Ride alongside modern working cowboys on some of America’s largest and most remote cattle ranches. The movie documents the lives of the men and women working on these “big outfit” ranches – some of which are over one million acres – and still require full crews of horseback mounted workers to tend large herds of cattle.
“Cowboys: A Documentary Portrait” is a spectacular film altogether in its conception, cinematography, direction, editing, and music. Exploring the lives of today’s working cowboys on eight ranches in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada, the film interviews cowboys old and young to discover the whys and hows of their lives. The vistas (filmed frequently from the air but also from the view of a horseback rider) are stunning. These ranches are difficult to comprehend, many of which extend millions of acres and still require working cowboys on horseback to tend to them.
The film begins with the work on the ranches in Spring, the calving season. Men on horseback assist in finding new calves in the pastures as well as locating cows in labor and possibly in trouble. The procedure to “pull” a calf is laborious and requires a “hand” to glove up to his shoulder to accomplish it, though it doesn’t always prove successful. Calves are money to the rancher, as well as the cows that produce them and every precaution is taken to keep them all safe.
Summer takes the working cowboy into the season of branding the new calves and it requires “all hands on deck” working in the dust and the hot sun. Even youngsters join in to help out. The interview with a young mother whose husband works on one of the big ranches is jaw-dropping. She lives in minimal comfort with their two children, nine hours from the nearest town. And she does this by choice.
Autumn is round-up time to send calves to buyers and is followed by the bitter season of Winter with cold, ice, snow, and the interminable work to keep the herds watered, fed, and safe. Frankly, I was exhausted by the end of the film, having watched these men (mostly) work every day from before dawn to dark, then get up and start all over again. The sections of the seasons are filled with wonderful patches of old and new cowboy poetry, and the entire film is covered with the music of these relics of the past who still abide and work and raise families. When the conclusion came, I wished there was more. Enjoy!
Available worldwide on Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, and VOD November 17th
