{"id":8604,"date":"2024-11-27T13:38:14","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T18:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8604"},"modified":"2024-11-27T13:38:14","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T18:38:14","slug":"urban-cowboy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/27\/urban-cowboy\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban Cowboy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Urban Cowboy <\/strong>(1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Drama-Western\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 135 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, brief nudity and sexual content, violence, drinking)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: James Bridges\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: James Bridges and Aaron Latham\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Ralph Burns\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Reynaldo Villalobos\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 6, 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: John Travolta, Debra Winger, Scott Glenn, Madolyn Smith, Barry Corbin, Brooke Alderson, Cooper Huckabee, James Gammon, Mickey Gilley, Johnny Lee, Bonnie Raitt, The Charlie Daniels Band.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $46.9M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: **<\/p>\n

\u00a0I honestly don\u2019t know what to make of Urban Cowboy<\/strong>, a western-flavored drama that promises an inside look at the urban cowboy culture of the late 70s\/early 80s. It\u2019s based on an article written by co-screenwriter Aaron Latham for Esquire Magazine about Texas oil refinery workers who lived out their cowboy fantasies on the weekend at a honkytonk bar called Gilley\u2019s. Directed and co-written by James Bridges (The China Syndrome), Urban Cowboy<\/strong> is disappointingly superficial about the lifestyle it depicts. What is it about the cowboy lifestyle that attracts these people? We can surmise that it\u2019s the atmosphere and energy of the music, but Bridges offers little in the way of insight choosing instead to focus on the relationship between two of the stupidest people I\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

\u00a0John Travolta trades in his polyester suit and leather jacket for a cowboy hat and pair of boots to play Bud, a young man who leaves the family farm for big city living in Houston. He moves in with his Uncle Bob (Corbin, Six Pack) who gets him a job at his workplace, the local oil refinery. He also introduces Bud to Gilley\u2019s, the legendary C&W joint owned by singer Mickey Gilley. This is where Bud meets Sissy (Winger, An Officer and a Gentleman), a young woman looking for a \u201creal cowboy\u201d. It\u2019s the start of a toxic relationship.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019d now like to mention that Bud is a truly vile human being. This is a guy who believes in traditional gender roles. The man is the king of the castle and the woman is his loyal subject. He has no problem using violence to get his point across either. He shows his true colors almost immediately by hitting Sissy on their first date. Understandably angry, she bolts and he goes after her. After another physical altercation, he asks her to marry him and she accepts. What does this tell you about Sissy? Yes, she\u2019s an idiot. They get married and move into their own trailer where they settle into a life of work, sex and nights out at Gilley\u2019s. That\u2019s when the problems start.<\/p>\n

\u00a0When Gilley\u2019s puts in a mechanical bull, Bud finds he has a natural talent for bull riding. Sissy wants to try it too, but Bud forbids her. She defies him and learns to ride it behind his back. When he sees her in action one night at the bar, he becomes furious that she lied to him. It leads to them splitting up and Sissy moving in with Wes (Glenn, Silverado), a violent ex-con out on parole who takes an immediate disliking to Bud. This is after Wes kicks Bud\u2019s ass in a diner parking lot. ANYWAY, he\u2019s an even bigger creep than Bud. You can tell by the mesh T-shirt. He\u2019s also a puncher and I don\u2019t mean time clocks. For his part, Bud gets involved with Pam (Smith, Funny Farm), an upscale woman with a thing for cowboys of lower economic status. He initially does it to make Sissy jealous, but Pam doesn\u2019t seem to mind playing the part so he lets her stick around.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Basically, Travolta plays a variation on his Tony Manero character from Saturday Night Fever in Urban Cowboy<\/strong> only instead of disco, he dances a two-step. The two movies are remarkably similar right down to the unexpected death of a character and a big contest at the end. Instead of dancing, it\u2019s a mechanical bull-riding contest. Of course, it\u2019ll all come down to Bud and Wes at the end with the expected outcome. This is NOT a spoiler; we all know how these things always turn out, don\u2019t we?<\/p>\n

\u00a0There are no likable major characters in Urban Cowboy<\/strong>. Bud and Wes are both abusive jerks. Sissy is an attention-craving dolt who makes only bad choices. Pam is a bitch whose only redeeming quality is knowing she\u2019s a terrible person. The only significant character I liked is Uncle Bob, a decent guy and former rodeo rider who teaches Bud the finer points of riding a bull. Yes, I\u2019m afraid Urban Cowboy<\/strong> includes a training montage a la Rocky. How cliched can you get?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Just because I don\u2019t like the major characters doesn\u2019t mean the actors didn\u2019t turn in decent performances. Although I never felt any real chemistry between Travolta and Winger, they deliver pretty good individual performances. Nothing about Travolta says cowboy, but he\u2019s incredible at playing vile characters like Tony Manero and Bud. The difference is that you don\u2019t feel Bud has actually changed as a person by the end of Urban Cowboy<\/strong>. It may seem like it on the surface, but issues like the ones he has don\u2019t go away without professional help. Although I have zero respect for her character, Winger brings a little bit of pathos to Sissy. You feel bad enough for her that you wish you could shake some sense into her about the men she loves. Glenn fares best as Wes, a real sack of crap that should never have been released from prison. I thought Texas was supposed to have a tough legal system?<\/p>\n

\u00a0To its credit, Urban Cowboy<\/strong> has a lot of great music by the likes of Gilley, Johnny Lee, Bonnie Raitt, Boz Skaggs and The Charlie Daniels Band who performs \u201cThe Devil Went Down to Georgia\u201d. The movie has this undeniable energy in the scenes in Gilley\u2019s. I can see where people would be attracted to that lifestyle. That brings us back to the issue of lack of insight. Bridges fails to show the dichotomy between the lively fantasy cowboy life and the dreary reality of working at the refinery. Again, we can surmise such a workplace isn\u2019t the happiest place on earth. Still, I wanted more depth from Urban Cowboy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Finally, Urban Cowboy<\/strong> is just too long at 135 minutes. It drags in parts. It could easily lose about 20 minutes without changing the overall effect. I will say the final fist fight between Bud and Wes is cool. It\u2019s the best part of the movie and the only part of the finale I believed. The movie is just okay which is a shame because it could\u2019ve been great.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Urban Cowboy (1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Drama-Western\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 135 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, brief nudity and sexual content, violence, drinking)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: James Bridges\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: James Bridges and Aaron Latham\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Ralph Burns\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Reynaldo Villalobos\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 6, 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: John Travolta, Debra Winger, Scott Glenn, Madolyn Smith, Barry Corbin, Brooke Alderson, Cooper Huckabee, James Gammon, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Urban-Cowboy-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8604"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9378,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8604\/revisions\/9378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}