A movie about not just rodeo, but the western way of life is what RIDE is about. From bull riding to family values, addiction and the unbearable costs of healthcare for rural America, the cowboy hat matters, generation after generation.
Jake Allyn is from Texas. He’s a cowboy, an actor, and a director. Allyn, a writer-director-producer and co-founder of Margate House Films will release Ride, his first full-feature film as a director, this week. Allyn known for his acting roles in the series Quad and The Baxters along with movies including, No Man’s Land, has teamed up with Forrie J. Smith and others to bring a cowboy and rodeo movie like no other to the big screen starting this Friday, June 14.
Allyn grew up making movies with his brother. After multiple injuries from playing football, including time at Cornell University, and knowing the NFL was not an option, he walked into an acting class. Within five minutes he caught the correlation between acting and sports. Putting acting with the Friday Night Lights of football and rodeo, led him to his role as a bull rider in RIDE. His experience helped him understand and come to know the way of life, intimately, of the rodeo and western sports world.
Jake is Peter Hawkins in RIDE. His sister is diagnosed with cancer. He is a third generation bull rider. His mother is the Sheriff in Stephenville, Texas. Hawkins will do anything to be part of the family and save his young sister after serving multiple years in prison for a killing a young girl – anything. And, “anything” puts the female sheriff in a tough position between the law and her family.
The family is engaged in a financial, moral and legal battle to provide the needed cancer treatment for the Hawkins’ youngest child. With the bank not able to finance the care, no pension, and limited cash assets, Peter is determined to save her life, regardless of the means. This is a real life struggle of rural America to provide adequate healthcare for themselves.
Despite, the bull riding, crime and cancer, Hawkins battles with addiction of alcohol and drugs until his father and grandfather, played by Forrie J Smith, take him to an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting. Through all of this he learns “Everyone has choices” and “Cowboys don’t quit…git’er done.”
This is an authentic movie. Allyn says “It’s not to say someone from Chicago couldn’t write a good rodeo movie, but I grew up in rodeos. I’ve been to Stephenville, Texas. Spent some time with them, hold the clump of dirt in your hands…this is a movie not only about the rodeo community but the rural community and small town.”
After watching the movie, one suggestion is to experience the local, rural feed store on a Saturday morning. And, don’t forget to help the employee load your feed.
In the movie, Hawkins believes he can help his sister and it’s a way to redeem himself. Twister, a rank bull, is ridden to start the journey to saving his sister. Twister was a proper name for the story that comes after that miraculous ride. Based on inspiration from Lane Frost and J.B. Mauney, Allyn’s character, Hawkins, learns if you “Wanna be a good bull rider…be a good man.”
This western lifestyle movie is not only about rodeo. It is also a crime suspense movie. More importantly, it is about the trials and tribulations of rural America, including addiction, finances, healthcare, and family.
In the end, not only does Allyn do an amazing job as Peter Hawkins, the family triumphs and the law is “upheld.”
RIDE reminds us of the legacy, honor and tradition of the western lifestyle. It also reminds us that fathers and grandfathers never turn their back on the next generation. Remember, “Break ‘em gentle, they stay gentle” and always tell your loved ones, “I love you.” It is the cowboy way.
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