FLOATING HORSES: THE LIFE OF CASEY TIBBS, a new documentary directed by Denver filmmaker Justin Koehler about rodeo’s greatest cowboy who transcended the sport to become a household name with his revolutionary talent and flamboyant personality during the 1950s, will screen on Thursday, November 9 at 5pm at the Lone Star Film Festival in Fort Worth, Texas at the Four Day Weekend theater.
The 94-minute film tells the story of Casey Tibbs, a nine-time world champion cowboy from Mission Ridge, South Dakota, who left home at the age of 13 in 1942 due to his father’s disdain of rodeo. Over a decade of dominance followed as he brought national attention to rodeo as the original American sport. Akin to riding a wild bronc in competition, his unpredictable life had its grand victories and cheerless crashes. Get ready to “Let’er Buck!”
“The fabulous Casey Tibbs, a handsome, black-haired, hard-drinking, Cadillac-loving Beau Geste of the rodeo circuits.” —Sports Illustrated
“The emergence of a reckless, outrageously handsome young bronc buster named Casey Tibbs, who lent the sport the kind of glamor it had never before achieved— in his day was the D’Artagnan, the Rhett Butler, The Bonnie Prince Charles of the rodeo circuit.” —Smithsonian Magazine
“Here comes the scrawniest teenage kid you’d ever want to see with this letter from his mother saying it was OK for him to compete. Damned if Casey didn’t win the novice bronc riding event. In those days they called it “novice,” but some of the rankest horses were used on that level. And some of the guys who entered “novice” were older than a tree.” —Ben Johnson, Academy Award-Winning Actor
“I never claimed to be no angel, but I never went around pushing little ducks in the mud, either. I never hurt anybody but myself. I did like to gamble. Once stayed at a crap table for three days and three nights. I’ve lost as much as eleven thousand dollars playing craps and poker in one week’s time. You got to have a little gamble in you to rodeo.” —Casey Tibbs
Watch the trailer:
