Bronco Busting is what you get when your sport is allowed to thrive without the barest hint of common sense. Frith up a tree, even the NFL has a concussion protocol; X-Gamers wear helmets these days. For the record, here’s my impression of this “sport:” Several men, with the aid of lethal devices, manage to enclose a powerful beast roughly five to ten times your size in a small corral. The beast has been deliberately chosen for its violence, aggression, and anger; this beast can kill. You gingerly mount the animal armed only with little more than chaps and a bandana for protection. When a buzzer sounds, the gate opens and at that point, the monster attempts to launch you into orbit. When –not “if,” when- the creature is successful at this task, your turn is over. This process takes a matter of seconds. If you are still ambulatory upon reentry, you must then move as quickly as possible outside the playing field before the creature realizes you are still alive. By the leathery skin of Clint Eastwood, this is worse than golf.
Do you honestly feel we would think less of you if you, I dunno, wore a helmet? Is machismo worth the complete disregard for safety? What am I saying? Of course it is. Thank my personal deity I didn’t grow up with horses.
Brady Blackburn (Brady Jandreau) is a legend in rural South Dakota, even with the metal plate in his head. Don’t feel bad for Brady; everybody he knows is broken, too. His father (Tim Jandeau) is a penniless alcoholic; his sister (Lilly Jandeau) is not-all-there upstairs; his business partner lacks a hand; his best friend Lane (Lane Scott) can no longer walk or talk. I don’t know how many of these disabilities can be attributed to the pastime described above, but it’s a good bet at least some are.
There is a line of staples in Brady’s head about five inches long. He watches the eight-second ride that transformed him from legend to hospital bed. Luckily, it’s hard to see exactly what happened. Did the horse step on Brady’s head after he fell off? That seems most likely. There is deep tragedy in the character study – Brady only knows cowboyin’. He never got a high school diploma; he never learned a skill set besides horse whispering. He watches rodeos on TV for fun. He can’t stand not to be around horses. Without horse riding, Brady barely qualifies as human.
Naturally, The Rider is destined to try again. His talent is obvious; nobody can tame a horse like the kid. Nobody can intuit a horse like the kid. When he isn’t watching horses, he’s visiting Lane, once a proud rider himself, now a mute paraplegic, hospitalized forever. There is a sickening melancholy in Brady urging Lane to “take the reins” again and again. Why, boys, why? Why couldn’t you be paralyzed from football like normal American kids?
The Rider is a drama that plays like a documentary. That can’t be far from true – given none of the first names have changed and all the action seems spot on … oh, the fact that the acting is terrible. Lilly Jandeau gives the least convincing “I have a mental impairment” performance I have ever seen. Thankfully, Brady isn’t an awful actor; he doesn’t try to do too much on camera, which is a huge asset; I think this character is extremely close to who Brady is – a tough
, quiet horseman who took a bad fall. This is the rare movie that I’m giving a pass on the basis of location. If The Rider takes place in the outskirts or even an hour’s drive from a big city, you say, “This is tragic, but there are other things you can do.” Thumbs down. That isn’t the case. This is rural South Dakota. These boys grew up to be cowboys; they don’t know anything else. Whether or not they want to know something else is irrelevant. They were born to ride horses and shoot guns and ranch or bronc or gallop or whatever activity one attributes to the men and women who apparently still live in the Old West. It’s a different story when this is your only story; it would be like criticizing a native Inuit for extreme ice fishing, woo! What was he gonna do? Go surfing?
The tragedy of The Rider is not that Brady is no longer able to do what he loves; that happens to most everybody at some point. The tragedy is that Brady still has the talent, desire, and willingness, but has acquired a modicum of common sense to go with it. The tragedy is that he didn’t exhaust his talent; in fact it’s the gaining of a skill set that has effectively ended his career. Personally, I think the paucity of safety regulations tied to the sport is a form of insanity, but then I’m one of those bleeding heart assholes who think people should be able to walk.
Bustin’ beast backs ain’t a breeze
It takes a death wish, if you please
When talking common sense
Between you and the fence
Who exactly has mad cow disease?
Rated R, 104 Minutes
Director: Chloé Zhao
Writer: Chloé Zhao
Genre: Sad reality
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Cowboys
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Moms of cowboys
