Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (film)

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This article is about the film. For the novel by Tom Robbins, see Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Gus Van Sant
Produced by Gus Van Sant
Written by Tom Robbins
Gus Van Sant
Narrated by Tom Robbins
Starring Uma Thurman
Lorraine Bracco
Angie Dickinson
Noriyuki "Pat" Morita
Keanu Reeves
with John Hurt
and
Rain Phoenix
Music by k.d. lang
Ben Mink
Cinematography John J. Campbell
Editing by Gus Van Sant
Distributed by Fine Line Features
New Line Cinema (DVD)
Release date(s) May 20, 1994
Running time 95 min.
Country Flag of the United States
Language English
German
Budget $8 million
Gross revenue $1.71 million[1]
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues is a 1993 comedy-drama-romance film based on the 1976 Tom Robbins novel of the same name. The film was directed by Gus Van Sant and starred Uma Thurman, Lorraine Bracco, Pat Morita, Angie Dickinson, Keanu Reeves, John Hurt, Rain Phoenix, and Grace Zabriskie. Tom Robbins himself was the narrator. The soundtrack was sung entirely by k.d. lang.

Dedicated to the late River Phoenix, who gives an uncredited performance, the movie was a critical and commercial failure. After this film had its world premiere in September 1993 at the Toronto Film Festival, the movie was set to open, but due to the incredibly negative response, the film was delayed for more editing. The US wide release was May 20, 1994.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The story of Sissy Hankshaw (Uma Thurman), a woman born with a mutation (she would not call it a defect) giving her enormously large thumbs. The film is a transgressive romp, covering topics from homosexuality and free love to drug use and political rebellion to animal rights and body odor and religions. Sissy makes the most of her thumbs by becoming a hitchhiker. Her travels take her to New York, where she becomes a model for a transvestite feminine hygiene products mogul who introduces her to the man whom she will marry, a staid Mohawk named Julian Gitche (Keanu Reeves). In her later travels she encounters, among many others, a sexually open cowgirl named Bonanza Jellybean (Rain Phoenix) and an itinerant escapee from the Japanese internment camps happily mislabeled "The Chink" (Pat Morita). Robbins finally inserts himself into the novel as a character as well.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Trivia

  • At the beginning, lot of stars rise in the sky. One, aside and slower than the others, writes the words "For River". [River Phoenix]
  • The film is referenced in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 Movie Pulp Fiction in which Uma Thurman also appeared.

[edit] Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on November 2, 1993 by Rhino Records.[2]

[edit] Track listing

  1. Just Keep Me Moving
  2. Much Finer Place
  3. Or Was I
  4. Hush Sweet Lover
  5. Myth
  6. Apogee
  7. Virtual Vortex
  8. Lifted by Love
  9. Overture
  10. Kundalini Yoga Waltz
  11. In Perfect Dreams
  12. Curious Soul Astray
  13. Ride of Bonanza Jellybean
  14. Don't Be a Lemming Polka
  15. Sweet Little Cherokee - k.d. lang
  16. Cowgirl Pride

[edit] Filming locations

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links