'Urban Cowboy' turns 40: Hats off to the movie that gave us John Travolta's first great comeback. In a pop-culture year that’s offered one bronc after another, rein this one in: "Urban Cowboy," the honky-tonk-stirring, line-dancing, soundtrack-selling Western romance that teamed a post-"Grease" John Travolta with newcomer Debra Winger, turns 40 this Saturday.
And that’s no mechanical bull.
A quiet hit in a summer headlined by higher-profiles releases "The Shining," "The Empire Strikes Back" and "The Blues Brothers" – not to mention films targeting the same down-home audience, such as "Bronco Billy" and "Honeysuckle Rose" – "Urban Cowboy" rescued Travolta’s imperiled career, made a future three-time Oscar-nominated star of Winger, and launched a country-music crossover groundswell.
The drama is set against the backdrop of the Houston oil industry, focusing on Bud Davis (Travolta), a small-town newcomer to the big city, working refinery construction. But much of the action takes place inside Gilley’s Club, the rough-and-tumble local juke joint where he ends his long days and meets a feisty local named Sissy (Winger). The sparks that come from the combative coupling, along with the music that underscores it and the dance-floor moves that frame it, made the movie one of the summer's top films.
It was considered 26-year-old Travolta’s comeback. Just two summers earlier, he was Hollywood’s biggest star after the back-to-back releases of "Saturday Night Fever" in December 1977 and "Grease" the following June. But his luster was tarnished by the Christmas 1978 release of "Moment by Moment," a box-office dud of a romance that teamed him with Lily Tomlin. The film was scorned and Travolta retreated in its wake.
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