BULLRIDER - Film Review

BULLRIDER is a new documentary film that follows the action of the much touted 2004 Professional Bull Riders (PBR) season. It is a smart and beautifully filmed documentary that deserves to be viewed by all fans of bull riding, rodeo, and sports in general.

This powerful film by director Josh Aronson holds and unflinching eye on a unique world that few people get to see. Unlike many other docs on bull riding, it does not shy away from showing what make the best bull riders tick. From the camaraderie to the deep religious faith that many of these riders hold.

This film is worth your time and you need to take the ride.

Pros

Cons

BULLRIDER takes viewers deep into the 2004 Professional Bull Riders season. It begins as a solid 'here-is-the-sport' style documentary but soon delves into deeper and more dramatic territory.

For the bull riding purist, the action and excitement of the original extreme sport remains, but one gets the sense that the filmmakers were looking for something deeper, something more meaningful than bright lights, pyrotechnics and the iconic myth of 'the cowboy'.

In trying to understand what makes these athletes tick, BULLRIDER doesn't fear to engage an often taboo subject in our modern age, that of religious faith. The film lays bare the meaningful faith of many of the riders, which should come as no surprise in a sport where the possibility of death looms with every opening of the chute.

The film features beautiful camera and slow motion work, with a musical score that gives it a rock video quality that younger viewers will appreciate, yet still captures the traditional essence of the sport.

The film also beautifully answers the ridiculous animal cruelty argument with the simple words of a stock contractor who clearly loves his bulls and chokes up every time he has to sell one.

But it is in the interviews with the bull riders themselves where the film moves out of the realm of pure sports documentary into a sort of philosophical treatise on life. It touches on profound questions, such as how many of us would we be willing to risk death to fulfill our calling?

These men, who embody a simple complexity, answer with an authority born of experience and truth that can only be described as enlightenment. The truth of BULLRIDER does not solely lie in the bull riding alone, but in the human stories and wisdom that surround it.

The passion, faith, and courage exhibited in BULLRIDER is something that everyone can learn from. Not just cowboys or their fans.