City Slickers - A Fun Filled Western Comedy

by timwilkie
(A Western Town)

Sometimes We Learn While Playing

Western comedies don’t come by that often and City Slickers is that one out of hundred western movies for that reason. It revolves around a simple but beautiful story. Three New Yorkers named Mitch, Phil and Ed in full mid-life crisis-mode (Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, Bruno Kirby) head out West to clear their heads with a vacation at a dude ranch where they can drive cattle from New Mexico to Colorado. There they meet old cowboy Curly (Jack Palance) who is a grizzled old hand who runs the ranch's cattle drive. Curly not only teaches them how to become real cowboys but also gives them a new vision to see their real life more clearly. And then for three friends, this holiday almost turns into an enlightening spiritual experience.

Crystal, Stern, and Kirby's characters in this western film each have their respective problems back home. Crystal is locked in a job he hates (selling radio ad time) and is obsessed with growing older. Stern cheated on his shrieking harpy of a wife with one of his employees (played by the actress who provides the voice of Lisa Simpson), who became pregnant. Kirby has commitment issues. None of these characterizations are terribly interesting, but the movie shines when it follows the three on the trail, exchanging stories and memories on horseback. The characters emerge as more fully drawn when they are talking about their respective fathers or the power of baseball to knit together relationships. The warmth of the movie comes through in these scenes, and there are moments of real emotion beyond the requirements of a comedic movie.

As you expect in every good western, the inevitable test comes and the three friends must rise to the challenge of dealing with a cattle drive spinning out of control. In doing so, they each develop perspective on the troubles at home that had driven them out onto the range. This newfound self-esteem (as well as some rustic wisdom from Curly) allows them to return home with the necessary confidence to face their respective difficulties. This aspect of the movie is not terribly deep, and feels somewhat lacking, but maybe that's because most everyone has had an experience during a vacation that feels like it could be life-changing, only to realize later that real life changes generally don't happen that way. Of course, there's nothing wrong with a feel-good movie once in a while. And when it is a western comedy (which is rare to find actually), everything is filled with a rustic fun.

Jack Palance as Curly stole the show in this 1991 western comedy movie, as his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor attests. Palance’s famous push-ups at the Academy Awards wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for this movie. Character of Curly is a cowboy caricature, but Palance invests the role with some actual depth. Just as Curly is an anachronism in the movie, watching Palance do his thing feels the same way. Crystal has plenty of gag lines, but the best belong to Palance.
Crystal:Hey Curly, kill anyone today?
Palance: Day ain't over yet.

The supporting cast of this western comedy movie is a sold group of character actors and provides plenty of humor themselves. The other guests at the ranch are equivalently deserving of the term "city slickers," and much of the humor in the movie comes from watching city folk deal with ranch situations, as one might expect. This movie was made without a lot of the bodily function humor that has for some reason become entrenched in many more recent comedy films (although there is a memorable scene of Billy Crystal helping to deliver a calf, which is marvelously gross).

All in all, City Slickers is an enjoyable family western comedy movie that has some truly hilarious moments and holds up well to repeat viewing.