This has been on my blu-ray wanted list for years. Not sure why they waited so long, but I'm glad a blu is finally happening. Release date scheduled for June 2nd, 2020. I'm ready to ride with Bud and Sissy again! Urban Cowboy 40th Anniversary Blu-ray Edition That cover image is so processed, Travolta looks like a wax figure. And notice the awkward hand. It should be holding a beer bottle, but they obviously removed it. Pretty silly. Here's what the cover image SHOULD look like, from the soundtrack. https://www.vinylbazar.net/fotky30077/fotos/_vyr_3465_DSC2545.jpg
Wow, it's creepy-weird without the beer bottle in Travolta's hand! It sort of looks like he's massaging his own stomach... Doesn't really scream "cowboy". I saw this movie years ago, and it was all right. As it's from 1980 (filmed in 1979...?), its milieu seemed to age badly as the 80s progressed. Which just further killed off John Travolta's career (as if the legacy of Saturday Night Fever wasn't enough). I think of this movie as one of the last of the 70s'-style gritty, working-class dramas that targeted a fashionable and mainstream audience. After this, if you wanted to hit a large audience with a drama, working-class struggles weren't going to sell it. (Not that this movie was a huge success, but it did all right.) Could be worse:
Watched this tonight, and love it just as much as ever. There's so many things about this movie that give me a kick. I like the lime green bridesmaid dresses at Bud and Cissy's wedding. And I had to look up what a "Karo Nut Pie" was. Apparently a variation on a pecan pie.
I saw this last night for the first time in maybe 30 years or more. Distance made me realize that the film is essentially about mysogynistic man-children and the stupid women who love them. Poor dumb Sissy jumps from the frying pan (Travolta) into the fire (Scott Glenn). On the other hand, the film is well made. The actors are on-point. There's no wooden performances here. The pacing is great. The entertainment value is high. Hey, the dialog is pretty good, too, with a lot of memorable lines. The film grossed 4Xs its budget and made a ton of money for Gilley's. For a long while after, people would come from all over the world to visit the club. And the soundtrack? A+!
I’m guessing it’s the Lone Star branding. Could have just wiped off the label. That would have been better. Me thinks
I was thinking the same thing, but why would Lone Star turn down the free advertising? Lone Star beer is all throughout the show, though. That and Gilley's own defunct beer. I think some think-tank at Paramount simply didn't want a beer on the cover. The next thing you know they'll begin removing cigarettes from pictures of The Beatles.
Since I watched it just last night, I noticed that Bud doesn't become an ass hole until the beard comes off. Then again, when he's leaving home in the opening scenes, his mother asks him to breakfast, he declines, but doesn't even tell his mother thank you. I know that's picking nits, but I'm quite familiar with these country Texas families, and please, thank you, yes ma'am and no ma'am, is engrained in us from birth. It's automatic.
Ok...always wanted to know if "throw a rock" is just a Texas way of saying "break a leg"? Aunt Corrine said it to bud before he left to go to the Mickey's rodeo. Also anybody wanna take a shot at identifying the receiver and speakers in Pam's apartment in Houston Proper? I think the speakers are Advents....
I never saw "UC" until the Blu-ray came out last year, and I thought it was awful. Even the "on-point" performances! "Travolta throws out a cheesy cornpone accent and lacks the charisma that made him a star with Fever and 1978’s Grease. He plays Bud as a dull blob of a character, and he can’t bring personality or life to the film. Winger leapt to stardom via Cowboy, and she fares better than Travolta, but sensual shots of her on the mechanical bull did most of that work. While not bad in the part, Winger can’t do much to turn the underwritten Sissy into an interesting character." Bud really is an awful character, though, and Travolta does nothing to make him likable.
Of course it's all subjective, but me being raised in Texas, and never having lived in another state (except when I was in the service), I thought that the characters were pretty spot-on. I've known plenty of Buds, and thankfully very few Hightowers. Now, the keen ear will detect Travolta's accent slip here and there, but mostly he's on target. It might have to do with when you saw the movie, too. I probably saw it first in about 1983 and it was still a hit at the rental stores. That said, you're right about his charisma, because he was a butt hole to a high degree. But how much charisma did he have in Moment by Moment (1978) and Blow Out (1981)? I feel he did a helluva job in the latter. But we're talking about Travolta here. The guy flamed out early.
Never saw "Moment". IMO, I don't think he was supposed to be all that charismatic in "Blow Out", whereas he's the Big Romantic Leading Man in "Cowboy". And I understand there are jerks like Bud in the world - plenty of them - but the movie clearly wants him to be Big Romantic Leading Man, which becomes tough to pull off when the actor shows no charisma and plays the role like he's a jerk!
Blow Out has to be Travolta's best film. For no special reason, I never got around to watching it. One day, it turned up on a streaming service, so I watched it. Brian De Palma has made at least ten films I think are exceptional and Blow Out is no exception.
Those are the popular choices, but Pulp Fiction isn't really John's film. Also, De Palma is the better director.
