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| Mike Lee, one of the bull riders featured in IFC’s documentary ‘Rank,’ continues to compete despite serious injuries (Photo courtesy of IFC) |
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HOME > SOVO SCENE > TELEVISION
By: BRIAN MOYLAN
COMMENTS |
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WHEN THINKING OF independent movies, most people think of smart dramas and comedies at art house theaters in urban areas full of liberal movie buffs. Just imagine an independent documentary about rural culture and the conservative people who enjoy a mainstream sporting competition.
That’s just what “Rank,” a new documentary that airs on IFC on Monday, Oct. 9, at 9 p.m. is all about, and the imagination can’t do justice to the actual movie.
The film, from director John Hymas, shows the week-long competition for the Professional Bull Riders’ World Championship, where 45 finalists ride one bull each day, competing for a golden belt buckle and a $1 million check.
The action centers around the three top contenders for the 2004 season: Mike Lee, a 21-year-old Christian who married young; Justin McBride, who competes just weeks after having screws put in his ankle from a riding injury; and Adriano Moraes, a Brazilian father of three who leads the pack by a wide margin after the 31-event PBR circuit that leads up to the finals.
“Rank” — which is also what a difficult-to-ride bull is called — doesn’t only feature the riders and their friends and family; appropriately, the movie both starts and ends with the bulls they ride and the people who raise them. The film only briefly and obliquely answers criticism by animals rights groups like PETA that such events are unkind to animals, but the respect riders, ranchers and fans feel for a good bull is evident.
WHETHER TAKING INTO account the audience for independent film or because of his own background, Hymas takes the vantage point of an outsider. Even when talking directly to the bull riders, it seems like the camera is outside looking in, voyeuristically spying on a world where it doesn’t belong.
This is a point of view that gay audience members, many of whom only see bull riding at gay rodeo events, will easily recognize. Some of the riders are quite attractive, and although the cowboy archetype has long been fetishized in gay culture (and has only gotten worse since “Brokeback Mountain”), the movie is never prurient.
The camera stays on the outside for the entire film, taking strange angles and moving in clever ways to give the audience a true sense of what it’s like to compete in the ring. “Rank” isn’t interested in telling the audience all the details of the sport, but rather showing what the experience of being on a bull is like.
The filming approach is an ode to the sport and the people who participate in it, and it never leaves its observational stance to pass judgment on the riders, their lifestyle or the event they love so much they’re willing to die for it.
Hymas doesn’t shy away from the danger the riders face (one sequence where Moraes shows off his scars like a warrior is quite grizzly), and the director uses music to great effect, lending every attempt at conquering a bucking animal a sense of foreboding, as if each ride will be the ultimate one.
This exquisite documentary even has those liberal movie snobs hooked on a sport that’s more popular in red states than blue. That’s because “Rank” infuses the riding and the people who participate in it with an inescapable sense of beauty.
Not that this is 90 minutes of long, slow shots of men flying through the air (though there is plenty of that), but it uses the competition as a frame to look at the sport as a whole and how it fits into a way of life. Subtly and deftly, the intersection of Christianity, patriotism, military service, capitalism and Western values are all explored through the lens of the PBR tournament.
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