Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993)

February 10, 2025 1:39 PM

Sissy Hankshaw is born with enormous thumbs that help her hitchhiking through the U.S. from a young age. She becomes a model in advertising, and her New York agent, "the Countess," sends her to his ranch in California to shoot a commercial, set against the background of mating whooping cranes. There, she befriends Bonanza Jellybean, one of the cowgirls at the beauty ranch.

Trailer, review, review, review.

The movie was dedicated to the late River Phoenix. This post is dedicated to the late Tom Robbins.

posted by box (11 comments total)

I watched this movie and I think read the book, but only have a very vague memory of it. I'll have to revisit them.
posted by Julnyes at 2:35 PM on February 10

The movie was a huge financial and critical flop at the time--I bet there are some good show-biz/how-did-this-get-made stories to be told.

According to JustWatch, it's not streaming anywhere--if you search out a DVD, you might be interested to know that the original 1994 issue is in the original aspect ratio, while the 2010 DVD is cropped.
posted by box at 2:45 PM on February 10 [3 favorites]

My memory of this was that it was pretty uneven. I had a Robbins obsessive in my life at that point so was dragged to see it. Never read the book so always felt I was missing something as I was watching in the theatre.
posted by Ashwagandha at 3:20 PM on February 10 [1 favorite]

Wow, that's a heck of a cast list.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 6:02 PM on February 10 [2 favorites]

The bit from Nathan Rabin's review sums up Robbins pretty well for me: "For eternally status-conscious undergraduates, the books we read—or at least litter artfully around our living spaces, in hopes that peers will notice them and be impressed—play a big role in defining ourselves." That's exactly what the person who I knew who was really into Robbins in college was like. Just the idea that having really big thumbs would make you a really good hitchhiker is the sort of too-precious-by-half-if-not-three-quarters that sends me away from the book or movie or T-shirt or whatever.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:03 PM on February 10 [2 favorites]

I don’t know what the reviewers were expecting a movie version of that book to look like.

It seemed like they wanted to say it was a terrible book but felt inhibited from doing so.
posted by Lemkin at 1:01 PM on February 11

Gene Siskel: "Our next film is a real disappointment."
posted by box at 2:54 PM on February 11 [2 favorites]

Hipster/psychedelic literature very rarely translates well onto film. This is an example of that deficiency.

One day we may see a film version of 'The Hawkline Monster'. I pray it is worthy.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 4:14 PM on February 11 [2 favorites]

The soundtrack is amazing! It featured kd lang when she was at her most popular.

This movie seemed like it was designed especially for me, including a ton of shooting locations near where I went to high school, in Central Oregon. I followed the reporting on the film's production status, and based on everything I read, it seemed almost certain to suck.

I watched this in the theater once, and remember only distinctly laughing out loud at one visage of Keanu on screen. The rest is a big blur. No shade to Gus nor to anybody else involved.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 4:25 PM on February 11 [2 favorites]

i suggested to my friends that we go see this movie at The Bookshelf in Guelph when it came out because it had a great cast. They still haven't forgiven me for that.
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:04 PM on February 11

Good book, terrible movie.
posted by fairmettle at 5:23 AM on February 13 [1 favorite]