Taglines: Never give up.
The Australian-made Ride Like a Girl (2019), which was released last year in America, is the first female jockey to participate in the 155-year-old Melbourne Cup, Australia’s most important and famous horse race, and to win the race victorious despite being shown as 1 to 100. It focuses on Michelle Payne’s story. The film, which Australian actor Rachel Griffiths first went behind the camera as a director, is before the audience with a considerable rating. The film, which includes Teresa Palmer, Sam Neill and Sullivan Stapleton, attracts attention with three nominations at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts.
Ride Like A Girl, who often surprises the viewer by contradicting the biographical films where the images of real heroes are hidden to the very end, wants us to engrave the face of this inspiring woman into our memories by giving sections from the life of the real Michelle Payne. This selection of the director allows one-to-one connection with Michelle before the movie begins, and at the same time, it makes a nice and impressive promotion for the character we will watch.
The film then goes back to Michelle’s childhood years back. Born as the youngest of ten children of race horse breeder Paddy Payne, Michelle finds herself in a tiring yet systematic life with her father and nine siblings after losing her mother at a young age. The little girl, who forms the inseparable couple with her down syndrome brother Stevie, wants to be a jockey like most older sisters and brothers.
Michelle, who currently lives on the farm, is always with the horses and grows in the racing industry, says she has no other dreams since she knew herself. It is not easy for Michelle to prove herself neither with her successful brothers nor as a woman in the community. It takes a long time to get even the attention of his father with so many children. Even those who happened to his older sister, Brigid, who fell from a horse at a young age and lost his life, do not prevent him from giving up this love.
While he himself has fallen off the horse during a race, suffering damage to affect both his career and his life, he needs to be treated for a long time. Still, she continues to pursue her dream without getting tired. Griffiths underlines that Michelle has not reached the point she has reached at the moment, by giving considerable stage time to childhood and youth and by processing the turning points in the young girl’s life.
Being a literally inspiring film, Ride Like a Girl can also be described as encouraging and exciting. Michelle continues to work without worrying about her worried father not talking to her for a while, insisting that her family and her surroundings marry and have children and work with a normal job and the many races she lost at the beginning of her career.
Even though most of them have been jockeyed, after a while, they watch their brothers and sisters, who are married or trainers, continue their lives. Despite getting up at 3 o’clock in the morning, the faces just turned because she is a woman, she still does not lose hope and believes that she will succeed one day. On the other hand, a horse owner, who discovered that his brother, Down’s syndrome, Stevie, had the ability to calm down the horses one day by chance, offers him a job so that the young man’s unconventional career begins. Michelle, who now works in the same industry, and providing spiritual support to her, even dreams of owning a farm and dreaming a horse.
The young woman, who started to announce her name gradually over the years, meets Prince of Penzance, who will win many races one day. This duo, which has become a tremendous pair and does not give up even if they get physical injuries in their careers, eventually qualifies for the Melbourne Cup. Michelle, who has written her name as the first woman to receive the trophy and who has the determination, ambition and determination to be an example for many people, shows that it is not only talent or strength, but also being patient and waiting for the right moment.
The film highlights Michelle’s relationship with her brother, companion, and best friend Stevie. Stevie Payne, who plays himself in the movie, comes to the screen with the actress Teresa Palmer. It also includes Michelle’s turbulent relationship with her father. On the one hand, she is worried about her “little girl”, whom she loves very much, and on the other hand, she is the front foot to feed her dreams.
Michelle, who has an infinite respect for her father, who has contributed greatly to reaching today’s professionalism, has been teaching her the teachings she has offered to her for years. “The only thing that matters is the possibility that you give yourself.” The young woman, who does not forget his word, destroys all the possibilities and succeeds many years of success.
Griffiths put us into the life of one of the proud women by saying “ride a horse like a woman” in one of the times when we put the “man like” pattern in front of many actions because it means doing a job properly. he is doing very well. And sound, cinematography, camera angles, acting; bringing it all together, we see off with a race sequence that we know the result of but we watch it for the first time.
All about Ride Like a Girl movie.
Ride Like a Girl (2019)
Directed by: Rachel Griffiths
Starring: Teresa Palmer, Sam Neill, Sullivan Stapleton, Brooke Satchwell, Magda Szubanski, Aaron Glenane, Sophia Forrest, Amy Christian, Jacob Warner, Zara Zoe, Damien Garvey
Screenplay by: Andrew Knight, Elise McCredie
Production Design by: Carrie Kennedy
Cinematography by: Martin McGrath
Film Editing by: Jill Bilcock, Maria Papoutsis
Costume Design by: Cappi Ireland
Art Direction by: Ben Barber
Music by: David Hirschfelder
MPAA Rating: PG for some thematic elements, language and suggestive comments.
Distributed by: Village Roadshow (Australia), Saban Films (Urited States)
Release Date: September 18, 2019 (Australia), March 13, 2020 (United States)
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