Riding Wild: Old School Westerns and the Art of the Look-Alike

Is this worth your time?

If you live for the smell of old celluloid and standard-issue western tropes, Riding Wild is a perfectly fine way to kill fifty minutes on a rainy Tuesday. It’s got all the basics: the greedy rancher, the scrappy nesters, and a plot device involving a look-alike that feels like it was plucked from a dusty 1930s playbook.

If you want complex character arcs or, God forbid, something that deviates from the expected path, you might want to look elsewhere. Like, maybe watch Anna Karenina instead if you are in the mood for something with actual weight. But for a Sunday afternoon popcorn flick? Sure.

The Good, The Dusty, and The Look-Alike

The whole premise hinges on this idea of replacing the hero with a double. It’s a classic trick. I always find it amusing how quickly the other characters just go, "Oh, hi Tim, you’re acting like a total jerk today, but I guess that’s just how you are now."

The movie doesn't really care about the logistics of how they found someone who looks exactly like Tim Malloy. They just show up with him. That's the movie's charm, I suppose. It doesn't want to get bogged down in reality.

Oddly Specific Observations

• The horses clearly have more screen presence than half the supporting cast.
• Every time the rancher villain speaks, he looks like he’s trying to swallow his own mustache.
• The fight choreography is mostly just people waving their arms until someone falls over a fence.
• The editing feels like it was done with a pair of rusty kitchen scissors.

There is this one scene near the middle where they’re supposed to be in a heated standoff. The background extras are just standing there, looking at their boots. You can tell they were probably just waiting for the lunch bell to ring.

It’s not trying to be The Witching Hour or anything heavy. It is a very simple story about very simple people shouting at each other in the desert. Sometimes that is exactly what you need to cleanse the palate after too many modern, over-produced messes.

Final Thoughts

Is it great? No. Does it move fast? Mostly. It feels like a relic of a time when movies were just factory products meant to keep the local theater seats warm. I enjoyed it for what it was, even if I forgot half the dialogue before the credits finished rolling. 🤠