Urban Cowboy cover art

Urban Cowboy Details

1980 Certificate 12
  • 50
  • from 201 members

John Travolta and Debra Winger star in this cowboy version of SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, in which all the action takes place at Gilley's country-western bar, a rough-and-tumble honky-tonk in the heart of Houston. Travolta plays Bud, a young country farmer who moves to the city to find work at an oil refinery and finds love with .. Read more

Starring John Travolta, Debra Winger, Scott Glenn, Madolyn Smith
Director James Bridges
Genres Drama

loading loading...

Urban Cowboy

John Travolta and Debra Winger star in this cowboy version of SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, in which all the action takes place at Gilley's country-western bar, a rough-and-tumble honky-tonk in the heart of Houston. Travolta plays Bud, a young country farmer who moves to the city to find work at an oil refinery and finds love with Sissy (Winger), a cowgirl of easy virtue and spirit. The two country-western singles fall in love on the dance floor of Gilley's and quickly marry only to discover that their workaday life is harder to cope with than they imagined, lightened only by hard-drinking weekends of glory at Gilley's, where they're both local heroes, line-dancin' and struttin' their stuff until dawn. In between crowd-pleasing rides on the club's mechanical bull, Bud and Sissy struggle to keep their new romance alive despite the competitive attentions of a new cowboy in town, a bull-riding ex-convict (Scott Glenn) who has his eye on Sissy. James Bridges's hard-driving drama glimmers with the intensity of the super saloon, capturing the wild and rough life of the modern cowboy. The soundtrack features musical performances from such greats as Bonnie Raitt, Mickey Gilley, Boz Scaggs, Kenny Rogers, and the Charlie Daniels Band.

Starring John Travolta, Debra Winger, Scott Glenn, Madolyn Smith
Director James Bridges
Studio PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time DVD: 2 hrs 9 mins
Certificate Certificate 12
Genres Drama
Language DVD: English
Dubbed French, German, Italian, Spanish
Hearing-impaired English
Subtitles DVD: Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovenian, Spanish
Released DVD: 02 Dec 2002
Production year: 1980
  • Critics' reviews (5) of Urban Cowboy

    View all
  • 3 stars out of 5

    A steamy romance between Texas oil worker John Travolta and strong-willed Debra Winger is played out against the backdrop of honky-tonk dancing and mechanical rodeos in an uneven country-and-western soap opera. Packed with music from the likes of the Eagles, the Charlie Daniels Band and Linda Ronstadt, director James Bridges's overlong portrait of American manhood in the early eighties was an effort to re-promote Travolta as the nightclub macho man of Saturday Night Fever fame after the dismal failure of Moment by Moment. In a Tammy Wynette way, it sort of works.

    • Radio Times
  • Unpleasant and uninteresting star melodrama with a plot vaguely reminiscent of the first part of An American Tragedy.

    • Halliwell's Film Guide
  • Most helpful member's review of Urban Cowboy

    View all
  • 1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars

    Hard Hat Days And Honky-Tonk Nights.

    Hollywood has a fascinating way of belittling the inhabitants of everywhere between the coastal states of the USA. Here we have their take on the people of ... more

      • A customer from London, England
  • Most recent members' review of Urban Cowboy

    View all
  • Rated - 4 stars

    Cool!

    Very enjoyable film especially if you are a fan of either Winger or Travolta. The music and backdrop of Gilleys make this a memorable film, highly recommended... more

      • A customer from Walsall, West Mids
  • More like this

    View all

Rating breakdown

201 Member ratings
  • 100
8
  • 90
9
  • 80
23
  • 70
25
  • 60
37
  • 50
26
  • 40
25
  • 30
22
  • 20
18
  • 10
8

Related user collection

ecletic mix (33)


Average rating: 4.23   84.6% from 13 members

by: jason whyte from Renfrew

Buy from the LOVEFiLM shop


    • Urban Cowboy
      John Travolta and Debra Winger star in this cowboy version of SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, in which all the action takes place at Gilley's country-western bar, a rough-and-tumble honky-tonk in the heart of Houston. Travolta plays Bud, a young country farmer who moves to the city to find work at an oil ...