Brady Jandreau has a nightmare of a man riding a horse. Startled, he’s awakened to his reality which is even more of a nightmare…there will be no more rodeo riding in his future. So, he smokes a cigarette, pops some pain meds, and then stands at the mirror to remove his own staples from a wound in his skull. This is what Brady’s life has become. His days are spent watching TV, tending to his father Wayne’s needs and those of his sister (Lily Jandreau, his real life and mentally challenged sibling.) Then there’s the fact that he now lives with a metal plate in his head. Brady finds himself wondering what he has to live for when he can no longer find a sense of purpose outside the arena of rodeo.
Compare it to the ghetto kid who only knows the NFL as his way ‘out’ of a simple life, The Rider, only knows strapping himself to 2,000 pound animal as a life of ‘Where it’s at.’
Based on a true story, The Rider addresses a world not often explored. The idea of a buckaroo seems like something of another time except Brady lives to watch recaps of his one-wrong-move on his cell phone video, the day the accident changed everything. Even his crippled finger struggles to turn the video off.
Nevertheless, in an attempt to regain control of his fate, Brady undertakes a search for new identity, trying to redefine his idea of what it means to be a man in the heartland of America. He begins training an Arabian horse but the doctor soon reminds him that he can’t ride again.
The beauty of a film like The Rider is it allows us to imagine the mind of a cowboy and campfires, of the Midwest and plains…the mourning of his deceased mother casually buried under a wooden cross in the fields of grain. Now what remains is his tales of the experience, shared with other locals, who too have had injuries. Some more serious. One man in particular is close to brain-dead where Brady dutifully visits him in the hospital.
The film unfolds as a fascinating study and a pity party all in one.
And so we question why it’s worth it? But in the middle of South Dakota there just isn’t anything else. The choices we have aren’t easily apparent.
The downside of the film is while it’s organice in nature and an interesting premise, their world doesn’t offer enough to hold a two hour film. It’s missing some sort of subplot – perhaps a love story or other challenges running headlong or parallel to the rodeo. One can’t help but thinking this might have made a great National Geographic or Discovery Channel documentary, dedicated to the riders who live their lives 8 seconds at a time…
Brady Jandreau’s break out performance as Brady Blackburn certainly shows us that determination is everything, yet despite mind over matter –when the matter/the body can’t speak – it’s all you’ve got just to pull up your bootstraps to emotionally survive. Even if you don’t have boots. 2 ½ tiaras