I think I first watched this movie when I was 9 years old. It came on TV in the snowy mountain village where I was living in northern Portugal and my parents recorded it to VHS. At that time I had never been outside of Europe so Australia seemed very remote and exotic.

My love for this movie is more about the vibe than the plot. In fact it barely has anything that could be called a plot, but that doesn't seem to matter. "American journalist goes bush with Australian tracker and they fall in love. She invites him back to New York, where his bushman skills come in surprisingly useful" is honestly the extent of the plot. There are no quarrels that require resolution, or big political struggles, or really any difficulties to be overcome. In fact the movie completely ignores the setup-conflict-resolution formula, but it doesn't seem to matter. It is replaced instead with the rugged beauty of the outback scenery and good banter/chemistry. It is a rare movie that can hold my attention under such conditions, but this one does so with ease. I loved the outback scenes the most - flocks of parrots launching from humid wetlands, disturbed by a passing ute; the discovery of a freshwater lake, like an oasis amid the dusty, dried-up billabongs; rocky gorges covered in gums and grass trees; wide open desert plains; and the danger of hungry crocodiles lurking below the surface of the rivers.

Even now that I live in Australia this movie remains magical for me. Like 90% of Australians, I live in a city, so my daily landscape is roads and buildings rather than forests and kangaroos. But the times I have spent camping with friends and family in the bush have had the same wild ethereal quality that this movie successfully captured.