The thorn birds

Year of release : 1983

Run time : 49m - 1h38m, 7 episodes

Genre : Drama / Tv Series / Mini Series

Cast : Richard Chamberlain, Rachel Ward, Christopher Plummer

The American mini series are based on the best selling novel of the same name, by Colleen McCullough, published in 1977.

The year is 1920, and Father Ralph de Bricassart is always visiting Drogheda, and performs church rituals on the property, for the richest woman in Australia, Mary Carson. Mary has been a widow for 30 years, and refuses to remarry, as she doesn't want to give power over her and her properties and riches to a man.

Mary can see behind father Ralph's facade, and can see he is ambitious, and wants to become cardinal, and can't figure out why was he banished to "neverland" Australia.

Ralph tells her he insulted a bishop, and Mary tells him she knows he wants Drogheda (her ranch with sheep and cattle), as with its wealth, he'll sore in the church ranks, and become bishop himself. Mary doesn't have any children, only a living brother, Paddy Cleary,with his large family, which she brings from New Zealand.

Her brother is poor, has 4 sons (had more, but 2 died!) and one daughter everybody ignores.

Father Ralph is drawn to the little girl, as nobody pays attention to her, nobody sees her, not even her mother (she doesn't even tell her about that time of the month! When it happens she thinks she's dying!), who's favorite son is Frank (we find out later he was the son of the man she loved,which had her banished from her rich family).

Maggie says to father Ralph she'll never love one of her kids more than the other, words which will come back to haunt her, because as years pass she becomes just like her mother.

 

Father Ralph convinces Mary to pay for Maggie's school, but Mary takes her out of it, out of jealousy, when she sees how close father Ralph is with her (she studied at his church's school, and lived in his home).

Maggie's mother is pregnant again, and gives birth to another son. Frank, her favorite, is disgusted with his father, who keeps on impregnating her. The kid doesn't live long, as he gets sick and dies,2 years later (this would be around 1923).

Paddy's wife confesses her father's last name was Armstrong, who was New Zealand's first family.

Mary confesses to Ralph she is attracted to him.

Frank becomes a boxer and leaves with a troupe, after he finds out from his father he's not his son (he also told his father he makes more money from a fight than his father makes a month at the ranch).

Paddy tells father Ralph how he used to watch his wife walk in the distance with Frank as a baby, before they met, and her father came to see him, telling him she disgraced the family, and wanted to send her way but her grandmother wouldn't have it. Since the grandmother was dying, they could finally do it, so he asked Paddy to marry her, giving him enough money to start a life. Paddy confesses he was always in love with her, and wanted to protect her.

Maggie cries about Frank leaving, so father Ralph tells her a story about the bird who only sings once in its life,the thorn bird, and how its whole life looks for a thorn to fall into, and when it finds it, sings the most beautiful song flying into it, killing itself.

Two years later, father Ralph confesses he was interested in Drogheda, but his desires and ambitions were gone and he feels free, knowing she will give it to her brother. Mary doesn't believe he is over it, and admits she wants to destroy his soul, if he has one.

Five years later, in late November 1929, on her 75th birthday, father Ralph sees Maggie all grown up. Maggie has always been in love with him, and even told him a few times she wants to marry him.

Although completely taken with her, he completely ignores her at the party, and this makes her cry.

Mary confesses to father Ralph she always loved him, and that's why she always acted the way she did, when he helps her to her room.

He sees Maggie riding her horse outside, so he follows her, and tells her to forget about him.

Mary is found dead the next day (I think she actually k1lled herself), and although everybody thinks she will leave the estate and wealth to her brother , Ralph is shocked to find out she leaves everything to the church if the church rewards him, with him being the chief authority of her estate, with the option of him destroying the new will, if he wants it destroyed. He doesn't want to destroy it. For he is ruled by ambition.

The lawyer asks Paddy to contest the will, but he doesn't want to, as it was her money, and he thinks she had the right to do what she wanted with it. His wife doesn't want Mary's " pieces of silver " either. Neither do his kids, who are content with living on Drogheda, in the main house, as Mary wanted.

They still don't hate father Ralph, and think him their friend.

Although he refused to destroy the renewed will, Ralph blames Mary for giving him everything he ever wanted, her fortune, to climb the church ladder.

In 1930, father Ralph is in Sydney, Australia, where he is told by his superior the pope is looking for a cardinal for Australia.

At the Christmas dinner, the Clearies find out their son, Frank, is in prison for k1lling a man.

Thunderclouds are gathering above Drogheda, their lightnings striking trees, and starting fires across the land, burning the Clearies' old house, and k1lling Paddy. The next day, the family starts looking for him, and Stu is k1lled by a wild bore, annoyed by the shots he fired to let the others know where he was.

Father Ralph is asking Maggie's mother to look after her, and she says she tries to forget she has a daughter, as she is a reminder of the mistakes she made when young. Maggie hears it.

Two years later, Irish men come to the ranch to help with the sheep shearing. All the women find a certain man attractive, which I don't. Sorry. He wants to meet Maggie. Maggie seems to like him too, and they end up marrying.

He wants to make his own money, or so he says, and takes her to Queensland, where he cuts cane. He leaves her with his boss (he actually leaves her miles away, at the wrong entrance), to look after his sick wife (the woman can't walk properly), and works 6 days a week, having to come see her on Sundays. He doesn't come see her even on Sundays, and Maggie thinks that a baby will change all that. She finally makes him come see her, for the New Year's Eve party, and when he finds out she's pregnant, he wants nothing to do with her (he doesn't want kids). He doesn't even come see her when she gives birth!

Luke seems to be just as ambitious and unreachable as father Ralph! She wanted someone to stay with her, to love ,and she got more of what she had with Ralph!

Father Ralph, who's a bishop or a cardinal now (I really don't care,as the scenes with him bore me the most ), comes to see her, after finding out she's not only married, but about to give birth.

Maggie wanted the baby to keep her husband, and then doesn't want her because it didn't work!

Maggie sends Ralph away, and the people she works for, who are like her own family, send her on a holiday. Ralph comes to her.

They spend a few days together, and he tells her he still chooses the church (for he has great ambitions, to become pope, and that's more important). Maggie settles for less, for as much as he can give her, close to nothing, and goes back home, after paying a visit to her husband, telling him never to look her up again.

More than 19 years later, in 1955, father Ralph visits Drogheda for Christmas.

Maggie has a son with him (she conceived on that holiday they spent together), who confesses he wants to be a priest too. Her daughter, Justine, is an actress.

Maggie has a fit upon hearing it, and her son leaves with Ralph. Her daughter moves to London with her acting, and visits him a lot. Her brother is in good company now, and she catches the eye of a German politician who is friends with Ralph, who's definitely a cardinal now.

3 years later, in 1958, Maggie refuses to go to her son's ordination , and he chooses to profess in Australia, where father Ralph used to, to be closer to his mother.

Before getting back to Australia, Justine and her brother, visit Greece. Justine's love interest comes to see her (as he proposed to her), and while they spend time together, her brother,Dane, tries to save some girls who were trying to get his attention (I personally didn't find the man attractive, and was annoying to see everyone fawning over him). And drowns.

Maggie is devastated, and ignores Justine. Her mother tells her she watched her make the same mistakes she did, her whole life, and enough is enough.

Maggie tells Ralph Dane was his.

The series are actually about father Ralph, and his ambition, and how although he's supposed to be a man of the church, and give up the mundane things, he is still more human than others, as the poor family are actually better than him - when they find out they're not getting anything, they are not mad, don't think they deserve it, and do not hate anyone for it! They are the truly humble ones, not the priest, who wants to climb the church's hierarchy with somebody else's money. It really feels Mary was the one who got him figured out, and knew him best. Ralph comes across as the villain of the story.

Ralph says he loves God more than Maggie, but it's not true, it's his ambition and career he loves, because one can love God without having to become a pope, like he wants! He could have still been a priest by choosing to be with Megan, if he changed his denomination, to let's say, Protestant! As in any other denomination or even religion, priests are allowed to get married and have a family!

Mary was a sad character, who, in her old age fell in love with a young man, who obviously didn't want her. It's true what she says that no one feels old, inside we all feel young.

So is Maggie, who her whole life waits for a man for whom she's not good enough. She ends up hating God for "taking" the men she loves, first her first love, Ralph, then their son, but it's not God, it's these men's choices. Also, I don't understand why was she making such a fuss about their son being a priest, because he was already 20 years old when he told her he wanted to become one ,a grown man! It's not like if he got married, he wouldn't have moved away with his family!

Through the series we watch Maggie turn into her mother, as she treats Justine the way her mother treated her, while she said, as a kid, she'd never be that way.

The series started out well, but they bored me, starting with the 3d episode. It felt nothing ever happened and very boring, especially the scenes with Ralph in church.

The acting was good. Piper Laurie was beautiful when she was young. Her character was my favorite,somehow.

 

I didn't like the soundtrack.

The visual effects were good. I liked that they aged the characters through the years, and they all looked good.

Wikipedia says it has 4 episodes, but I watched a series comprised of 7 .

The series were the 2nd most widely watched tv series in history at the time. They were nominated for 16 Emmy Awards, winning 6, and 8 Golden Globes,winning 4,for Best Miniseries, Best Actor (Chamberlain), Best Supporting Actor (2 actors were nominated from these miniseries) and Best Supporting Actress (3 actresses of these miniseries were nominated) .

The series have sequel mini series, released in 1996, "The thorn birds : The missing years", showcasing what wasn't showed in the original, in the 19 years gap (and it doesn't match everything stated in the original !).

Although set in Australia, the series were filmed in California and Hawaii.

Before Chamberlain was attached to the project, when they were thinking about the series being a feature film, Christopher Reeve, Robert Redford and Ryan O'Neal were considered.

Actresses who auditioned to play Maggie (a role very sough after) included Michelle Pfeiffer, Kim Basinger, Jane Seymour and Olivia Newton-John.

Rachel Ward married the actor Bryan Brown who plays her character's husband, Luke O'Neill ,after meeting on set of the series,and are still married today.

The series were beloved in Romania, and were just as successful in France and Brazil, while they were ignored in Australia, where the action takes place!

Rating : Could have been a contender!