In Bitterbrush, these cowgirls are too busy to get the blues
Emelie Mahdavian's elegant documentary offers an understated but much needed corrective to traditional Western iconography
The documentary Bitterbrush follows an entire season of cattle herding in the austere, snow-dusted Idaho mountains. It’s a deeply immersive experience, analogous to learning a language using the Michel Thomas Method. With Thomas, you follow along with two students in the recordings as if you were the third. Similarly, Bitterbrush director Emelie Mahdavian allows you to tag along with two range riders, listen in on intimate conversations, and bask in spectacular and sometimes unforgiving nature as you observe their way of life.
Colie Moline and Hollyn Patterson are seasonal workers who peregrinate to different ranches to help round up cattle–about 1,000 head as stipulated in this particular contract. It’s like Nomadland, but demands much higher skill and competence levels. They get excited about their cabin—despite it not having a functional toilet—after a couple of years of living out of a camper. They spread tuna from single-serving packets onto sliced bread flattened during the ride, and wash it down with Pepsi. They warm up corned beef hash in the can on the gas stove. They mend barb wire fences. With the assistance of about a dozen dogs, they herd cows through vast plains, up mountains, into woods, and across highways. After an arduous day, they nurse the doggies’ sore paws. There’s no romanticizing; this is life.
Bitterbrush dispels a few enduring myths and stereotypes about the American West that media have perpetuated for ages. Indeed, this is neither Sam Elliott’s vision nor Jane Campion’s. Yes, this existence requires resilience, solitude, and other qualities we deem virtuous. Though Moline and Patterson wear the hats, vests, and boots with rowel spurs, they track anniversaries on Facebook, order blankets on Amazon, and keep up with the Kardashians. Moline apparently comes from a family of ranchers; her father wants her to go home but has given full rein of the family biz to her brother. Had there been equal representation of women range riders like Moline in popular culture, would she be afforded equity at home? It’s something worth pondering, which is what makes Bitterbrush edifying.