Some of the best stories come from a person's own experiences. For Neil McDonough, the inspiration for The Last Rodeo was pulled from his own life, turning it into a movie.
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The initial idea for the movie came from a dark fantasy that passed through McDonough's mind. While filming on the set of The Warrant, he was overcome with an intrusive thought about his wife. "I got gut-punched with this one thought: What would ever happen to me if something happened to (wife) Ruvé? And it just buckled me," he told A Taste Of Country.
Even the thought of losing his beloved was enough to make the man pull over and sob on the side of the highway. But he didn't wallow and knew that he needed to turn that raw emotion into something real.
"And this thought came into my head, which I know came from above: Write a film about Rocky on a bull for an old dude whose grandson is dying of brain cancer," he continued.
So, that's what he did. The Last Rodeo is about a man who has lost his wife and been driven to drink. His alcoholism has pushed his daughter away. But when his grandson gets cancer, the protagonist needs to pull himself together to pay the medical bills.
In a tale that could only be told in the USA, where bull fighting pays, and healthcare costs more than gold, the drunken father turns to rodeo to save his cancer-ridden grandson.
McDonough Pulled From Personal Experience For The Movie
It wasn't just the thought of losing his wife that inspired McDonough for his upcoming movie. He has also been at rock bottom himself and has channeled that into the script. Digging deep, he said, "For two years, I just didn't work. I didn't have anything."
"They took my house away, cars away, everything. And at that time, I drank myself kind of silly just to kind of push everybody away and wallow in my own self-pity." The alcoholism portrayed in The Last Rodeo movie uses the experience McDonough lived through for realism.
But it was thanks to the diligence and love of his wife that he was able to pull himself out. "If it weren't for my wife, Ruvé, you know, I wouldn't be here today. She got me through the problems that I went through all those years ago" Continuing, McDonough said, "She put my butt back into church. She got me to stop drinking and focus on what was important in life. And that was on God."
