Convict Cowboy is a
story about life on a prison ranch and the head wrangler, Rye
Westen. Westen was once a rodeo champion but after a fatal
brawl one night with a cowboy he was convicted of murder. He
now runs the prison ranch. Life was pretty quiet until a new
wrangler was assigned to him.
Clay is a young,
smart mouth cowboy who wants to work at the ranch instead of
the prison kitchen. He will do almost anything to get there
and doesn't realize the price until much later. After finally
getting the job on the ranch, he finds he must earn Westen's
respect, and that won't be easy because Westen is not used to
having his wranglers assigned to him.
It is not long
before the kid learns that smuggling drugs for the prison drug
cartel from the ranch is the price he must pay for his exit
out of the kitchen. Clay wins Westen's respect and admiration
because he doesn't back down from any of the challenges thrown
his way nor does he complain about his treatment. Westen's
respect means a lot to the kid, and he realizes that
everything will be lost if Westen finds out he has been using
the ranch for drug smuggling. Clay asks Westen to teach him
how to bull ride and he does so well that the warden hears
about him and decides to enter Clay in the prison rodeo along
with Westen.
The drug cartel find
out he will be going outside the prison for a rodeo and they
inform him that he has another big job coming. When Clay
refuses to smuggle the drugs in , the drug boss in the prison
threatens to kill Westen at the rodeo. Clay forms a plan and
agrees to one more job. He delivers only part of the drug
shipment to the boss of the cartel. The rest is to be
delivered after he is sure that Westen is safe. This will give
him some time to figure out how to explain to Westen his
involvement with the drug cartel. His plan backfires, however,
and Clay is almost killed when the drug boss orders his thugs
to beat him up. Westen shows up after being told by a friend
of Clay's, that Clay was in danger. Westen, along with Clay,
defeat the thugs and in the end are the only two left
standing. The members of the drug cartel are taken into
custody while Westen explains to the warden what happened.
Westen encourages
Clay to ride the rodeo circuit when he gets out of prison.
After taking Westen's advice, Clay starts working the rodeo
and goes on to be the next champion rodeo rider that year.
ANIMAL ACTION
Horses are ridden throughout. Clay is seen in several scenes
on horseback. There are many scenes where we see prison
wranglers riding in from a day in the fields and since this is
a prison ranch there are always guards on horseback guarding
the area. In most of these scenes professional wranglers were
used as extra's in the shots. The rodeo scenes themselves were
documentary footage. The close ups of the actors were filmed
separately and edited in in post production. During the rodeo
scenes you can see bulls in corrals waiting to be brought into
the ring. On the ranch, horses are seen in the barn and
corrals when not being used.
