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URBAN COWBOY
Directed by James Bridges; with John Travolta, Debra Winger, Scott Glen,
Madolyn Smith, Barry Corbin, Brooke Alderson, and Cooper Huckabee
1980
his
John Travolta vehicle helped to foster the cliché of Texas city
life; the legend of Gilley's flashy honky-tonk has found space in our
collective conscience right next to Wranglers and Ropers. All about
atmosphere, the script was adapted from a 1978 Esquire article
about the way the young wannabe macho petrochemical workers in Houston
spent their leisure time -- drinking, shuffling across the dance floor,
and attempting to out ride each other on that silly mechanical bull.
Though the film was no Saturday Night Fever, and may in fact
have been the beginning of the end (until late that is) of Travolta's
time in the spotlight, it captures a subculture of late-seventies Houston
with disconcerting flourish.
his
John Travolta vehicle helped to foster the cliché of Texas city
life; the legend of Gilley's flashy honky-tonk has found space in our
collective conscience right next to Wranglers and Ropers. All about
atmosphere, the script was adapted from a 1978 Esquire article
about the way the young wannabe macho petrochemical workers in Houston
spent their leisure time -- drinking, shuffling across the dance floor,
and attempting to out ride each other on that silly mechanical bull.
Though the film was no Saturday Night Fever, and may in fact
have been the beginning of the end (until late that is) of Travolta's
time in the spotlight, it captures a subculture of late-seventies Houston
with disconcerting flourish. 
