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Very likely based on Ambrose Pratt's drama, Thunderbolt; Or, Three Days with Thunderbolt, the story is a semi-fictional account of the life of Frederick Ward (aka Thunderbolt). The story sees Ward, a cattle drover and horsebreaker from Windsor, NSW, trying to earn enough money to pay for his forthcoming wedding. His life changes, however, when he is accused of cattle theft and sentenced to seven years at Cockatoo Island. When he eventually escapes, he learns that his fiancée has died of grief. He sets out to get his revenge on society by taking up a life of crime as a bushranger.
The film's narrative includes scenes such as Thunderbolt being rescued from a police trap by a girl of mixed Aboriginal and European heritage, his raid on a country hotel, and his eventual death during a gallant struggle with the police.
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Related Works
Works about this Work
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More Australian than Aristotelian : The Australian Bushranger Film, 1904-1914
2002
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , January-February no. 18 2002;This analysis of The Story of the Kelly Gang, Thunderbolt, and The Squatter's Daughter considers early Australian films in the light of American cowboy films, arguing that 'it is the contention of this paper that these relations are the result of certain cultural coincidences between Australia and the Western United States rather than the outcome of direct influence of the one upon the other. Viewed in this light, “the American cinema par excellence” can perhaps be more reasonably understood as the epitome of a global cinema – not an original myth of nationhood, but a story of no-place retold everywhere and at all times, even in terra nullius itself.'
-
More Australian than Aristotelian : The Australian Bushranger Film, 1904-1914
2002
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , January-February no. 18 2002;This analysis of The Story of the Kelly Gang, Thunderbolt, and The Squatter's Daughter considers early Australian films in the light of American cowboy films, arguing that 'it is the contention of this paper that these relations are the result of certain cultural coincidences between Australia and the Western United States rather than the outcome of direct influence of the one upon the other. Viewed in this light, “the American cinema par excellence” can perhaps be more reasonably understood as the epitome of a global cinema – not an original myth of nationhood, but a story of no-place retold everywhere and at all times, even in terra nullius itself.'
