Episode 37: Wild Horses (1984)

There’s no way to sugar-coat it: Wild Horses is an absolute trainwreck of a film. The story of how a man’s dreams of wrangling horses are threatened by evil Government conservationists(?!), it’s a baffling mess on almost every level. Hayden and L.J. break out their tools for an impromptu autopsy in an attempt to figure out how a production with so many talented people involved could go so horribly wrong.

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Director: Derek Morton
Producer: John Barnett
Original Screenplay: Kevin O’Sullivan
Director of photography: Doug Milsome
Editor: Simon Reece

Cast:
Mitch…Keith Aberdein
Jack…John Bach
Harry…Kevin J. Wilson
Sara…Robyn Gibbes
Sam…Tom Poata
Tyson…Bruno Lawrence

Notes:

• If you live in New Zealand, Australia, or the UK, you’re lucky enough to be able to rent or buy a lovely restored copy of Wild Horses from NZ Film On Demand. Since the cinematography is one of the only things the film has going for it, we don’t recommend viewing inferior DVD or VHS copies, but if that’s your only option NZ Videos is the place to go for info.
• This is probably the only chance we’ll have to talk about Derek Morton. As mentioned in the podcast he has a pretty interesting history and it’s worth checking out NZ On Screen’s great biography to get a more detailed overview of his career.
• If you want to get a sense of how critics reacted to Wild Horses when it was released, here’s a review from Vincent Canby at The New York Times. It’s not exactly complimentary.