Bucking Broncho

Like several other shorts made the same day on September 24 1894, "Bucking Broncho" is one of a few motion pictures that Edison filmed featuring the various members from Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. (Others include Annie Oakley shooting at glass balls, Sioux native Americans performing a ghost dance, and others; the two stars in here, Lee Martin and Frank Hammitt, would also go on to be filmed doing a lasso routine). Because of the fact that the crew couldn't possibly have filmed all of the members belonging to the show, a certain amount of discretion for the various performers had to be made, which was this: what subjects would be the most exciting for audiences to view? Not only does this brief 20-second clip feature plenty of excitement and does a great job at building suspense (something that almost no films at the time had), it includes a wonderful sense of action and provides plenty of activity within the frames, which was essential in filmmaking at the time. This is obviously the main reason why certain subjects (like serpentine dancing, cockfighting and boxing) were popular during the period and remade as a result so demands for prints could be met. "Bucking Broncho", oddly enough, appears to have never been remade, but it's possible the reason it never happened was because it wasn't as well received, or there was no way to get the show to visit the studio again.

Yet, none of these observations are really what make this film particularly interesting, however. The real point of interest comes from not why it was filmed, but where and how it was filmed. Take, for instance, the lack of the black background which distinguishes all the early Edison shorts from the work of other, later filmmakers. Instead of being filmed in the Black Maria as you'd expect, the company appears to have gone to the trouble of either building a ring for the means of a proper Wild West setting, or rented a local rodeo ring for shooting there. As a result, you have one of the very first Edison films shot outside the studio, which had first been attempted with "Fred Ott Holding a Bird" (1894, made presumably early in the year) and "Caicedo (with Pole)" shot as one of the earlier vaudeville acts by the Edison company. Thus, this brief film can be considered fairly important in that regard.

Unfortunately, the outside location is also the movie's weakness. Because the subject was too unpredictable and hard to film, the broncho (nicknamed "Sunfish") and Martin often go offscreen which sort of ruins the "you're at the rodeo" effect. (Don't forget, these Kinetographic clips promoting the acts were meant to be brief sneak-peeks so you could get an idea of what the entire thing would be like). Furthermore, the wooden fence which the camera is stationed outside of doesn't help you to see the action better; and Hammitt's entire head is cut off at the very top, which makes you wonder how anyone could be entirely sure it's him.

These things could have remedied. A platform could have been constructed where the crew would've shot the scene from overhead, which would capture the entire ring and make it easier to see the action. Still, I can't blame them overly so for any of that since cinematography was still in its infancy, and overhead views would not come along until phantom rides became a thing. In the meantime, it's at least good they tried and got away with some decent footage for the period.

For 1894, this is a reasonable attempt to film a cowboy riding a "Bucking Broncho". To film such an unpredictable and frantic scene takes some skill even now, so it should not be surprising that this very early effort has a lot of rough edges.

It's fairly interesting in itself, in that it features two of the real cowboy stars from William Cody's famous group of "Wild West" performers, with Lee Martin as the one riding the horse. The Edison film crews made a series of movies starring various performers from Cody's acts, as they did with various vaudeville acts and the like, and those that survive afford a look at the popular entertainers of the era.

The movie itself is significantly limited by the equipment of its day. They went to the trouble of erecting a miniature corral, since filming in the studio clearly would not have worked, and it does succeed in providing a believable atmosphere. But because the camera field was fixed and offered limited options for setting it up, the composition is awkward. It catches only part of the cowboy standing on the fence rail, and Martin and the horse frequently move in and out of the frame.

Despite its obvious limitations, the energy and danger of the action still come across to some degree. It's a tough choice of subject matter for such an early movie, but it's an interesting attempt.

Bucking Broncho (1894)

*** (out of 4)

Early Edison short shows an act from "Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show" and has a cowboy riding (as the title says) a bucking broncho. The film runs just over twenty-seconds so don't expect anything too ground breaking but it's still a nice little film considering the time it was made. I was really impressed with how good the cinematography was considering the age of the movie and how much stuff like this was being done at the time. Fans of early cinema will certainly want to watch this one. Even better is the danger of the event, which comes off quite well.

Lee Martin is fine, being a cowboy and all, but what strikes me first when I watch this movie is that the man waving his hand into the future instead of clapping like others around him. It really gives me the pleasure of having someone from 1890s, struggling to show himself with a bit of excitement and exertion. He seems to be trying to know us as well as he makes his own self prominent.

He waves to many generations before us, with us, and ahead of us. This is like the concrete source of demonstration about how cinema functions throughout ages. Many times we get to know someone from another time period with the help of cinema and its unforgettable characters. Even if there is no characterization here, that man is, for me, one of these characters. I get his greeting yet I cannot wave my hand to the past, and sadly, this is, on the other hand, like the concrete source of demonstration about how time functions throughout our lives.