Rank
Hold on for dear life as three of the hottest contenders in the wild world of bull riding attempt to maintain their grips long enough to earn the coveted PBR World Champion title as documentary filmmaker John Hyams turns his lens on a treacherous sport where eight seconds can mean the difference between ultimate victory and crushing defeat. Justin McBride is a third-generation bull rider looking to keep the family tradition alive, Mike Lee is a born-again Christian who calls on the power of the Lord to keep him on the bull, and Adriano Morales is a professional rider who has been holding on tight since the age of 18. With the gold belt buckle and a millions dollars in prize money on the line, these three finalists have seven days to prove their worth in the arena and show the crowd that they have what it takes to ride their way to the championship title. more..
Director: John Hyams
Eschewing the jock-like aversion to "artiness" inherent in most sports docs, John Hyams's contemplative snapshot of professional bull riding, Rank, ups the ante for the form.
At the Professional Bull Riders championships, a rough animal is called "rank." In this skillful documentary, you can almost hear the cracking bones as brave and/or stupid riders attempt to stay on these snorting 2,000-pound monsters for eight seconds.
As thorough an examination of the sport as you could hope to squeeze into 90 taut, well-organized minutes.
It's hard to tell whether Hyams' subjects are exceptionally nice guys or whether there's an excess of decency on the PBR circuit, but if even one were more conspicuously flawed, the film might be more compelling.
Both in terms of the activities and characters depicted, Rank doesn't truly manage to sustain interest for the course of its feature-length running time.
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