictional, film was the 1940-1 Charles Chauvel "40,000 Horsemen" in black & white. This can be had on PAL VHS from both the National Sound & Film Archives & The War Museum! My references to the 131 minute Australian video from Columbia-Tristar & subsequent cut English & US versions based on the severely cut US version of "The Lighthorsemen" may now be off the market? The English video went August 1966. The North American one came firstly from Warners & latterly from October Films. I was able to send Steven Coppel at LUMIVISION NTSC copies of both the full length,(but panned & scanned), Aussie video. of Wincer's film & the earlier "40,00 Horsemen". They got the original negatives & sound tracks from Aussie & produced a superb full length (131 minute) director's cut on two laser discs. Wincer added an audio commentary & writer-director Ian Jones a textual one.The present copyright holder of the Chauvel film let them add the climax from that! More recently Wincer directed 4 tv episodes for Steven Spielberg of his "Adventures of Young Indiana Jones", now on video in part. His "Daredevils of the Desert"- Chapter 15, 1999 at 82 minutes uses the climax of "The Lighthorsemen"! But Sean Patrick Flannery playing Young Indy armed with wire cutters saves the mined wells at Beersheba by cutting the wires! He fist-fights the German demolition officer & saves the day for the Light Horse who come galloping in! The actor playing real-life Trooper Bolton in the original film, Jon Blake was drving home on the last day of filming, when his car ploughed into a parked one on the highway. He is now a bed-ridden paraplegic in a coma & was awarded the largest ever maintencnae sum of money ever given in Australia. A tragedy since he would have undoubtedly become a world class international star. His horse fall before finding the wiring is still seen in this tv episode & his name appears as the first stunter in the end credits! Apart from the Lumivision laser discs & the initial showing in Australia, nobody has seen the full complete film!


Last changed: December 29, 2000