George Bowe Blitch has been a Wildlife Manager, 5th generation Texas Rancher, Professional Writer, Videographer, Photographer, Editor, Speaker, Brand Developer & Designer, Cartographer, Touring Musician, Teacher, Coach, Serial Entrepreneur, Finance Manager, and the owner of numerous businesses.
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The Last Rodeo stands as a powerful testament to authentic American storytelling, combining the grit and spectacle of professional bull riding with a deeply moving father-daughter reconciliation narrative. Award-Winning Producer Kip Konwiser describes it as a story with "sweet and salty" elements, balancing intense rodeo action with emotional family dynamics. The film, which earned a family-friendly PG rating, manages to deliver both high-octane bull riding sequences and heartfelt moments that speak to core American values.
What makes this film particularly unique is the unprecedented level of authenticity achieved in portraying the professional bull riding world. The production team worked closely with the Professional Bull Riders Association (PBR), securing their entire operation for ten days in Tulsa. This collaboration allowed the filmmakers to capture rodeo sequences with exceptional intimacy and realism. Cameras were planted in the ground, often destroyed with each ride and replaced, while smaller pens were constructed to intensify the action. The result is rodeo footage unlike anything previously captured on film, with massive bulls launching cowboys 10-15 feet into the air. This dedication to authenticity reflects the film's broader commitment to genuine storytelling that resonates with audiences seeking entertainment that aligns with traditional American values.
Behind the scenes, The Last Rodeo represents a deeply personal journey for actor Neal McDonough, who stars in and co-wrote the film. McDonough's career trajectory parallels themes in the movie, as he famously stepped away from lucrative Hollywood opportunities that conflicted with his personal values, particularly his commitment to not film intimate scenes with actresses other than his wife. In a beautiful full-circle moment, McDonough's actual wife, Ruve, appears as his love interest in the film. This backstory adds another layer of authenticity to a project already rich with genuine heartland spirit. The film's director, Jon Avnet, brought considerable filmmaking expertise to elevate the production, ensuring the story could "speak to our entire country" rather than remain a small independent film. This collaborative effort, guided by McDonough's "North Star" vision, resulted in a film that aims to remind viewers that when they believe in their truth and form community around shared values, they discover their "superpower."
The Last Rodeo ultimately delivers a message about American resilience, redemption, and the importance of staying true to one's values despite challenges. It showcases exceptional performances not just from McDonough but also from Mykelti Williamson (whose character serves as the "access point" for audiences and the film's source of humor and faith) and Sarah Jones.
In an entertainment landscape often disconnected from traditional values, The Last Rodeo offers a refreshingly authentic alternative that families can enjoy together while experiencing a genuine slice of American culture. As Memorial Day weekend approaches, this film provides the perfect opportunity for audiences to support local cinemas while experiencing a story that celebrates faith, family, and freedom in the uniquely American setting of professional bull riding.
How the heck are you doing today, man? Great day to be here. Really excited to talk to you, george, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:
Oh man, happy to be here. It's truly an honor. Well, listen, we're talking about the last rodeo today. Obviously, the producer of the film, you know, for those who don't know much about it yet, and uh, you know, I want to kind of. Maybe you haven't seen the trailer. Why don't you give us a little synopsis and then we'll kind of jump into some questions there?
Speaker 2:
Oh great, yeah, enjoy together. It's a father-daughter reconciliation story, and fathers and daughters have some reconciliation to do quite often and this is one that's extended far too long a lack of communication. It's all set in the world of professional bull riding, giving it a really wonderful, sweet and salty kind of a taste to it. You've got some fantastic action with the rodeo. It's super authentic. We worked with the Professional Bull Riders Association and you've got, I think, the most authentic performances you're going to see on screen all year in any movie, with Neil McDonough and Sarah Jones as the father-daughter at the core of this movie.
Speaker 1:
Well, I mean, it's a phenomenal movie. I got a chance to screen it. I absolutely blown away. I know audiences are going to absolutely love this and I kind of wanted to know how did you personally get involved? You were there from, like you know, stage one day one with Neil. Why don't you talk to me a little bit about that role and kind of how that kind of you know came to be?
Speaker 2:
One of the real, genuine blessings and there's not many, so I really hold blessings at a high level is me being introduced to Neil McDonough a few years ago. His manager put us into a lunch meeting just to say hello and within a few minutes we were both in tears, literally recognizing that we were on course for a destiny together. And it's rare that later in life, way outside of school, that two guys, two gentlemen, would sit down and become brothers that quickly. So that was us and he agreed to participate in a picture I was producing at the time, that a couple of years ago. That has since come out and we just really enjoyed that collaboration so much he was.
Speaker 2:
Neil was driving home and imagining to himself what would the life be like if he didn't have his absolutely amazing, stunning, incredibly talented and beautiful wife Ruvay in his life, and that started to drum up emotions for Neil when he went home. His writing partner, Derek Presley, an absolute genius as well as someone who really vibes right alongside Neil creatively for many years and Ruvay. We're sitting at the breakfast table and Neil comes in and starts talking about hey, this emotion and this story starts to unfold. They called me literally from that table and said, hey, we're in the process of writing these first 10 pages, what do you think about this? And I said I think this is fantastic and let's set it against rodeo.
Speaker 2:
Rodeo at the time was just kind of trying to find its footing, honestly, in live sports, but we believe very strongly in the ethos of the PBR. Our film and the Professional Bull Riders Association were very closely aligned on what's our ethos, what are we about? Which is American values and family and faith and freedom, and that made just a lot of sense. So, taking that rodeo kind of audience, knowing that we really wanted to be in business with Angel Studios, Neil and Derek and Ruvay started to reverse engineer from that Angel audience a story that felt authentic, centered around fathers and daughters, as neil, as a dad to a few daughters, and, lo and behold, the last rodeo was born and it's such a great story and I think you guys did such a great job authentically capturing that rodeo cowboy culture.
Speaker 1:
What was that like when you guys were filming some of those scenes and kind of working within them? Uh, you know, give me some of your memories. Guys were filming some of those scenes and kind of working within them. Give me some of your memories or some of those highlights that stick out from that particular time in the arena.
Speaker 2:
One of the great privileges of being in the motion picture business is when a person, a producer, a director is executing a film that's of a quality value. Oftentimes you're using the best resources in the world to execute on that, and there's no doubt that that's what occurred here for Last Rodeo. Audiences are going to see rodeo like they have never seen. It has never, ever existed in live or in any movie like anything like this. And that's because we work so closely with the Professional Bull Riders Association, the PBR, mostly with the Professional Bull Riders Association, the PBR. Sean Gleason, the CEO, shauna Schmidt, who is the operating partner of the PBR, were outstanding partners. They delivered, along with their incredible staff, the entire PBR for our movie for 10 days, sitting still in Tulsa. This is like imagine a major rock and roll band, the Rolling Stones, that's out on tour every day, has a new venue with hundreds of trucks and things. That's the PBR. Every day they're pulling into your town and unloading and building the scaffold and bringing out live bulls and cowboys and then wrapping it up and moving to the next town. And they did that for us so that you as an audience could get more close, more personal and more intimate with the rodeo experience than probably will ever happen again in history.
Speaker 2:
We planted cameras in the ground. They were destroyed with every ride. We just kept replacing cameras. We used all of the camera systems that the PBR used, plus six of our own. Inside the pen we built a smaller pen in order to increase the activity and intensity for the bulls. We got bulls that have muscles on top of muscles that I definitely do not belong trying to demonstrate Muscles on top of muscles like you've never seen these bulls. They were literally heaving our cowboys 10, 15 feet in the air. Okay, not so easy on the cowboys, but they were down for it because it's a movie and it's going to last forever and it was time to go for it like they 'd never gone for it before. It's an amazing experience and really again a privilege of making film, of being able to get that close and that personal to something that's at that extreme of execution is the PBR.
Speaker 1:
Oh well said, you know, this movie has it all. You've got faith, grit, determination, you know fierce friendships, reconciliation, loyalty and all in a PG rating which is family, friendly. Man the littlest kids to grandma can go and check it out and they're going to find something that is wholesome. Littlest kids to grandma can go and check it out and they're going to find something that is wholesome and just. Man. It captures a story of of America, man in the heartland. And and why don't you talk to that? As far as the idea of making something that can be able to be available for all audiences, what was that like for you when that wrapped up, and knowing that that's going to be successful in that realm?
Speaker 2:
George, thank you. Honestly. The first thing I can say is hearing you articulate all that is literally giving goosebumps on my skin. Making movies is like raising children. You do it oftentimes alone and nobody really cares what you're doing until it's done, and then you unleash it on the world and then they care. And if you did a good job and you raised someone who is respectful and kind and a contributor to a positive community, it comes back in multiples to the parents.
Speaker 2:
That's what it feels like as a producer to be raising a child as a movie alone. Nobody cares what you're doing, that families can embrace it, that families can find their value systems in a movie and that the story can be inviting, not create any sense of fear that they might be exposing themselves or their families to something they really don't need to be discussing over the course of a movie. This is what entertainment needs to be more about, respectfully of all people's efforts. We're here to serve an audience. The audience is not here to serve us and for too long entertainment has felt that the audience was there to serve entertainment and I am really strongly against that ethos. Socially, probably, politically, in probably every way. Honestly, we are here to provide stories that make our audience inspired, that increase the value systems that, no matter how you are politically, we all agree that faith and family and freedom are core American values. And to see those in a motion picture with actors who are as authentic on the screen as they are off. And there are no more authentic actors off screen than Neil McDonough and Michael T Williamson in particular. Certainly Sarah Chris McDonald and everybody else. But Neil McDonough leads a life off screen that is emblematic of how we all want to raise our children. That man is the prototype of an American ideal. And Michael T Williamson similarly has a career of selflessness on screen. He's giving Bubba Gump entirely encapsulates what was a movie that defined an entire generation because of one man's selfless performance.
Speaker 2:
Not Mr Hanks, mr Williamson. Mr Hanks is a genius, but Mr Williamson floats that movie. He does the same in the Last Rodeo. Michael T's character is the access for an audience, he's the humor. He does the same in the Last Rodeo. Michael T's character is the access for an audience. He's the humor, he's the point of faith. It is not Neil's character, ironically, who invites faith into this story, it's T. He is the anchor, he's the best friend when you're down and he's the one who remembers that you were there for them. Those are the values I'm talking about. I'm not talking just faith and words, talking actions and characters who make choices and sacrifices that reflect our American society. That's the point of the movie. That's why we made the movie. It's your gift, it's our gift of our labor to America that we think they were asking for and we hope they enjoy it under their Christmas tree, wow man so well said.
Speaker 1:
And you know, I have to kind of add one other thing that I thought was just phenomenal about this, and you know Neil and his personal ethos and his belief system and something that has kind of gotten him pushed aside in the Hollywood world before, and here it is at the end of the movie he gets to kiss his own wife on screen. I mean, that was a cool little story man there's.
Speaker 2:
Neil calling right now.
Speaker 2:
He has to be involved. Yeah, exactly, well, that is a great story. That's a very true story. Neil's career took a dive because Neil made a choice and a sacrifice which defines all of our character, not just a movie star, but whoever we are. Our choices and our sacrifices will tell everyone what is our character. And until you truly sacrifice something, you have to lose. Your sacrifice may not be as respected, because who cares?
Speaker 2:
Neil had a thriving career in Hollywood. He was an A-list actor on his way up, even higher, and when forced to become a leading man and kiss other women and also, frankly, be in movies that pushed values that were not necessarily faith and family, neil chose to walk away, chose to walk away from millions of dollars, from millions of fans and adoration and all the things that go with that ego that we all have. We all want people to tell us how wonderful we are. And he didn't need it and it was crushing. And he was abandoned, except by a few. His wife, ruvay, in particular, is the emblem of the American wife, although she's South African, but the American wife. She never gave up on Neil. She never gave up on those values. They built a family around those values. They only increased that commitment on those values.
Speaker 2:
Well, the world has a way of doing some interesting shifts and table turns and now we're in a time where it's a lot more acceptable to embrace these American values. So here comes Neil and all of his authenticity and someone who was always, always on the right side of morality, playing a morality tale as the leading man he's not the bad guy finally, incredibly handsome, incredibly handsome stoic glare out of his piercing blue eyes that makes him absolutely, I think, the hands down best villain of our generation and, pound for pound, the best actor of our generation. Playing that villain repeatedly and being vulnerable as he's done is like Ginger Rogers would say, she does everything Fred Astaire does backwards and in heels. Neil has been doing that as a villain. Now he gets to take those values, those choices you're talking about, george, in real life and put them on screen, which reflect exactly, I think, what the core of America is all about right now and is having some success in articulating a voice for itself.
Speaker 1:
No, well, said there too, man, and like hearing Neil talk about this and writing it and he says the closest to his story and like his redemption and that kind of comeback that he's had as well, and it it really speaks true. And once you kind of once I heard that and I rewatched the movie I was like I see a whole nother level of it. I mean it's so, it's so much depth and I mean it's just the story of Heartland America. To be any of us and that idea of you know, family redemption and it's all in a PG movie the whole family can enjoy. I am just blown away. Um, you know, before we leave, I had a couple of questions with you as far as like, what is it that you?
Speaker 2:
hope that the audiences walk away with as they leave this theater. Is this something that you hope that leaves them and inspires and kind of catapults them to that next great thing in their lives? What is it that you're hoping that they can grab from this? So Neil's commitment to telling this story with the themes and values that it has. Neil is our leader. That is the North Star of this movie. I work for Neil's North Star and because that is the authentic direction that North Star guided us to all of the creative collaborations that really materially moved this show towards and answered your question of how do we want audiences to feel. Specifically, neil chose Michael T Williamson to play that part before it was even written, and Chris McDonald to play that part before it was even written.
Speaker 2:
And John Avnet, which is really important. We bring up John Avnet, who is one of the icons of our industry, absolutely one of the leaders of our industry, behind the camera as well as a board member of the DGA, but one of the most singularly intelligent filmmakers of our generation. And Neil knew from the beginning it's John Avnet who's going to direct this movie and when John came on board he elevated the script with his maturity and experience. Frankly, his class and his ability as a studio level filmmaker to take what could have been an independent and small movie into something that could speak to our entire country. That was John Avnett who did that and elevated these performances from the smallest roles which there are no small roles to finding a young man like Graham Harvey, at 11 years old, and bringing a super compelling, wide-ranging performance out of this young man who has very limited acting experience. John Avnett, the scope of the movie we recorded this movie at Abbey Road Studios. This is a huge score. John Avnet, the director of photography, denis Lenoir, fantastic background, hours and hours and hours and hours of cinema for decades.
Speaker 2:
John Avnet that's how this movie between Neil's morality and execution, his ability to surround himself with the right people who also embraced his values, and then trusting John Avnett to go ahead and lead the charge that's how we got here and what that leads to an audience to answer your question. When you believe in your truth, in the voice that is great inside all of us, that we all have, you will form a community and that community is your superpower. You don't need the approval of others. You need the approval of your own heart, your own integrity. Wake up a little earlier, go to bed a little later, try a little harder. That voice is inside of you, is worth it, and so are you. That's what we want people to feel when they see our movie. Yep.
Speaker 1:
I cannot think of a better way to end this. What a great message, and this movie is just phenomenal. Man, once again, I just want to say thank you for your efforts and your part in making this and coming out. I cannot wait for the audiences to see this, because it is something that'll hit you in the heart and it will leave a lasting impression, man. So thank you. Is there anything else you care to share to the audience, to the fans of your work and to the greater mass there?
Speaker 2:
Have a great time on Memorial Day weekend, be safe, enjoy your time at the movies. See them all. They're all good movies that are coming out. Don't forget the last rodeo. Go out and support your local cinema. Thanks very much for being here and thank you, george, for having me. I really appreciate you.
Speaker 1:
Thank you, Kip. It's been a blessing and an honor. Thank you, sir.
