Concrete Cowboy
Netflix
*ing: Idris Elba, Caleb McLaughlin, Jharrel Jerome, Byron Bowers, Lorraine Toussaint
Rated: 6/10
Directed by Ricky Staub this movie is based on the novel Ghetto Cowboy by Greg Neri — a fictionalised story about the Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club and African-American horseriding culture in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US.
While an average Indian may not be able to relate to the story itself, it does remind one of our very own Hindi movie Naya Daur starring Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala, a film where the tongawallahs’ livelihood gets taken over by the bus.
The good part is that despite not knowing the history of these cowboys, (read cow hands, that’s how they started) the absolute brilliant performance by Idris Elba and the others will keep one glued to this till the very end even though we do know how things are going to end for these people.
Though the movie is not exactly Western, it does give us a glimpse of what life was for these people in the glorious past when there were far more riding clubs but got lost in urbanisation of the city. It is the climax where one can see and feel the pride these people must have felt as they ride down the street. This is probably the reason why the filmmakers chose to tell this story via a film rather than making a documentary.
