It's been a very long time since we went to a movie. Just not enough that look to be good ones.
However, a few years ago the town of Philip, SD celebrated their centennial with a wagon train honoring the town namesake, Scotty Philip. Scotty had a ranch near what became the town, and he moved down the Bad River to new location near the town of Ft. Pierre. A young film maker from Denver, with local roots, Justin Koehler, was hired to film it. He made an interesting movie, on the life of that very interesting man who is credited with saving the buffalo from extinction. It was titled "The Buffalo King". Our family participated in the wagon train, so we 'had to' see the movie. It was very good, and many people not so involved as we were felt the same way.
One thing led to another, and with Ft. Pierre also being the home of nine time champion Saddle Bronc rider, Casey Tibbs, film maker Justin became interested in the possibility of making a film on the life of Casey Tibbs.
This past Wednesday night, the film Floating Horses: The Life of Casey Tibbs, directed by Justin Koehler was shown at the Black Hills Film Festival in Rapid City. In the movie, Justin did justice to the fantastic rodeo career of Casey Tibbs, but he broadened the focus to get into the mind of the man, and also to show Casey as an actor, and stuntman, with interviews and video of many friends of Casey, put together making it seem almost as if it was a 'live' movie from his life. A life lived pretty large and wild at times. I being quite young when Casey Tibbs was in his heyday, maybe seeing him actually ride a time or two, but hearing many of the stories of him, belive this movie is very well done. We will be glad to see it again. It is scheduled for more film festivals, and we don't know when it will come out in theaters, or how it will be distributed, but if anyone gets a chance to see it and you like rodeo, there is a little of that in it, but more of his life, and it is all interesting. We look forward to seeing it again.
mrj