'Cowboy Up' gets inside bull riding world

"Life's a lot like bull riding--you don't get ready, it just gets your turn."--Eddie Collins, guitar maker and philosopher

By Anthony Davis-Texarkana Gazette

In "Cowboy Up: Inside the Extreme World of Bull Riding," a new video documentary soon to be available in wide release, the metaphor is not lost on producer/director David Wittkower.

No longer a rural, western amusement for bored cowpokes, professional bull riding has exploded in popularity in America today with 25 million fans in attendance at bull riding events in 2001, while another 85 million viewers tuned in to watch on television.

Those kind of numbers are good enough to have gotten the attention of the execs at NBC and CBS, as each network has announced plans to broadcast bull riding as exclusive sporting events in this fall's sports coverage lineup.

Wittkower is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose previous exciting challenges included filming "Firefight: Stories from the Frontlines," a five-year undertaking that required Wittkower to participate in training with the U.S. Forest Service before he was allowed to film the raging infernos encountered by firefighters.

No such training was practical or possible for Wittkower's venture into bull riding. He began the project fascinated with the sport, but like most of the public, unfamiliar with the seriousness of the danger to riders and the passion of the rodeo community for its equivalent of NASCAR drivers.

"I originally went into this piece with no knowledge about the sport, and in assuming that point of view, I found out when I had completed the film that even some of the pros said they had learned something from it. I tried to cover all the bases," Wittkower said from his office in Calabasas, Calif. "I now have tremendous respect for the bull riders. Unlike other professional sports where the athletes get paid whether or not they perform, the bull riders do it because if they don't get up on the bull, they aren't going to make any money."

Wittkower's attention to detail leaves no stone unturned as he examines the sport and the mental and physical toughness the sport requires. Factually and without sensationalism, he portrays the inside world of the only sport where the participant faces death every time he competes.

The viewer sees bull riding with fresh eyes as the camera captures the riders, the barrel men and bull fighters, the stock contractors who supply the rides and the sports medicine specialists who keep these brave cowboys patched together so they can compete. Wittkower doesn't neglect the wives and families of the professional bull riders as they pursue a dream and a living in the arenas across America.

"People don't realize what it's like driving from event to event, hotel to hotel, thousands of miles a year," he said. "They don't see 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 telephone."

Wittkower also devotes a segment in the documentary to the riding career of one of the sport's icons and inspirations, Lane Frost.

Frost's charismatic and exciting career ended abruptly in June 1989 when he died on the dirt arena at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo from massive internal injuries suffered when the bull he was riding, Taking Care of Business (TCB), bulldozed him after dismount.

The momentum of Frost's popularity increased public awareness and curiosity about the sport and surged again after the release of the movie "8 Seconds" starring Luke Perry as Frost. Frost is to bull riding what Tiger Woods is to golf.

Perry serves as narrator for "Cowboy Up."

Wittkower's film takes the viewer behind the scenes to talk to the "old-timers" (bull riders in their 30s) who have been instrumental in forming the current system of professional bull riding events. The Professional Bull Riders Inc. was formed when a group of riders, led by retired veterans Tuff Hedeman, Cody Lambert and Ty Murray, capitalized the organization and established a prize money and points system.

The PBR holds 29 events each year for its top 45 riders, with the finals conducted in October in Las Vegas. The riders are ranked according to prize winnings and points ratings. There is the opportunity for the good riders to make more than $20,000 per event.

The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) sponsors up to 125 bull riding rodeo events each year, and riders earn points to compete in the championships in December in Las Vegas. Some PBR members participate in events throughout the year under auspices of both organizations.

The cowboy riders and bull fighters are not the only athletes on the arena floor when the gate opens at a bull riding event. The riders' opponents--with names like Bodacious, Red Rock, Wolfman, Chain Saw, Viper, Psycho and even Body Bag--weigh in at nearly 2,000 pounds and possess more speed, agility and power than the sum of any defensive line in professional football.

The average bull rider at 5 feet 6 inches and 150 pounds, pays a price every time he wraps that belt around his hand atop a bull.

It's one of the biggest gambles in the world and he can expect to get a new injury in every 15 rides.

The usual injuries include concussions, ankle and knee injuries, rib injuries and neck and back injuries. Some of those 30 year-old "old-timers" will take a little longer getting up and about, but a hobbling gait is still a gait for a bull rider. Consider the alternative.

Wittkower said the film is being well-received by the bull riding community, and distribution plans are in the works nationally and internationally. At the present time it is only available on home video for $24.95.

For more information, log on the Lane Frost Website at www.lanefrost.com  or contact Wittkower at Ctch22@aol.com  or by phone at (818) 347-7838. You may also contact Lighthouse Productions, P.O. Box 8311, Calabasas, Calif., 91372-8311.

Back To Newspaper Articles Page