The Rider Is a Lyrical Portrait of Life After the Rodeo
Vulture
By Emily Yoshida
As visceral and violent as many films have been this year
at Cannes, few have been as tied to the body itself as Chloé Zhao’s “The
Rider”. The film, which won the top prize this year at the Director’s Fortnight
sidebar, is primarily concerned with the body and brain of Brady (Brady
Jandreau) a rising rodeo champ whose career is cut short by a major head
injury. We see his freshly stapled skull, a grisly sight treated tenderly by
the camera: The body is a conveyance for the mind, and deep existential
heartbreak occurs when one wants something that the other just isn’t up to
anymore.
The film follows Brady’s reluctant struggle to walk away
from the rodeo, the horses he loves so much, and the way of life he had pinned
his identity on. The mixed messages of his community and peers — be a man, suck
it up, but don’t kill yourself — find him in a quietly tortured back and forth.
He’s resolved to do the prudent thing one minute, then finds himself
involuntarily drawn toward the saddle the next. He sells his beloved horse,
Gus, but can’t bring himself to let go of his riding gear. His close friend
Lane, another former rodeo star, is in the hospital suffering acute brain
damage, and Brady still tries to convince him — and himself — that he will ride
again.
The connection between men and horses is one of the most
enduring themes in cinema, if an increasingly abstract and nostalgic one. But
Zhao’s framing of Brady’s story is unmistakably contemporary; she gets so close
up that the screen practically exudes the smell of hay and sweat. It helps that
her star has the best method training possible: Jandreau is a real former
cowboy Zhao met while filming her last feature, “Songs My Brothers Taught Me”,
who underwent a similar injury. When Brady tries his hand at breaking horses
for a living (a considerably safer job than riding bucking ones) we’re watching
Jandreau’s own intuition and physical awareness onscreen, a careful, wordless
dance with a jittery colt.
The film also stars Jandreau’s own family and friends as
themselves, and there’s an easygoing naturalism to the scenes among the
cowboys, talking shop, drinking beer, and praying for each other. But there
could be no mistaking “The Rider” for a veiled documentary: Zhao’s sense of
lyricism and emotional rhythm is all her own. There are moments that soar —
Brady’s last ride on Gus is a visual aria — and others, especially those with
Lane, that are quietly wrenching.
And that’s what’s so subtly special about “The Rider” —
the way it takes what easily could have been reportage and turns it into modern
American myth. Brady and his friends live in a milieu both quintessentially
American and completely obscure to most 21st-century Americans. And yet, their
story feels universal to any person — or country, for that matter — that has
ever had to accept a fundamental change or loss or blow to their sense of self.
It’s never a clean break, and the push and pull to go back to the way things
were can be agonizing and occasionally blissful. In telling the story of a
disappearing slice of America, Zhao has created a portrait of resilience, and
the bonds that last even after the rodeo’s over.
The Rider
A 2017 U.S.A., British, Belgium, Japan, Indonesia,
Falkland Islands film co-production [
Producers: Dickey Abedon, Michael Sagol, Daniel Sbrega,
Jasper Thomlinson, Corentin De Saedeleer, Mollye Asher, Sacha Ben Harroche, Bert
Hamelinck, Chloé Zhao, Anastasia M. Cummings, Mike Newman [Caviar, Highwayman
Films (US), StudioCanal (Be)
Director: Chloé Zhao
Story: Chloé Zhao
Screenplay: Chloé Zhao
Cinematography: Joshua James Richards
Music: Nathan Halpern
Running time: 104 minutes
Story: After suffering a near fatal head injury, a young
cowboy undertakes a search for new identity and what it means to be a man in
the heartland of America.
Cast:
Brady Blackburn - Brady Jandreau
Wayne Blackburn - Tim Jandreau
Lilly Jandreau – Lilly Jandreau
Cat Clifford – Cat Clifford
Terri Dawn Pourier - Terri Dawn Pourier
Lane Scott – Lane Scott
Tanner Langdeau - Tanner Langdeau
James Calhoon - James Calhoon
Victor Chasing Hawk – Derrick Janis
Bar owner - Greg Barber
Rodeo cowboy - Steven DeWolfe
Frank – Leroy Pourier
Miles - Frank Steele
With: Marshal Byrne, Kevin Hunter, Allen Reddy, Jordon
Slick Phelps, Donnie Whirlwind Horse, Cameron Wright
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