Film

Sylvester

Name: Sylvester
Genre: Drama, Family
Released: 1985
Cast: Richard Farnsworth, Melissa Gilbert, Michael Schoeffling, Constance Towers, Peter Kowanko

Drama

A 1985 family drama about a teenage orphan training a wild horse for Olympic competition. It's earnest and unglamorous, built on the chemistry between Melissa Gilbert and an actual horse, with no irony in its sight. For viewers who believe in the redemptive power of determination and don't need their sentiment filtered through cynicism.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy old-fashioned horse stories where a wild animal and a determined young woman push each other toward something bigger, and sentiment is earned through hard work.

Skip it if you want brisk plotting or a sharp edge, since it moves at an unhurried clip and leans openly on sentiment, with its heart worn on its sleeve.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a little over an hour and forty minutes, with a gentle rhythm that lets scenes of daily labor and quiet horsemanship breathe before the ambition takes hold.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

National Velvet1945

The spiritual ancestor of this story: a young person training an impossible horse toward greatness. Elizabeth Taylor's performance has a fire that influenced everything that came after, and the horse sequences still thrill.

But Technicolor melodrama from the 1940s moves at a different pace than modern film. Some will find it slow; others will call that pacing.

Murphy's Romance1985

Released the same year, also starring Richard Farnsworth in a role that showcases his weathered decency. A gentler film about second chances and rural life, with real warmth between its leads.

But The romance plot may feel dated or sitcom-adjacent if you're watching for the Farnsworth performance alone.

The Black Stallion1979

Another boy-and-horse story, but told with genuine adventure. The survival element and the bond that grows in isolation give this more narrative momentum than pure training montages.

But The pacing is deliberate in the first half. If you need plot velocity from the opening scene, you'll feel the slow build.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Sylvester

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Ballad of Little Jo1993

Both explore self-reliance and the survival bond between human and animal, but this one strips away sentiment and shows you the cost of that independence.

A woman in the 1880s disguises herself as a man to survive frontier life alone—with only a horse and a dog. It has Sylvester's DNA: solitude, animal companionship, quiet determination. But it's a revisionist Western that never softens its view of what survival actually costs.

But It's deliberately austere and bleak in ways Sylvester never approaches. The film refuses romance or redemption where you might expect it. Visually, it's all dust and cold.

Flicka2006

A girl on a Wyoming ranch breaking in a horse while proving herself to a skeptical father. It understands the specific loneliness of rural girlhood and the quiet courage that requires.

But It's a PG film made in the 2000s, and sometimes that sensibility shows. The family conflict resolves a bit too cleanly.

Secretariat2010

A true story about training a thoroughbred toward a record nobody thought possible. The training sequences are vivid, and the film respects both horse and human persistence.

But It's a Disney production with a three-act structure you can see coming from the opening credits. The emotional beats are where the movie lives, not surprise.

The Electric Horseman1979

Robert Redford and a drugged racehorse fleeing Vegas. It's part Western, part road movie, suffused with a melancholy about what we do to animals in the name of entertainment.

But The plot is thinner than it sounds. Large stretches are just two people and a horse moving through landscape, which some find meditative and others find tedious.

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey1993

A family adventure in which animals drive the whole story forward. It's unsentimental about danger while remaining warm, and the relationship-building between humans and creatures feels earned.

But It's an animal movie made for children, and if you're past that audience, you'll notice the formula. The peril never quite lands as real.

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey poster

Desert Hearts1985

Also from 1985, also about a woman finding independence and purpose in a rural setting away from the life she was born into. The landscape feels as alive as the people in it.

But It's a lesbian romance, and the primary conflict is about sexuality and self-discovery rather than external competition. If you came for the horse story, you'll have walked into a different movie.

Kes1970

Both use the animal-training narrative as a framework for exploring what we reach for when we have nothing else, but Kes finds tragedy where Sylvester finds triumph.

A working-class boy in industrial England trains a hawk. It's a masterpiece about how animals can save us from despair, shot with documentary precision and acted by non-professionals. The training sequences are miraculous.

But It's a 1960s British social realist film with a regional accent and working-class vernacular. The ending is not hopeful. It's also in black and white, and the boy's home life is harsh in ways Sylvester sidesteps.

The Man from Snowy River1982

Both are films about teenagers proving themselves through horsemanship in rural landscapes, but this one is mythology and spectacle where Sylvester is intimate and personal.

An Australian film about a young man and wild horses in the mountains. It's visually spectacular—actual mountains, actual horsemanship—and it has Sylvester's romantic view of human will against nature, but with epic scope and a different mythology.

But It's a Western adventure told in an Australian landscape with Australian rhythms. If you need psychological depth over landscape and action, the characters can feel like they exist to serve the horses rather than the reverse.