Dictionary Thesaurus Word Dynamo Quotes Reference Translator Spanish

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (film)

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, 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.

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.

Cast

Tom Robbins as Narrator (voice)
Uma Thurman as Sissy Hankshaw
Lorraine Bracco as Delores Del Ruby
Pat Morita as The Chink
Angie Dickinson as Miss Adrian
Keanu Reeves as Julian Gitche
John Hurt as The Countess
Rain Phoenix as Bonanza Jellybean
Ed Begley Jr. as Rupert
Carol Kane as Carla
Sean Young as Marie Barth
Crispin Glover as Howard Barth
Roseanne Arnold as Madame Zoe
Buck Henry as Dr. Dreyfus
Grace Zabriskie as Mrs. Hankshaw
Ken Kesey as Mr. Hankshaw
Heather Graham as Cowgirl Heather
Udo Kier as Commercial Director
Lin Shaye as Rubber Rose Maid
William Burroughs as Himself
Edward James Olmos (uncredited) as Musician at Barbecue

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.