Thanks
to the spectacular success of Roger Goodell’s double-secret plan, the media has
been completely distracted from the NFL’s concussion problem. In the long run,
players would be better served by stricter safety regulations than the league’s
political posturing. At least, there is a considerable upside to being a pro
football player. Professional rodeo riders will never see that kind of compensation,
but they run similar head trauma risks. Brady Blackburn is a case in point. He
always aspired to be the best bronco rider on the circuit, but just as he won
that kind of recognition, he suffered a life-altering injury. Blackburn will
slowly come to terms with his new reality in Chloé Zhao’s The Rider (clip here), which screens as a Main Slate selection
of the 55th New York Film Festival.
Blackburn
is played by real life horse-trainer and former bronco-rider Brady Jandreau, as
is his little sister and father Tim (whose name changed to Wayne, perhaps to
establish more distance between the elder Jandreau and his character’s drinking
and compulsive gambling). Brady Blackburn/Jandreau self-describes as an “Indian
cowboy:” Lower Brule Sioux by heritage and a cowboy by vocation, which is about
as American as it gets. South Dakota is one of the least populous states, but
within his circles, Blackburn’s small pond fame was on the rise. Then he had
what doctors insist must be a career-ending injury.
We
see the scars vividly close-up when Blackburn removes his bandages in the
opening scene, but we can’t see the steel plate he now carries inside his head.
Resigning from the cowboy life seems like the only responsible thing for him to
do. However, his family’s debt adds additional uncertainty to his situation.
More fundamentally, he just seems to be born to work with horses, as when we
watch him tame one beautiful but fiery specimen. Yet, even that more limited involvement
carries great risks.
Blackburn/Jandreau’s
personal circumstances are especially trying, but we clearly get the sense Zhao
is documenting a more broadly endangered way of life. It somewhat shares a
kinship with the doc Sweetgrass, but Rider is exponentially more emotionally
gripping. Zhao portrays her subject and his friends and family with great
sensitivity and dignity. Rider is her
second feature set in and around the Pine Ridge Reservation, so clearly, she
had an affinity for the locals and they developed a trust in her, which is was
indeed justified.
