Urban Cowboy (1980) * * *

 

Directed by:  James Bridges

Starring:  John Travolta, Debra Winger, Scott Glenn, Mickey Gilley, Charlie Daniels Band, James Gammon, Barry Corbin, Madolyn Smith

Urban Cowboy was a staple on cable in the early 1980's.   I was a mere ten years old when I initially saw it, and it was a simple, yet engrossing story.   For a ten year old, that's good enough.   The movie's sexism hadn't dawned on me.   I was ten for Pete's sake.   Watching it again forty years after its release, it can be seen as Saturday Night Fever with country and western bars replacing discos.   Both films star John Travolta, and both male leads are macho meatheads who don't see anything fundamentally wrong with mistreating women at first, but they gradually see the error of their ways.   

Is Urban Cowboy entertaining in a slick, superficial way?   Yes.   Are Travolta and Winger appealing?  Yes.   Can I enjoy those aspects of the movie and denounce its sexist, sometimes misogynistic attitudes towards the female characters?   Yes.   We have to take into account that this movie was released in 1980.  To paraphrase Bill Maher, it's difficult to blame someone for not being "woke" years before "woke" was even a thing.    In these ways, movies are time capsules.  They reflect the past or what was contemporary back then.   Their values may not at all coincide with the present.

On to the movie, where Buford "Bud" Davis (Travolta) moves from the country to Houston, lands a job with his uncle (Corbin) at an oil refinery, and spends his nights drinking, dancing, and riding the mechanical bull at Gilley's, a famous Houston hot spot run by country singer Mickey Gilley (playing himself).  He grows proficient at bull riding, and to date this is the only movie I can recall in which the big event at the end is a mechanical bull riding contest.    He meets and falls for the fiery Sissy (Winger), and they marry at Gilley's and move into a brand new trailer home.   Life is decent for the Davis', until it isn't.   Sissy wants to ride the bull, Bud doesn't want her to because a woman's place is in the home, he smacks her, she leaves and hooks up with ex-con Wes (Glenn, with the face of granite) who isn't above smacking Sissy around either.  

Bud gets with Pam (Smith), a Gilley's patron who lives in a fancy Houston high rise apartment.   She's slumming it at Gilley's to be sure, but we know where all of this will end up.  However, we see subtle changes in Bud and his attitudes towards women and their place.   Because Bud is played by John Travolta, we allow him some rope, and we care enough to hope he can get his act together.   We also care for Sissy enough to hope she finds someone better for her than Bud or Wes.  Does it matter that Bud is the hero and Wes is the villain when both put their hands on poor Sissy?  How does Bud hold any moral high ground over Wes?    He apologizes to her to be sure, but who knows how much he has changed?  

James Bridges wrote and directed movies with strong female characters, including The Paper Chase (1973), The China Syndrome (1979), and this film.   Through it all, Sissy remains plucky and loving towards her men, even if neither deserves such loyalty.   Like Saturday Night Fever, Urban Cowboy's soundtrack has a lot of memorable crossover songs, including Looking for Love by Johnny Lee, Charlie Daniels Band's Devil Went Down to Georgia, and Boz Scaggs' Look What You've Done to Me.   The soundtrack may have outsold the movie.   It is impossible not to note the similarities to Saturday Night Fever, but while Fever remains a timeless depiction of an era, Urban Cowboy is a romantic comedy which checks similar boxes, is enjoyable enough, but with a questionable moral compass.