Urban Cowboy
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
James Bridges
John Travolta
Debra Winger
Scott Glenn
Madolyn Smith
Barry Corbin
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When Bud Davis moves from a small town in Texas to Houston, his days are spent working in an oil refinery, and his nights at Gilley's country western bar. At Gilley's, Bud meets Sissy, and the two fall in love and soon are married. On their honeymoon, they visit the Texas Prison Rodeo where they see convicted felon Wes Hightower ride a bull. When they return to Gilley's, a mechanical bull is installed at the club, and Bud impresses Sissy by riding it, but his male ego is threatened when she masters it too. Their fragile relationship is upset further when Wes Hightower gets out of jail, starts going to Gilley's, and is attracted to Sissy. Bud fights with Wes, and before long, she is seeing Wes and Bud is seeing another woman from the bar. When the two men compete in a mechanical bull-riding competition, Bud wins, and Wes retaliates by stealing the prize money, planning on escaping to Mexico with it and Sissy. But after Bud realizes that Wes has been abusing Sissy, the two men fight again, during which the stolen money is discovered and Wes is caught. Bud and Sissy realize that they need to leave Gilley's and make a new start together.
Director
James Bridges
Cast
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/JohnTravolta.193826.1.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
John Travolta
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/DebraWinger.207811.2.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Debra Winger
Scott Glenn
Madolyn Smith
Barry Corbin
Brooke Alderson
Cooper Huckabee
James Gammon
Betty Murphy
Ed Geldart
Leah Geldart
Keith Clemons
Howard Norman
Sheryl Briedel
Sean Lawler
Gator Conley
Minnie Klerick
David Ogle
Bret Williams
Tamara Matuesian
Becky Conway
Sherwood Cryer
Jerry Hall
Cyndy Hall
Lucky Mosley
Zetta Raney
Ellen March
Gina Alexander
Steve Chambers
Ann Travolta
W P Wright
Steve Strange
Norman Tucker
Debbie Tucker
Jessie Larive
Bettye Fitzpatrick
Jim Gough
Connie Hanson
Glenn Holtzman
Christopher Saylors
Daniel Heintschel
Ben F Brannon
Robert Bush
James N Harrell
Julie Bailey
Gene Mclaughlin
Mickey Gilley
Johnny Lee
Bonnie Raitt
James Harrell
Crew
Silvia Abascal-baker
Dwight Adair
Pat Arledge
Irving Azoff
Oscar Stuart Blandamar
James Bridges
Ed Bruce
Patsy Bruce
Jimmy Buffett
Ralph Burns
Willie Burton
Bob Bush
Robby Campbell
W Stewart Campbell
Marshall Chapman
Michelle Cohen
Brian Collins
Tom Crain
Charlie Daniels
Wes Dawn
Taz Digregorio
David Domeyer
Marion Dougherty
Fred L. Edwards
C. O. Erickson
C. O. Erickson
Robert Evans
Dan Fogelberg
Dan Fogelberg
Jerry Foster
Glenn Frey
L. Wolfe Gilbert
Mickey Gilley
Gloria Gresham
Frank Griffin
Stephen Grimes
Robert Wayne Harris
Charles Hayward
Don Henley
Robert Herridge
Bob Hinkler
R Dudley Holmes
Wayland Holyfield
Bob House
Chris Howell
Gene Kearney
Liz Keigley
Ben E. King
Gene Kraft
Don Kruger
Kim Kurumada
Aaron Latham
Aaron Latham
Johnny Lee
Jerry Leiber
Bob Lemond
Marvin E. Lewis
Wanda Mallette
Barry Mann
Elliot Marks
Jim Marshall
Bob Morrison
Michael Martin Murphy
Anne Murray
George R. Nelson
Gary Nicholson
Lisa Niemi
Ron Phillips
Bonnie Raitt
David Rawlins
Shari Rhodes
Bill Rice
Milt Rice
Milt Rice
Kenny Rogers
Linda Ronstadt
Ervin Rouse
Patti Ryan
Boz Scaggs
Boz Scaggs
Bob Seger
Bob Seger
Albert Shapiro
Becky Shargo
J L Sinclair
Sonya Sones
J D Souther
J D Souther
Mike Stoller
Patsy Swayze
John Toll
Jim Troutman
Dick Tyler Sr.
Mack Vickery
Reynaldo Villalobos
Joe Walsh
Joe Walsh
Cynthia Weil
Ray West
Rusty Wier
Johnny Wilson
Karen Wookey
Lois Zetter
Susan Zietlow-maust
Film Details
Technical Specs
Articles
Urban Cowboy
Urban Cowboy (1980) and the earlier John Travolta super hit Saturday Night Fever (1977) have several things in common: they're both based on magazine articles about an urban nightlife phenomenon, in this case the two-steppin', mechanical-bull-ridin' megaclubs of Texas rather than the discos of New York's outer boroughs; they both featured Travolta as a callow young man whose experiences bring him to question his "club kid" pose. Although Urban Cowboy did not receive the critical acclaim or achieve the box office success of its predecessor, it did spawn a brief national music, dance and fashion craze that, like the earlier film, ranged farther than its regional roots (even to the point of having mechanical bulls turn up in bars in Belgium, Sweden, South Africa and on a US Navy aircraft carrier).
What was different this time around was its star. John Travolta had experienced a phenomenal rise from the TV show Welcome Back, Kotter to an Academy Award nomination for Saturday Night Fever to the blockbuster success of the musical Grease (1978). Then, like so many others whose career trajectory has been meteoric, the young star felt the backlash of critics and columnists after the box office bomb, Moment by Moment (1978). In it, he played a sensitive young stud with the ludicrous name "Strip Harrison," who gives pleasure to a bored SoCal housewife played by Lily Tomlin. Suddenly, the 24-year-old was being portrayed as a has-been, and he told one interviewer it was as if he woke up every morning to a world where everything, dreams and reality, had been reversed. "I would be going along just fine," he said. "Then I'd see an article about me or hear something bad on the radio, and then I'd be brought back down again."
Luckily, producers and directors weren't quite so convinced Travolta was washed up, recognizing the reaction he still got from fans and his continued status as an international sex symbol. He was offered - and turned down - the lead in Paul Schrader's American Gigolo (1980), which like the role he also rejected in Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978), went to Richard Gere. He opted instead to travel to Houston for location shooting at Gilley's, then the largest-capacity nightclub in the world, for what would be the first of his many "comebacks." He prepared for the role by spending three weeks on a $3000 mechanical bull he installed in his Santa Barbara home and learning the dances necessary for the movie's setting from Patsy Swayze, mother of dancer-actor Patrick Swayze. Nevertheless, Travolta showed up for shooting more withdrawn and cautious than people expected. He insisted on no media and no publicity, and the set was closed at his request to all but a privileged few, such as personal friend Jane Fonda, who stopped by on a 30-city anti-nuke tour.
The movie's centerpiece was the mechanical bull contest that becomes the focus of rivalry between Travolta's character, Bud, and Scott Glenn's Wes for the affections of Sissy (Debra Winger, in her first big mainstream role), a spunky young woman who learns to ride the bulls herself. Like the film's star, Winger and Glenn braved the threat of spinal injury by mastering the technique so well they were able to do their own stunt work. Their feat, in fact, was especially remarkable in that they risked even more danger than the run-of-the-mill Gilley's crowd. In order to place the cameras properly, the mattresses that usually surrounded the bull to cushion falls were removed.
That wasn't the biggest danger during production, however. In the last two weeks, the shoot moved to Los Angeles where an East L.A. trailer park subbed for Bud's Houston digs. One day, gunfire suddenly peppered the set. According to a security guard, six men with sawed-off rifles came over an embankment on the set's perimeter, firing away. It was believed, though never proved, that the assailants were members of a local street gang. No one was injured, but Travolta was badly shaken, and the remainder of filming was done on a soundstage.
The part of Sissy was a toss-up between Debra Winger and Michelle Pfeiffer, both relative unknowns at the time. It would be another few years before Pfeiffer got her big screen break with Scarface (1983), but Winger shot to stardom after this role. Of the entire cast of , she got the most attention in reviews and at awards time. She received a double Golden Globe nod as Best Supporting Actress and New Female Star of the Year and a British Film Academy nomination as Best Newcomer. The film itself also copped a Grammy nomination for Best Original Score Album.
Director: James Bridges
Producer: Irving Azoff
Screenplay: James Bridges and Aaron Latham, based on a story by Latham
Cinematography: John Toll, Ray Villalobos
Editing: David Rawlins
Art Direction: W. Stewart Campbell
Original Music: Ralph Burns
Cast: John Travolta (Bud Davis), Debra Winger (Sissy Davis), Scott Glenn (Wes Hightower), Madolyn Smith (Pam), Barry Corbin (Bob Davis).
C-135m. Letterboxed.
by Rob Nixon
![Urban Cowboy](https://prod-images.tcm.com/img/film-participant-detail/Featured-Artilce_Placeholder.png)
Urban Cowboy
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States June 1980
Released in United States Summer June 6, 1980
Re-released in United States on Video November 11, 1997
Released in United States June 1980
Released in United States Summer June 6, 1980
Re-released in United States on Video November 11, 1997
Based on the article "The Ballad of the Urban Cowboy: America's Search for True Grit" by Aaron Latham; published in Esquire magazine September 12, 1978.