| Phar Lap | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Simon Wincer |
| Written by | David Williamson |
| Produced by | John Sexton |
| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Russell Boyd |
| Edited by | Tony Paterson |
| Music by | Bruce Rowland |
Production company | |
| Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 107 minutes |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Budget | A$5 million[1] |
| Box office | A$9,258,884 (Australia) |
Phar Lap (also released asPhar Lap: Heart of a Nation) is a 1983 Australianbiographicaldrama film about theracehorsePhar Lap. The film starsTom Burlinson and was written byDavid Williamson.
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A chestnut Thoroughbred horse called Phar Lap, known as Bobby by hisstrapperTommy Woodcock (Tom Burlinson), collapses and dies in Tommy's arms atMenlo Park in California in 1932. The news is greeted with great sadness in Australia. The remainder of the film is done asflashback.
Five years earlier, Phar Lap arrives in Australia, purchased for£168 sight unseen from New Zealand. His trainer Harry Telford (Martin Vaughan), along with his wife Vi (Celia De Burgh) and young son Cappy, watch as Phar Lap is lowered onto the wharf in a sling, underweight with warts all over his face. Mrs. Telford comments that she "wonders what his (Telford's) American friend (Phar Lap's ownerDavid Davis (Leibman)) will think?" Mr. Davis is not impressed with the underweight colt, calling him a cross between asheep dog and akangaroo, and orders Telford to sell him immediately. Telford protests, saying that the horse's pedigree is exceptional, withCarbine "The greatest horse of them all" on both sides of his bloodlines. So Mr. Davis agrees to lease him to Telford for three years and just keep one third of the horse's winnings, though Telford must pay for Phar Lap's upkeep and keep Davis's name out of it.
As Phar Lap is brought into the stables, he and a youngstrapper Tommy Woodcock form a strong bond. After Telford gallops Phar Lap hard up and down sand dunes, Tommy finds Phar Lap exhausted in his stable and immediately goes to Telford's home and confronts him about how hard he rode Phar Lap, saying that "he looked half dead." Telford sacked Tommy Woodcock, but then he was soon forced to give Tommy his job back when Phar Lap missed Tommy and stopped eating and wouldn't let anyone near him without ripping their shirt off.
Phar Lap lost his first few races, but Tommy Woodcock educated the horse by holding him back when they were training, sensing that the horse liked to come from behind. When Phar Lap started training well, Telford took the credit, telling Mr. Davis that he has "knocked that lazy streak out of him at last." He convinced Mr. Davis to pay the £30 entry fee into 1929Australian Derby to be run atRandwick Racecourse inSydney. The film shows theAustralian Derby as Phar Lap's first win, although his first win was actually six months earlier in the RRC Maiden Juvenile Handicap at Sydney's other main racecourseRosehill Racecourse. The win saves Phar Lap from being sold and the winnings, £7,135 (⅓ of which went to Davis) saves Telford from bankruptcy.
As theGreat Depression hits, Phar Lap wins every race he enters. Mr. Davis attempts to capitalize on Phar Lap's success through shady betting schemes with known gambling identity Eric Connolly (John Stanton), something that Telford wants no part of. In preparation for theMelbourne Cup, the premier race in Australia, Mr. Davis pressures Telford to scratch Phar Lap from theCaulfield Cup to maximize Davis's betting returns. Under financial pressure, Telford reluctantly agrees.
As Tommy Woodcock walks Phar Lap across the street after a workout, someone tries to shoot the horse, and Tommy puts himself in between the gun and Phar Lap. Tommy Woodcock and Phar Lap go into hiding at a stud farm outside Melbourne, arriving atFlemington Racecourse at the last minute for the 1930Melbourne Cup. Phar Lap wins, ridden by champion jockeyJim Pike (James Steele).
The horse is now back under Mr. Davis's control after the three-year agreement runs out. Mr. Davis then offers half of Phar Lap's ownership to Telford for £20,000, which Telford can't afford. Telford then fakes a hoof injury on Phar Lap and hoodwinks Mr. Davis into thinking that Phar Lap is lame, and Mr. Davis agrees to sell the half share of Phar Lap for only £4,000. Mr. Davis realizes he's been tricked when Phar Lap easily wins his next race.
TheVictoria Racing Club, led by its Chairman Lachlan McKinnon (Vincent Ball), imposes an unprecedented weight of 10 stone 10 pounds (68 kg) for Phar Lap to carry in his nextMelbourne Cup in 1931. And they threaten to permanently ban Mr. Davis and Phar Lap from racing if Mr. Davis takes Phar Lap out of the Melbourne Cup. Phar Lap surges to the lead but fades and finishes eighth, and the racing authorities face jeering crowds.
After the 1931Melbourne Cup, Mr. Davis is approached by Jim Crofton (Roger Newcombe) about racing Phar Lap in theAgua Caliente Handicap at theAgua Caliente Racetrack inTijuana,Mexico. Mr. Davis, knowing that Phar Lap would always be too heavily weighted in Australian handicap races and knowing that Weight for Age races offered less prize money, agrees to take Phar Lap to Mexico, but has to convince Telford it's worthwhile. Telford initially disagrees citing Australia's Quarantine Laws, but reluctantly agrees knowing that theAgua Caliente Handicap was the richest race in the world. Telford, saying that Phar Lap has brought him "nothing but trouble" refuses to go himself, preferring to concentrate on his new stud and stables atBraeside, south ofMelbourne. He promotes Tommy to be Phar Lap's trainer, knowing the horse wouldn't do anything without Tommy there with him. Also traveling with Phar Lap is Tommy's friend Cashy Martin (Richard Morgan) as his new strapper,veterinarian Bill Nielsen (Robert Grubb), and jockeyBilly Elliot (Paul Riley).
After arriving in theUnited States, Mr. Davis is forced to confront Crofton after finding that the race's purse has been halved fromUS$100,000 to $50,000. Tommy Woodcock soon clashes with Mr. Davis over Tommy's softer training methods and sometimes non-cooperative ways, including taking Phar Lap away from a press conference and back to his stable before the conference was finished. When questioned by Crofton about sacking Tommy Woodcock, Mr. Davis explains that "If I did, the goddamn horse would sit in his stall for the next month and cry." Tommy Woodcock also doesn't listen to advice about different horse shoes to suit the different track surface and Phar Lap badly cracks his front right hoof further hampering his preparation for the big race. Before the race, word gets out that some jockeys may have been bribed to keep Phar Lap boxed into the rails during the race, not allowing him to win and keep gamblers from losing large amounts of money. So before the race, Davis instructs jockey Billy Elliot to lead from the start, but Tommy Woodcock immediately counters this by telling Elliot to run Phar Lap's normal race of starting slow and finishing fast. Using Tommy Woodcock's advice (which initially angers Davis), Elliot rides Phar Lap to win theAgua Caliente Handicap, not knowing that blood was streaming from Phar Lap's hoof that had split.
In order of appearance (Australian release)
A soundtrack was released by EMI in 1983.
| Chart (1983) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report)[2] | 72 |
Producer John Sexton bought the rights toPhar Lap, a 1980 book by Michael Wilkinson. Extensive research was undertaken by David Williamson and Sexton, then Simon Wincer became involved.[3]
TheThoroughbred gelding who played Phar Lap was Towering Inferno. He was bred by Shirley Pye-Macmillan atWalcha, New South Wales and later owned by Heath Harris. Towering Inferno was killed by lightning on 15 April 1999. The real Tommy Woodcock played a trainer in the movie.[4][1]
TheUnited States' version of the film plays out differently.20th Century Fox, who bought the rights to release the film in the US, edited the movie to play out in a more traditional way. Instead of starting with his death as seen in the Australian version, the film opens withPhar Lap getting off the boat in Australia. The film continues like the original version and ends with his death. This was done to make the ending more dramatic, since residents of the United States were unfamiliar with the story of Phar Lap.
Phar Lap grossed $9,258,884 at the box office in Australia,[5] which is equivalent to $24,443,454 in 2009 dollars.
Wincer later admitted he was disappointed the film did not attract the 14- to 22-year-old audience, and thought it might have been due to the movie's relative lack of romance. However, it remains one of the most popular Australian films.[3]
Disney Studios wanted to release the film in the US but John Sexton and Wincer decided to go with20th Century-Fox because they had doneThe Man from Snowy River (1982). Fox spent $300,000 on changes to the film, and released it in summer. "We got killed in the rush," says Wincer. "It got nice reviews, but didn't go much business."[6]
The "2 Disc Collector's Edition" released in Australia asPhar Lap: Hero to a Nation byRoadshow Entertainment includes among the "extras" on the second disc a long audio recording of a conversation between Aaron Treve "Tommy" Woodcock and director Simon Wincer on 4 July 1984, and a short newsreel documentaryThe Mighty Conqueror, which would have been first screened c. December 1931.