"If you don't love doing it more than
anything else, there is nothing more stupid or foolish you can do than ride
bulls." With this quote from bull riding legend, Cody Lambert, 'Cowboy
Up: Inside the Extreme World of Bull Riding' takes you into a
fascinating behind-the-scenes, up close and personal look into the world's most
dangerous sport.
Documentary Director David Wittkower, whose previous
film, Firefight: Stories From the Frontlines aired on The Learning Channel and
won 9 awards, tackles yet another fascinating subject, this time examining a
slice of Americana. With the same dedication to detail rather than
sensationalism that distinguished his earlier film, Wittkower goes beyond just
the thrills and wrecks of bull riding into what it takes, mentally and
physically, to participate in the only sport where the athlete could die every
time he competes. Narrated by Luke Perry, who played famed bull rider
Lane Frost in the film "8 Seconds" and the long-running Television
show " 90210," this film goes deeper into the adrenaline charged world
of bull riding than any ever made.
"This is the ultimate film on bull riding and is great
for those who know the sport, and better yet, for those who don't," says
Wittkower. "It caters to both." Featuring interviews with the biggest
ride-and-tumble stars, past and present, Cowboy Up traces the evolution of bull
riding from a rural amusement to the fastest growing sport in America and
the world today. Currently over 130 million viewers watch it on TV, while more
than 25 million fans flock to over 700 events annually across the United States.
Networks like NBC and CBS, seeing it as the new NASCAR, are planning to
broadcast bull riding events come fall 2002. Professional Bull Riders (PBR) is
televised every week in the United States and broadcasted on television overseas
in countries all over the world including Sweden, Brazil, Australia and Germany
among others, with a special world champion taking place in China in 2003. Bull
riders that ride professionally in the PBR hail from all over the world
including Canada, Australia, Mexico, and now a rider from Japan. The current
World Champion in the United States comes from San Paulo, Brazil.
Not only is Cowboy Up the first film in more than a decade
about this new national phenomenon, it is unique in that it examines all aspects
of bull riding, like the bull fighters, barrel men, stock contractors and the
sports medicine team. "I don't think people really understand what happens
to a rider when he's injured and taken away," notes Wittkower. "People
don't realize what it's like driving from event to event, hotel to hotel,
thousands of miles a year. What it's like for the wives and children while their
husbands and fathers are gone for weeks or months at a time and how they dread
answering the phone."
With Firefight, Wittkower trained and became a certified
wildland firefighter so he could tag along with the world's best firefighters as
they performed their perilous duties. So, for Cowboy Up, Wittkower criss-crossed
the country, logging almost 100,000 miles, to film events and interview
past and present legends of bull riding like Tuff Hedeman, Cody Lambert,
Jerome Davis, Cody Custer, Michael Gaffney, Mike White and Adriano Moraes,
just to name a few. It also features bullfighters and barrelmen like Rob
Smets, Allen Nelson, Joe Baumgarter and Flint Rasmussen. Other
interviewees include stock contractor John Growney, who takes the
viewers into an unprecedented tour behind the chutes to look at celebrated bulls
of the rodeo and the fierce kind of animal it takes to be in rodeo. Dr.
Tandy Freeman, M.D. gave Wittkower unprecedented access into the operating
room as he discussed the extremely high rate of injury in the sport. Poignant
conversations with the wives and children really bring home the lethal dangers
of the sport and the emotional toll on family. A touching segment tributes
legendary bull rider, Lane Frost, who lost his life playing the sport he
so loved and includes exclusive interviews with his remarkable parents, Clyde
and Elsie Frost.
DVD - $24.95
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