Amazon.com
Cinderella is a cowgirl in
Sylvester, a hard-luck story with a happy ending if there ever was one. Melissa Gilbert is the tough-talking teenage orphan cowpoke whose natural talent and determination transform her into a prize-winning equestrian. Soapy subplots abound: She has a drunken reluctant mentor (Richard Farnsworth, in a fine turn), fights the court to raise her two younger brothers in a rundown trailer, and protests too much against a would-be sweetheart (Michael Schoeffling, the resident hunk of
Sixteen Candles). Yet there is poetry in the scenes of Gilbert riding Sylvester through the hills and magical footage of Farnsworth secretly training the horse by moonlight. Even the trite dialogue ("Did you kill their dreams like you're killing mine?") fails to do in the modern fairy tale. It's a pretty darn imperfect world Gilbert and friends inhabit, which in its own plodding way makes it seem like real life, despite the unlikely journey from jeans to jodhpurs.
--Valerie J. Nelson
Product Description
Melissa Gilbert made her movie debut in this "National Velvet"-style story of a girl and her horse. With the help of Richard Farnsworth and Michael Schoeffling, Gilbert trains a wild horse, Sylvester, and goes on to win a show competition.