Pure Country

For other uses, see Pure Country (disambiguation).

Pure Country
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Christopher Cain
Written by	Rex McGee
Produced by	Jerry Weintraub
Starring	George Strait Lesley Ann Warren Isabel Glasser
Cinematography	Richard Bowen
Edited by	Jack Hofstra
Music by	Steve Dorff
Production company	Jerry Weintraub Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	October 23, 1992 (1992-10-23)
Running time	112 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$10 million
Box office	$15.2 million

Pure Country is a 1992 American drama musical western film directed by Christopher Cain and starring George Strait in his acting debut, with Lesley Ann Warren, Isabel Glasser and Kyle Chandler. The film, while profitable with box office receipts of over $15 million against a $10 million budget, fell far short of its expectations. The soundtrack was a critical success and, to date, is Strait's best selling album. The movie was Rory Calhoun's last film role before his death in 1999, and it was also the first film in the Pure Country trilogy.

Plot

At the beginning of the movie, we see an audience chanting "Dusty!", the band begins to play that the concert is full of smoke and lights, Wyatt "Dusty" Chandler enters the stage sporting a beard and ponytail, but he couldn't find the guitar, so Dusty grabs the guitar to begin the concert, and performs songs such as "Heartland", "Baby Your Baby", and "Where the Sidewalk Ends". Inside the tour bus, Dusty feels that his elaborate stage show is overwhelming his music, a suspicion confirmed one night when he omits several bars of a chart-topping hit, "Where the Sidewalk Ends". Dusty tells Lula about his new single "Overnight Male", and telling that Buddy Jackson is a member of the road crew. Meanwhile, Dusty wears sunglasses and performs "Overnight Male", and has a conversation with Dusty's road crew member Buddy Jackson, telling to bring the strings, the horns, and the accordion, but there was no accordion. After the conversation, Dusty and his band begin playing the song, but Lula tells Buddy not to do it again, which is not for long with that song. Back at the Shreveport concert, Dusty and his band continued playing the song, and then, he performs "Where the Sidewalk Ends", which is all a blur. After the concert, Dusty has a conversation with his drummer and best friend, Earl Blackstock on reminiscing that they were kids. Without telling his manager, Lula, he decides to take a walk, but he does not say exactly where he is going or for how long. Dusty was waiting for his truck, and he hitches a ride. After shaving his beard and cutting off his ponytail, Dusty heads for the small farm town where he grew up, visiting his wise old grandmother. Later that day, he visits a bar where he and Earl played prior to making it big.

That evening, Lula tells the members of Dusty's band by asking where Dusty is, and the concert wasn't canceled, because they're 25,000 fans out there, and they never get their show. Buddy Jackson (a member of Dusty's road crew) comes on stage posing as Dusty, and lip-syncing to a recording of Dusty by showing the voice on tape; covered by lights and smoke, the gimmick works, the band wasn't very happy for Lula for letting Buddy pose as Dusty, rather than cancel the concert. Meanwhile in a down home bar, Dusty hangs around for some relaxation and discovers Harley Tucker dancing and smiling at Dusty. Al, Harley's drunk and rugged friend, get into an argument in the parking lot in the pouring rain, Al tells Dusty to back off and punches him, but Dusty comes to assist Harley with Al, who tries to stop punching and bothering. Al punches Dusty, falling to the ground. Back at the Shreveport concert, Buddy is still posing as Dusty while lip-syncing to Dusty's music. Lula asks the members of Dusty's band what Buddy was doing, such canceling the concert, raincheck or something, but we couldn't play with a guy of who's lip-syncing. Earl punches Buddy, and he falls to the ground. The next morning, Dusty has a conversation with Harley about changing his name to Wyatt, so they have breakfast with the Tucker family, and has a conversation with Harley's father Ernest Tucker. Meanwhile, Harley tells Dusty and Al that they were all drunk last night. Harley tells Dusty to go back in the house, but Dusty punches Al and falls to the ground, and Harley accidentally stepped on Al's hand. Meanwhile, Harley is determined to save the struggling spread with victory in a Las Vegas rodeo.

Buddy confronts Lula after his performance and demands $100,000 and a recording contract. He lies to the press that Lula paid Buddy to pose as Dusty. Lula reaches out to Earl to find Dusty. She then follows him to Dusty's location. Realizing he has feelings for Harley and will not leave, Lula tells Harley that Dusty is married to her, but Harley dumps Dusty and Lula waits to scoop him up to return to his band and career. Now back with his band, Dusty demands that his stage shows be toned down, and he wanted Buddy to disappear. Dusty tells Buddy if ever shows his face around country music again, but he'll be threatened to sue him so fast, so Dusty gets mad at Buddy due to telling the press about Lula offering Buddy with his money and a recording contract for posing as Dusty, so he tells Buddy to go on and get him out of here, but Buddy tells Dusty that this isn't over yet, in which Dusty replied "yes it is", and Buddy leaves, because he was no longer with Dusty fans. Lula is grateful for his intervention to which Dusty brings up Harley's name. After Dusty's band left Shreveport, they head to Las Vegas where Harley Tucker competed the rodeo. Lula secretly arranges for Harley and her family to get tickets to Dusty's concert. Once seated she sends an attendant to get Harley where she admits the truth to her. At the end of the movie, Dusty does the show without all the smoke and the lights, and sits on the edge of the stage, playing guitar and singing "I Cross My Heart", a special love song he has composed for her, which wins Harley's forgiveness, the two hug at the edge of the stage after his performance.

Cast and characters

• George Strait as Wyatt "Dusty" Chandler
• Lesley Ann Warren as Lula Rogers
• Isabel Glasser as Harley Tucker
• Kyle Chandler as Buddy Jackson
• John Doe as Earl Blackstock
• Rory Calhoun as Ernest Tucker
• Molly McClure as Grandma Ivy Chandler

Production

Pure Country was filmed in 1991 throughout Texas, but mostly in Maypearl.

The graveyard scene was shot at Cresson Cemetery in Cresson, Texas, and the concert sequences were filmed at concert venues in Fort Worth, including North Side Coliseum and Will Rogers Coliseum.

The bar scenes where Dusty meets Harley were filmed at Western Kountry Klub, located between Midlothian and Mansfield Tx.

Box office

Despite Strait's popularity in the music world, Pure Country only grossed $15 million at the box office. Although the expectations had been higher for Strait's first major film role, this did not stop the soundtrack album from becoming the best-selling album of Strait's career to date.

Critical reception

Rolling Stone stating that the film was "lambasted by most reviewers". It has a score of 41% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 4.7 out of 10.

Chicago film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert both praised Strait's performance, feeling that he was a convincing actor in the lead and they both enjoyed Glasser's performance, but felt the film was undermined by a hokey story, and no moments for satire which would have made the film better. In Movie and Video Guide, a review summarized that the film was "mostly pure tedium, though the film picks up some in hour two with the appearance of Glasser, and Rory Calhoun as her father".

Legacy

Sequels

Pure Country had two sequels: Pure Country 2: The Gift (2010) and Pure Country: Pure Heart (2017). Screenwriter Rex McGee spoke of the two follow-ups saying he was not involved with those films and that their scripts existed for a long time. McGee continued that when the scripts were picked up by Warner Bros., the studio "just slapped the "Pure Country" title on."

Musical

Plans for the musical were announced in the mid to late 2000s. John Bettis and Steve Dorf were brought on to create new lyrics and music for the musical, respectively, and Rex McGee was brought on to write the book for Pure Country. A staged reading was performed on May 7, 2007, at New World Stages and featured Will Chase, Carlin Glynn, Cady Huffman, James Moye, and Danny Rutigliano in unspecified role.

The musical was originally slated to premiere on Broadway during Spring 2009 and a workshop casting call was placed in March 2008. The Broadway production was set to feature Joe Nichols and Lorrie Morgan in starring roles. This version did not come to fruition and the stage musical did not release until 2017, when it premiered on June 9 at the Irving Arts Center's Carpenter Performance Hall outside of Dallas, using the book and songs written for the Broadway release. This release coincided with a 25 year anniversary celebration for the film, in order for the celebration to serve as a lead up to the musical's premiere. Harley Jay was brought on to portray the leading role. The Dallas Morning News gave the 2017 production a favorable review.

A new production of the musical was planned by the Houston-based theater company Theatre Under The Stars for their 2019-2020 season, however this production was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. If it had not been cancelled, the production would have featured Levi Kreis in the lead role, accompanied by Sally Mayes, Stephanie Gibson, and Felicia Finley.

Soundtrack

• See Pure Country (soundtrack)

External links

• Pure Country at IMDb
• Pure Country at AllMovie
• Pure Country at the TCM Movie Database
• 1992 George Strait Interview About Pure Country Part 1
• 1992 George Strait Interview About Pure Country Part 2