Breaking Free (1995)

Review: "Breaking Free"

This might NOT be true if there are any OTHER movies about blind horse jumpers.

Jeremy London stars as "Rick Chilton," a 17-year-old juvenile delinquent who gets a chance to work as a stable boy at a ranch for blind kids instead of having to stay in the detention center. I'd like to say that London is a "bad boy with a capital B," because I like the sound of that phrase. But it's completely untrue. If you put London's portrayal of "Rick" in a lineup, he'd probably be picked out to be the first counselor in the priest's quorum. He is locked up because his parents died or something and he ran away from his uncle, and did some petty crimes, but there's just no getting around the fact that he's really, really, really not a bad guy. Yet the plot seems to indicate that he's supposed to be worse than he seems. The adult detention counselor (warden?) seems to think that Rick is trouble with a capital T, but that animosity is never believable

Rick was raised around horses, and loves working with them, so he is thrilled to have a chance to work at the ranch instead of digging ditches as part of work detail at the detention center. He is surprised when he arrives at the camp and finds that it is a camp for blind kids, but he soon settles in and turns things around in the neglected horse stable.

He soon meets a new guest at the ranch -- a newly blind former gymnast named Lindsay Kurtz (played by Gina Philips). Lindsay is extremely unfriendly and doesn't even want to be at the camp. She hasn't adjusted well to being blind. She exhibits a major case of Bad Attitude.

Well, if you've seen a few After School Specials, you know exactly where the whole movie is going. There will be attitude changes for Rick and Lindsay. They'll fall in love or something approximating it, and share a kiss. (I guess there are no ethical restrictions preventing stable boys from fraternizing with ranch guests.) There will be a bunch of horse riding, a harrowing rescue of a helpless little blind boy on a cliff above a raging river, etc., etc.

I didn't know anything about the movie, so the biggest surprise for me was when Lindsay decides she wants to compete in a nearby horse jumping competition, as a regular competitor among sighted riders. Can a blind person do this? is a question many people in the movie ask. Lindsay is so determined to jump horses competitively because she misses the rush she got competing as a gymnast. So if I understand correctly... She can't do gymnastics as a blind person, but she can jump horses? I don't know if that makes sense, but I don't know a lot about blind athletics. To its credit, the movie really sells the idea of Lindsay training to jump horses. She uses auditory clues to keep her bearings, and she counts paces, etc. And, after all, the horse does much of the work. Few concrete details were provided, but there were enough that I was willing believe it.

The whole thing about the little blind boy who goes horseback riding in the middle of the night and gets lost and attacked by wolves and ends up hanging from a cliff face. That was a bit melodramatic. And I wondered why in the world Rick took Lindsay with him to search for the boy. Other than the fact that she's the female lead in the movie, there seemed to be no reason to do so.

I was also annoyed by Rick's juvenile delinquent friends who plan to help Rick break free from the ranch (which he actually enjoys being at), so they can escape to New York City. This is despite the fact that Rick has only a few weeks left to finish serving his sentence, and he'll be completely free anyway. Completely idiotic. But I guess if they were highly intelligent, they wouldn't be juvenile delinquents with warrants out for their arrest.

There's also a stock character pretty-boy jerk camp counselor who resents Rick, a romance between the detention center warden and the camp director, and a few other plot elements like that which do little to enhance the movie.

"Breaking Free" was directed by David MacKay and produced by David Anderson for Leucadia Film Corporation. Leucadia is the Utah-based film production company which made feature length family-friendly films, including Sterling Van Wagenen's "Alan & Naomi", Blair Treu's "Just Like Dad", "The Paper Brigade" and "Wish Upon a Star", and "Windrunner", written by Mitch Davis. Like all Leucadia films (except for the theatrically-released "Alan & Naomi), "Breaking Free" went straight to the video and TV movie market. That's a good thing, because by no means is it up to the standards of theatrically-released feature films. It should even be classified as a "lesser" Leucadia film. Although all of the company's movies are low-budget productions, most of them at least have a little more life and character than "Breaking Free."

The acting isn't bad. The cinematography is very straight-forward and serviceable. The movie has no objectionable content, which is good.

Unfortunately, the main character arcs for Rick and Lindsay, as well as their relationship, are predictable within the first few minutes of the movie. Overall, the film is competently made, but it just seems flat. Except for the unusual matter of blind horse jumping, "Breaking Free" is a forgettable film.

"Breaking Free"
Opening Credits
as they appear in the film

"Breaking Free"
Closing Credits
as they appear in the film