HOLLYWOODSCRIPT.COM CONTEST WINNER

Date: 9/29/09
                        
Title: "BULLRIDER"
                   
Author: Malissa Daniel
              
Format: SP

Pages: 110

Time: 1980’s

Locale: Rodeo circuit, U.S.A.

Genre: Contemporary Western

Analyst: Hollywoodscript.com

 

PREMISE: Lynne Jonnie Jonckowski's real life meteoric rise from poor, obscure beginnings in Montana to twice World Bullriding Champion, she is a legend in her own time on and off the bulls, interviewed by David Letterman and Charlie Rose; she is featured in the Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Forth Worth, Texas alongside Sacajewia, Georgia O'Keeff and Sandra Day O'Connor.

 

Concept          VERY GOOD              

Characterization   EXCELLENT         

Dialogue          EXCELLENT                       

Story Line             VERY GOOD          

Setting/Prod. Values  EXCELLENT

Freshness of Story  VERY GOOD

 

SYNOPSIS: In rural 1980’s Montana, tall, lean girl athlete, Lynne “Jonnie” Jonckowski dreams the wildly preposterous dream of becoming a champion. And she wants nothing less than Olympic gold! Over the span of this true life story, Jonnie’s losses and injuries would wither a lesser hopeful, but poverty and small-town obscurity never make a dent. Neither does “no.” Second in the nation at the ripe old age of 28, she lands a spot qualifying for the Olympics Summer Pentathalon’s track heat. She’s way out front, but Jonnie misses a hurdle, falls and breaks her back.

For the first in her life, Jonnie feels beaten. Nowhere to go, she moves in with her folks taking a job selling used cars at the dealership her dad manages. Out driving with her mom, Jonnie's face reads bleaker than her words. Jonnie,”Someday I'll make you and dad proud.” Mom, sternly, “I’m already proud.” Jonnie lurches to a stop. She stares up at a billboard promoting: ALL GIRL RODEO CHAMPIONSHIP. The bigger-than-life-sized image of a girl on the back of a huge Brahma bull announces: ALL ENTRIES WELCOMED!

A beaming Jonnie turns to her mother, who stares back horrified, ”What about your back?” Jonnie drives, possessed. ”And, to see you sink so low would break my heart. You ran with thebest of the best athletes. Bullriders are carnival.” Jonnie scans for a road sign. Jonnie, ”I know I've seen a bullrider's bar along this street a million times.” She pulls in front of the Ol’Yellar Dog Rodeo Bar. Jonnie,”C’mon mom, we're gonna round us up a bull-bust'n cowboy who can teach me to ride!”
         
Determined this time to make world class, she hooks up with
ex-champ and drunk, Ransome. Lit by his celebrated aura, he’s flattered by her curious trust. Ransome, “Lure of those times can get under your skin. Nobody really remembers the Old West. What we're feel'n's nostalgia. For the myth.” Jonnie, “Believe me, I wanna own a piece of that myth.” Ransome, “Myth's old as the Milky Way. Rid'n a wild animal into the heart of the sun.” Jonnie,”Yes!” Their eyes meet. His hesitate. Hers radiate clear, uncomplicated interest as she seizes upon the raised metal words, WORLD CHAMPION, on his belt buckle. He sucks in his gut as she touches the letters. Jonnie, “I’ll need to win one of these.” Jonnie, searching his eyes, ”Ever hear the sound of your soul's expiration date? Like something bone dry's grow'n up round your heart?”

Flush from her first ride landing her hard on the earth, Ransome leans down to make sure she’s OK. Ransome, ”Now, you know this here’s a sweet old bull. A little nervous. Noth’n like the ferocious kind you’ll meet in competition. Try’n ta kill ya.”

Adrenaline racing, Jonnie embraces Ransome, Jonnie,”Nothing can kill me like you.” Ransome, “You’re better off with some rank bull than me.” She won’t take no. Forgetting his problems, he more than meets her passion. Before vanishing and breaking Jonnie’s heart, he recommends a bullriding school no woman has ever set foot in. Jonnie, with forced bravado,”I can ride the hair off anything!” Instructor, “Come on down, little lady, you’re in!”

Accepted into the all-male bastion, she meets Spotted Deer, a shy young Navajo man training to be a rodeo clown. Fast friends, they graduate in the top 10% and then go on the road together, encountering a crooked stock contractor, (Frankie and his crazed bulls), his co-dependent girlfriend (and Jonnie’s fiercest, most devious competitor), zero money and lying judges. Can Jonnie win against seemingly insurmountable odds? Will she forget Ransome and see Spotted Deer for the one who loves her?

She’s astounded by the pitiful state of women’s bullriding.  Jonnie, “It’s ugly seeing girls ride with two hands tied down, like they’re hanging on for dear life.” She gamely convinces three other girl mavericks to learn the men’s one-handed technique and join her on the road.

Jonnie goes on to sell the girls to every PR venue under
the sun. Her new idea is a franchise highlighting them as a team featured in men’s rodeo. This propels the girl riders into the limelight on the men’s circuit. And the blowback is ferocious!

Jonnie provokes the worst in a few powerful men behind the scenes. They want to keep all-girl rodeo an easy pick’n seasonal dating pool, certainly not a serious sport. The men block Jonnie and her “team” at every turn.       

The vile stock contractor, Frankie, drugs a bull meant to ruin Jonnie, but her best friend, Gayle, mistakenly draws it. Before Jonnie can stop her, she straddles the bull, tightens her rope, nods and the gate flies open. Spotted Deer instantly bolts over the retaining wall into the arena. The bull, foaming, disoriented, slams Gayle. Jonnie jumps over the chute rails as Gayle gets thrown in SLO-MO HORROR. Jonnie bounds into the arena. The bull spins back and hooks Gayle again just as she stands, tossing her body like a rag doll. Jonnie gasps. The crowd moans loudly.

Spotted Deer and the other clowns divert the bull. Jonnie
runs for all she's worth over to Gayle, her fading stare glares back.

Jonnie goes ballistic, finding the stock contractor, she kicks him into the pen with the drugged bull that killed Gayle, madly stomping him. With the whole country following her meteoric rise to rodeo stardom, she’s now able to expose his sleazy, murdering crimes and his bought judges, avenging Gayle and getting them out of the way of her dream.

Competing in the All-Girl World Bullriding Championship, Jonnie’s on top, but she finds it’s not over quite yet. When the bull she just successfully rode backs up and kicks her leg with his hoof, it looks like all bets are off and her ultimate battle for the championship is finished.

But Jonnie defies the doctors and gets back on the next bull for her final ride. Wounded, she triumphantly rides to win the World Championship and the true heart of Spotted Deer.

 

COMMENTS:
Ms. Daniel has written a very fresh, sassy script that takes us deep into a world rarely seen on film - that of badass, bull-riding cowgirls. It is sexy, thrilling, uncharted territory, where classic "cowboys" are at last matched - not by skirt-wearing damsels in distress, but by strong, powerful women in chaps, who can hold their own and then some. The story of Jonnie's insatiable need to "achieve" and the lengths to which she will go to feel like she's "succeeded" is rendered with raw, moving honesty that haunts long after the movie is done. It is a tale that asks us to consider what makes a life "valuable" and "worthwhile".  Daniel's lyrical, poetic style, matched with her perfect ear for down-home dialogue, makes this a truly memorable read.  

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