I have a new motto for 2025, and perhaps for the rest of my life: keep it simple. The lack of simplicity has ruined this world. Little did we know that by complicating everything we do, we complicate the simple notion of being human, of finding true fulfillment, of building a meaningful life – we allowed money and propaganda to poison our politics, our morality, our humanity, and, goddammit, our art, the precious elixir that allows us to process and make sense of all that complicated bullshit in the first place – in this slowly festering wasteland ruled by the rich, we slowly fall in line as we act how they want us to act, believe what they want us to believe, and like the movies they tell us to like – these movies that are far too long and rambling and incoherent, far too unconcerned with forging a connection in the best ways art should, far too dedicated by corporations and studios, ground down to the barest, most banal nub imaginable – the kind of reality that a true auteur like Budd Boetticher, who probably saw the machinations of such a system in motion, who thankfully left before it got this bad, had no time for.
Ride Lonesome is simple in the best of ways. In 73 minutes, it speaks to the hardships of being human in a million different ways, all while telling a thrilling story that’s perfectly structured and paced, full of characters with whom we become incredibly intimate. For Ben Brigade, life is simple: he lost the love of his life, so his time spent on earth isn’t concerned with the larger powers that be that greedily dictate the zeitgeist, but instead with finding meaning in this vast sand-filled wasteland that has become the ultimate manifestation of his grief, of his inability to exist in a world that previously had love and connection – for him, there is no other path – he can’t quit and give up, it’s not in him, so he must march forward, unintimidated by death, because what is death to someone who went out doing what was right, what needed to be done – Brigade has a reason to live—a simple one, but one nonetheless – and every character that surrounds this man gives weight to that quest, creates meaning and fosters a connection to anybody watching the movie who understands how lonely and hopeless life often gets. The movie isn’t complicated because its story and its main character is not. Yet, not for one second does that stop Boetticher from finding mind-shattering beauty in an empty world, from bringing immense weight to an unconvoluted story.
