‘Urban Cowboy’: John Travolta’s favourite John Travolta movie
After rising to prominence in the mid-1970s, John Travolta‘s career has spanned genres – from musicals to crime thrillers and romantic comedies. However, before he found success on the screen, the actor worked in the theatre, joining the cast of Grease in New York.
Travolta landed a part in the ABC sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter before receiving his first notable film role in 1976, playing Billy in Brian De Palma’s supernatural horror flick Carrie. It didn’t take long for the actor to receive widespread attention, culminating in a string of leading roles at the end of the decade.
The actor bagged the starring role in Saturday Night Fever, which helped to popularise the disco genre, thanks to a soundtrack provided by the Bee Gees. The wildly popular film launched Travolta to stardom, leading him to nab the iconic role of Danny in the hit musical Grease. Talking to Yahoo Entertainment, Travolta explained his excitement over landing the part he had longed to play while performing as a side character in the touring theatre production. “I knew that character like the back of my hand. I knew what worked, what didn’t work, what was funny, what wasn’t funny. All I could do as [Doody] was watch the coolest character for over a year, plus all the other times I’d seen people do it onstage.”
Despite his success as a heartthrob and musical star, Travolta re-partnered with De Palma and Carrie‘s Nancy Allen to film Blow Out, a thriller wildly different to the actor’s other leading roles. The film, directly inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow Up, was not a commercial success, although it was critically praised. Nevertheless, the movie drew the attention of Quentin Tarantino, who later cast Travolta in his 1994 crime comedy Pulp Fiction.
Travolta’s role as the hitman Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction reignited the actor’s career, which had undergone a period of weakness following a string of commercial and critical failures in the 1980s. With a second ‘Best Actor’ Academy Award nomination under his belt, Travolta’s career was back on track, leading him to star in a series of successes, from Terrence Malik’s The Thin Red Line to the musical comedy Hairspray.
However, despite his hefty list of credits and partnerships with iconic directors, his pick for his favourite Travolta movie might be surprising. Taking to Instagram in 2022, the actor posted a photo of himself in the 1980 movie Urban Cowboy, directed by James Bridges. He captioned the photo, “Throwback Tuesday! Urban Cowboy, my favourite experience on a film.”
In the documentary by CMT, Urban Cowboy: The Rise and Fall of Gilley, Travolta recalled being cast for the movie. “I felt like I had established, between Boy in the Plastic Bubble and Carrie and Saturday Night Fever, that I was indeed an actor. That was my job. If probably there were any skeptic, it might have been maybe the local person. ‘Can the city guy do this or not?'”
The actor led the film as Bud, who indulges in a love-hate relationship with Debra Winger’s Sissy Davis, whom he meets in a bar following his move to Texas. Due to the film’s popularity, sales of clothing similar to that worn by Travolta’s character, such as cowboy boots and large belt buckles. Although Urban Cowboy was rather successful upon its release, helping the revival of country music in the mainstream, its legacy seems to have faded over recent years.
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