CONCRETE COWBOY

US, 2020, 111 minutes, Colour.

Idris Elba, Caleb McLaughlin, Lorraine Toussaint, Method Man, Jharrell Jerome, Byron Bowers, Ivannah-Mercedes, Jamil Prattis.

Directed by Ricky Staub.

The title from the original novel is Ghetto Cowboy. And, the story is based on actual characters, on Fletcher Street in North Philadelphia, a group of mainly African-American men and women who care for horses and train them. Hence the concrete cowboys.

As a social document, the film is quite interesting in showing the life of the various characters, the comparatively poor neighbourhood in which they work, park lands for the horses, stables, various sequences for care of the horses, training them, riding them, races. And, it emerges that some of the central characters in the film are actually ghetto cowboys playing variations on their own life stories.

However, this is also a film about family, and, especially, about father-son relationships.

The story focuses on a teenage young man, Cole, played very effectively by Caleb McLaughlin. His parents are separated, he is living with his mother, causing trouble, being expelled from school, her becoming desperate and bringing him to Philadelphia to stay with his estranged father, played by a Idris Elba.

The father is quite casual in his relationship with his son, the son wanting to run away but his father making demands of him if he stays in his house (where there is also a horse in residence!). As we might expect, the young man is rebellious and meets up with friends who are involved in drug dealing, guns and violence, pursued by the police. But, while he is asked to do the most menial of tasks in the stable, one of the ghetto cowboys, confined to a wheelchair, takes him under his wing, training him to ride, even later facing a challenge to tame one of the wilder horses.

So, a coming-of-age story, but one that is very difficult, in strange circumstances, but illustrating that the possibility of reconciliation between father and son, of the father opening up to the relationship, of the son desperately needing a father-figure.

Local government also intervenes at various times, critical of the stables, wanting the area to be made available for development – and the concrete cowboys at the end have to move on and find another place to live in care for the horses.

1. Title? The novel’s title, Ghetto Cowboy? Cowboy tradition, Fletcher Street in Philadelphia? Based on actual characters, real characters participating in the film?
2. The opening in Detroit, the trip to Pennsylvania? Fletcher Street, the stables, the grass, the horses exercising, the abandoned warehouses, homes? Police precincts? The musical score?
3. Cole’s story, living with his mother, love for her, his father’s absence, trouble in school, suspended, his mother’s decision, taking him to his father? Leaving him with his bags? His age, experience, inexperience? His father’s reaction, Nessie and her comments and help? Wandering, looking for shelter? Going back to the stables?
4. Cole and his friend with Smush? The past, real acquaintance? Smush and his world, petty criminals, connections, dangers? Out on the town with Cale? The influence? The meeting with the gangsters? Smush and his dreams, his boots, plans for buying a property? The rendezvous, the shooting? His funeral, the group riding to the funeral, the boots? An alternate for Cale?
5. Cole, taken to the stables, apprehensive about horses, his father having the horse in the house? Clearing the stables, Paris and his advice, the wheelbarrow? The beginning of Cole’s discipline? His living in the house, with his father, feeling of alienation?
6. The important scene of his packing his bag, his father stopping him, Cole thinking his father hated him, his father playing the John Coltrane record, Cole and his name, the music, Coltrane making good? The bonding between father and son?
7. The role of the police, his friendship with Harp? On the scene of the shooting? Talking things through? The roundup of the horses? Harp and Cole with their mask, in the stables, his helping them, the ride to the grave? Moving on?
8. The Fletcher Street members, Nessie, owner, wise, the advice, care? Paris, his disability, friendship with Cole, cleaning the stables? In his chair, on the horse, writing? Esha, her age, friendship with Cole, helping him, moments of romance, the gift of the cowboy hat?
9. The horse free on the field, the group making a ring, the challenge to Cole, his taming the horse, riding it, later standing on the saddle?
10. The group, the rounding up of the horses, the police, the public officer? The protests? The group having to move on to find another place? The final information that Philadelphia was turning it into apartments?
11. Cole, his mother’s arrival, reunited with Harp? The family, moving on?
12. The unusual subject, true story, the characters, horses? But a coming-of-age story, father and son bonding?