Urban Cowboy (1980) Full Review

Film Scene Investigation

Here’s my review of the film, Urban Cowboy.   Thanks for watching and please subscribe. New content dropping every week.   #cultmoviereview #moviereview #movie   For Exclusive Content:  https://www.patreon.com/filmsceneinvestigation   Rumble:  https://www.rumble.com/filmsceneinvestigations   Odysee:  https://odysee.com/@filmsceneinvestigation:e   Daily Motion:  https://www.dailymotion.com/Filmsceneinvestigation

Transcript

00:12welcome back film scene investigation it's me beau i'd be all doing good today i have another

00:20review for you and i'm going to be taking a look at the 1918 drama urban cowboy now this was

00:29actually a movie that was recommended to me some time ago on the youtube comments so thank you

00:38to whoever that was i can't remember right now but uh yeah i just heard the name didn't think much

00:45of

00:45it then went on to imdb and saw that john travolta was a starring role for him now i can't

00:56say that

00:56i'm a huge fan of travolta especially in his yeah his career now the kind of projects that he

01:05you know decides to do but um when it comes to his earlier career though uh yeah i do like

01:12a lot of

01:13uh his work saturday night fever greece blowout so yeah to see him kind of crop up in this i

01:21was like

01:21i'm intrigued just before we get into the review guys as always if you haven't already please do

01:29consider subscribing to the channel all the support is greatly appreciated so urban cowboy from 1980

01:39was a movie that was directed by the late filmmaker james bridges and was based on a 1978 article in

01:50esquire magazine by the author aaron latham now at the time of filming the actor john travolta was

02:00receiving a lot of criticism a lot of negative feedback surrounding his movie moment by moment

02:09that was a bomb that was this romantic drama that uh yeah it was a financial disaster for the studio

02:18so with that in mind travolta's next project you know there was a lot of pressure there was a lot

02:26riding on it luckily for travolta erwin cowboy actually went on to gross a huge profit over 50 million

02:37dollars at the box office as for the narrative it centered on the character bud davis who was played

02:45by travolta he just arrived in pasadena texas where he had secured a job at an oil refinery working

02:55alongside his uncle as soon as bud arrived in pasadena he was introduced to the city's nightlife

03:04he ended up at a nightclub called gillies very popular among the locals bud walked in and

03:13was amazed at what he saw he was really impressed he loved the atmosphere and at that moment he decided

03:21to really embrace the honky-tonk spirit it was a fresh start for bud he had you know got this

03:32new job and

03:32yeah he was starting a new chapter in his life so in one sense it was like he was adopting

03:39or embracing

03:40a new identity of course as you can imagine with bud looking like he did you know he's a good

03:49-looking

03:49guy he attracted a lot of women he got a lot of attention and one woman in particular called sissy

03:59made a play for him at the bar the character who was played by actress deborah winger

04:06made her feelings known it's quite obvious that she had the hearts for bud and while initially

04:14he kind of played it cool very quickly those two hooked up they got romantically involved with one

04:22another and this actually led to a sudden marriage yeah i mean maybe what a few weeks that's how long

04:32they had known each other and now they were you know going down the aisle and committing their lives

04:38to one another it did seem kind of rushed especially even how the how it was presented on screen

04:46but uh i guess the best way you could describe it would be a um a whirlwind romance and so

04:54yeah they

04:54got married they moved in together and yeah i mean they were obviously quite happy with the decision

05:01that they made they were committed to one another but as the weeks and months commenced

05:09we started to see the two clashing and arguing over like just really small and trivial things

05:19they obviously cared for one another but as time went on their relationship became strained

05:27their arguments just kind of spiraled out of control but in a way it was um it was a bit

05:36like

05:36this vicious cycle because yes they would have these rows but then they would make up and just kind

05:45carry on as like nothing happened scott glenn's character wes hightower was then introduced into

05:53the movie now this guy was a bull rider who randomly showed up at gillies one night and took a

06:01liking

06:02to sissy now all this guy did was simply smile at sissy it wasn't nothing you know it was kind

06:13of

06:13innocent but as you could imagine this angered bud quite a lot and uh it caused major issues between

06:23him and sissy it was obvious that as soon as this guy this bull rider came on the scene bud

06:32was jealous

06:33you know he felt insecure and certainly did not have a handle on his emotions to make matters

06:42worse worse wes started actually working at gillies and spent a lot of time hanging around sissy

06:51getting to know her now sissy had no intention of cheating on her husband she was loyal to bud

07:01and all she wanted was friendship from wes but as expected bud was not just going to allow

07:12his wife to have this friendship with this uh of this guy so it caused issues and eventually the

07:22couple split up all of the rows all of the arguments the disagreements all of the name calling all of

07:31that

07:31stuff it just uh became too much to handle now after watching urban cowboy my biggest takeaway was how

07:42the film portrayed the bud davis character as this nice guy when deep down he was an insecure

07:53moody individual he was temperamental and he also didn't mind physically abusing women

08:04you know we saw that when he hit sissy when he thought she got out of line yeah this guy

08:11is kind of a scumbag

08:14yet he's able to hide behind his charm and his good looks to mask his true self we could also

08:26look at the

08:27marketing campaign for the marketing campaign for this film you know with the posters of travolta you know

08:33the cowboy hat obviously he's being presented as this heartthrob you know this sex symbol but you know

08:42ultimately he's not a guy that you'd want your sister to date and for me i actually felt a lot

08:49of sympathy

08:50for sissy at the end of the movie now what we were seeing was this you know happy ending the

08:59two had

09:00resolved their differences and got back together she was happy bud was happy and yeah it ended on a

09:10positive note but when you think about it sissy was going back you know returning to a volatile

09:19relationship relationship sissy was going back to a guy that hadn't changed his ways he was the same

09:30guy at the start of the film and at the end there really was no character progression he still was

09:39the

09:40same jaded man that you know we saw at the beginning of the film the only reason the bud davis

09:48character

09:49didn't seem all that bad was because the wes hightower character played by scott glenn was far worse

09:58and you know that was what i found very interesting that the filmmakers kind of just leaned into

10:08the romance of everything and ignored the very genuine issues that sissy would likely encounter in her future

10:21now this leads me on to another aspect of the movie and that was the changing dynamics within the gender

10:31roles bud embodied this very traditional masculine type persona while sissy was a lot more outgoing and open-minded

10:45she was independent and she could stand up for herself and in turn this caused rifts between her

10:55and her husband bud bud expected the typical marriage setup while sissy had her own ideas and her own ambitions

11:10all of this was the filmmaker's way of subverting the social norms and pushing this new liberal mindset

11:27as for the soundtrack it was a collection of songs from various artists that included the eagles jimmy buffett

11:38and kenny rogers it was highly successful when it was released to the public and sparked several top 10 hits

11:50now while all of this definitely worked with the visuals you know that honky-tonk country setting

11:59for me personally i am not really a fan of that genre so while i can be objective and appreciate

12:07it and say

12:08yeah that was a decent soundtrack it's not one that i would uh personally listen to when it comes to

12:16the

12:16performances i thought actor john travolta did a very good job in the lead role playing the flawed cowboy

12:25bud davis similar to his role in saturday night fever travolta was able to showcase more of his

12:35dramatic abilities the role of bud davis also gave travolta the opportunity to once again show off

12:45his dancing skills something that uh kind of you know a bit synonymous with his whole career during

12:53this time travolta was you know coming off the success of greece but wanted to you know do more

13:02dramatic roles and uh yeah after now seeing urban cowboy it totally makes sense why travolta signed up

13:11and uh you know wanted to be a part of this project now was this a classic john travolta performance

13:21i would say no i still thought he was very good and yeah i mean it's it's worth your time

13:28if you're a fan

13:29of travolta but i think ultimately deep down bud davis you know it's hard to root for him because

13:37he just was unlikable as for his co-star deborah winger i thought she was brilliant playing sissy

13:45bud's wife now i generally felt sympathy for her and that was because ultimately she deserved better

13:54she was not to blame for her husband's behavior and if bud could have controlled his emotions

14:05well maybe they would wouldn't have had these issues in the first place i do wish that sissy

14:11had been able to kind of you know see what was actually going on with her husband he hadn't

14:21changed he wasn't going to change he was still the same moody insecure guy when you know she first met

14:27him and there was no real hope for them if we really are being honest while sissy had all of

14:36the

14:37best intentions in the world but on the other hand he never learned from his mistakes and only

14:44continued to drag her down with him winger also had some fantastic chemistry with travolta

14:53which definitely added a layer of authenticity to the story they honestly felt like a real couple

15:01their arguments didn't feel forced or contrived you know it really did feel like there was a lot of

15:08tension between the two characters and that was obviously down to the talents of both winger

15:14and travolta as for actor scott glenn i thought he was the perfect casting to play the ex-con ball

15:23rider wes hightower the man that came in between sissy and bud and almost you know broke up their

15:32marriage now going into this film i had no idea that scott glenn was even in it so yeah it

15:40was a nice

15:41surprise i mean the only other film that i'm really familiar with scott glenn was the 1983 michael mann

15:49movie the keep which i've also reviewed here on this channel before so uh yeah it was uh nice to

15:57see him you know in this time playing a villain and so dislikes for urban cowboy from 1980 my biggest

16:08dislike for the film would be its overall runtime clocking in at over two hours now this was not a

16:17major negative i understand that for a film of that time that was kind of considered the norm you know

16:26that kind of runtime but i just found that there were a few sequences here and there that uh just

16:33dragged on and uh yeah they they were longer than they needed to be some of the montages the dance

16:41sequences even the stuff with travolta on the mechanical ball i mean yeah it was okay but um

16:52it didn't really you could have handled that in not a problem but it didn't need to go on for

16:58minutes at a time i understand having long drawn out sequences you know it helps the audience

17:06you know become immersed into the film into the story and that's always a great thing but i do think

17:14there is a balance also another factor to take into account was that the ending which i've mentioned

17:24before bud and sissy get back together that was very predictable especially in the last 10 minutes

17:32i mean i found myself becoming quite fidgety to be honest and i was just like okay yeah these guys

17:42are

17:42going to get back together yeah can we just you know wrap this up now please if the film had

17:49been

17:50a little more condensed then you know those final 15 10 minutes wouldn't have felt so long

17:58yeah it's a good movie but it's kind of bloated and i was thinking maybe like a crisp 90 minute

18:09cut

18:09of urban cowboy you know that would uh that would be a lot more entertaining to watch and so

18:18ratings for urban cowboy from 1980 i'm going to be rating this movie a 4 out of 10 urban cowboy

18:29was this fairly grounded romantic drama that shared a lot of similarities to travolta's other hit movie

18:39saturday night fever the film also showcased that early 80s kind of post

18:48disco era where a lot of the audience were turning to country music as i mentioned earlier travolta

18:57was very good in this film even though his character was uh pretty stubborn and unpleasant his

19:06and deborah winger's chemistry that sold us on the idea of forgiveness and second chances which made

19:16their relationship seem a lot more believable if you've seen urban cowboy then please let me know

19:25your thoughts and memories in the comment section below for all those out there who have not

19:31it's a minor recommendation from me you know in a way the movie is a bit of a time capsule

19:39now

19:39where it kind of showcased the joys of you know communal nightlife you know something that since

19:482020 and post covid you know the digital age you know ai and all that kind of stuff um yeah

19:56we seem

19:57to be kind of you know living our lives and moving further and further away from that and well that's

20:03all

20:04from me today guys i do hope you've enjoyed this review of urban cowboy 1980 i'll be back next week

20:12with another cult movie review don't forget guys if you haven't i would really appreciate you

20:18subscribing and of course take care

20:24you

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