BROKE
Life has a way of happening, and sometimes it is not what we planned on. When well-laid plans are disrupted — especially those about life — we face existential questions about what comes next. Such is the dilemma facing young True Brandywine in writer/director Carlyle Eubank’s new western-placed film, Broke. The era of Yellowstone and its various spin-offs has permitted many filmmakers to venture into western-themed projects. Some are overly literal for the genre, and some are more geographically cultural in context.
Broke features rodeo as its backdrop and principal character Brandywine, played with earnest charm by Wyatt Russell, is a bareback bronc rider passionate about his sport but not winning to the point that his career choice looks pretty dicey. During a break in the rodeo season, he heads home to the family ranch and must confront his father, George Brandywine, superbly played by veteran actor Dennis Quaid, and his mother, Kathy Brandywine, played by the magnetic Mary McDonnell (Dances with Wolves).
Dennis Quaid as George Brandywine. Image courtesy of Sony Home Entertainment
The inevitable father/son battle about the son’s future heats up, revealing True’s lack of options, with True being reminded that this is “the last year you can enlist in the Marines.” Both stubborn, stoic standoffs prevail until True meets a young local girl, Ali (Auden Thornton), during a night out with friends. But the rodeo life was calling, and True hit the road. During a performance at a Nevada rodeo, he comes off hard and suffers a head injury, made even worse with the presence of Ali, who witnessed what looks to be shaping up as a career-ending event. After he groggily comes to, looking at her, he says, “You must really love me to come all the way to Oklahoma to watch me ride.” To this, Ali replies, “We’re not in Oklahoma, True, we’re in Nevada.”
The film takes us through a series of flashbacks about the questions and decisions that must be made when life plans change, and True must make these decisions on his own as he heads out looking for horseback day-work. There are some truly wonderful scenes in this captivating little movie. I say little film because every shot was filmed on location in Montana: no big studio shots and no manufactured sets. In speaking with director Eubanks, he talked about shooting the film entirely on location. “Every place in the film is a real place,” Eubanks says. “The ranches, houses, interiors and the rodeo scenes were all existing locations – there isn’t a set to be found.”
“Part of the reason it worked is because our Production Designer, Coryander Friend, worked so well with our Director of Photography, Charlie Sarroff,” continues Eubanks. “Coryander is a very creative curator of scenes; she has a wonderful gallery in Livingston, Montana called Placed, and she’s got this energetic, detailed style of dressing a scene that looks so natural, like the place has been there forever and lived in. So, when you combine that detail of Charlie’s fabulous natural lighting and camera work, my job gets a whole lot easier. And because we are in so many locations in all kinds of weather, everyone gets pretty comfortable with the actors and the rest of the crew.”
True and his father talk about the future. Image courtesy of Sony Home Entertainment
In addition to having Quaid on set, we are treated to the pleasure of seeing the legendary Tom Skerritt (Alien, Top Gun and A River Runs Through It). His scenes are short, but Skerritt always adds great color with his performance. An added treat is the number of Charlie Crockett songs the film utilizes throughout, and if you watch carefully, Crockett gets his own bit of screen time. It could be a new career for the popular country crooner.
No spoilers here, but Broke, released through Sony Digital in early May, is a wonderful and surprisingly compelling watch. The horse and rodeo action is authentic and appropriate, with characters played so convincingly that you could pass them on the street in any Western town and feel compelled to ask how their hay crop is doing. In the end, Eubank’s character True Brandywine, like many young people today, standing at the life-choice crossroads, must decide his own direction, while playing the hand he was dealt.
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