Montana Cowboys
- TV Movie
- 2006
- 1h
YOUR RATING
Photos
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Featured review
Deeply flawed film that offers much but delivers very little
This film was screened by BBC4 as part of a season looking at North American culture, with this one focusing on the "American Cowboy" as the idea sits within modern America. To do this the maker (San Franciscan Tom Jenks) joins up with a ranch that is typical of those that remain outside of industrialised agriculture working hard but mainly surviving off dude ranches or supporting dude ranches. Tom joins up with one ranch that combines the two to some degree, where the horse drive includes tourists but is also practical as it is taking the horses across to be used by another ranch for tourists.
The subject matter suggests that it should be interesting and, having seen the fascinating "Lie of the Land" in the UK, I had hoped that this would use the dude ranch aspect to open up a wider debate about the future of ranching (if any) and whether that is a good or bad thing in our modern world. Sadly what it really is turned out to be a very simplistic investigation by Jenks, that doesn't really move deeper than the obvious and sort of turns out to be City Slickers with all of the humour removed but all of the complexity and depth left in (ie, not much).
I gotta say that Jenks is the main reason for it falling down as he is not only the investigator but also credited as writer. As such his material his weak and the insights are nonexistent it is hard to hear him contribute anything that you don't suspect he had already written before he took part in the ride (apart from stuff about his bum hurting etc). It didn't help me that his voice was quite dull as well it didn't come over like he had much in the way of passion for his subject and this did rub off on me as I listened to him. The footage is well shot by Berry but the actual ride should have been the reason for an intellectual journey and, without the latter the former had limited value no matter how well shot it was.
Overall then, the film sets out to explore and debate the demise of an aspect of American culture that is uniquely North American (or if not uniquely then overwhelmingly) but it fails to do so. Jenks doesn't have the material that the subject demands and his insights are limited and offer little that you suspect he could not have gleamed from a desk-based review of stats and economics. Not terrible but certainly a deeply flawed film that offers much but delivers very little.
The subject matter suggests that it should be interesting and, having seen the fascinating "Lie of the Land" in the UK, I had hoped that this would use the dude ranch aspect to open up a wider debate about the future of ranching (if any) and whether that is a good or bad thing in our modern world. Sadly what it really is turned out to be a very simplistic investigation by Jenks, that doesn't really move deeper than the obvious and sort of turns out to be City Slickers with all of the humour removed but all of the complexity and depth left in (ie, not much).
I gotta say that Jenks is the main reason for it falling down as he is not only the investigator but also credited as writer. As such his material his weak and the insights are nonexistent it is hard to hear him contribute anything that you don't suspect he had already written before he took part in the ride (apart from stuff about his bum hurting etc). It didn't help me that his voice was quite dull as well it didn't come over like he had much in the way of passion for his subject and this did rub off on me as I listened to him. The footage is well shot by Berry but the actual ride should have been the reason for an intellectual journey and, without the latter the former had limited value no matter how well shot it was.
Overall then, the film sets out to explore and debate the demise of an aspect of American culture that is uniquely North American (or if not uniquely then overwhelmingly) but it fails to do so. Jenks doesn't have the material that the subject demands and his insights are limited and offer little that you suspect he could not have gleamed from a desk-based review of stats and economics. Not terrible but certainly a deeply flawed film that offers much but delivers very little.
helpful•00
- bob the moo
- Jul 17, 2007
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Language
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour
- Color
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content