EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES

US, 1993, minutes, Colour.
Uma Thurman, John Hurt, Lorraine Delores, Rain Phoenix, Grace Zubriskie, Roseanne Barr, Buck Henry, Keanu Reeves, Sean Young, Crispin Glover, Ed Begley Jr, Carol Kane, Angie Dickenson, Pat Morita, Heather Graham, Lyn Shaye, Udo Keir, William Burroughs. Narrator: Tom Robbins.
Directed by Gus Van Sant.

A weird film from the weird novel by Tom Robbins. Robbins is a heterosexual author but Gus Van Sant is a homosexual director and many commented that he did not understand the tone of Robbins’ novel, using only a small portion of it, focusing principally on the relationship between Sissy and Bonanza Jellybean and the lesbian dimensions.

This is something of a road movie, with Sissy (Uma Thurman), a girl with an abnormally big thumb, trekking the country, becoming a model, going to a ranch controlled by The Countess (John Hurt) where she finds Bonanza Jellybean, the community of lesbians and a battle with the police.

The cast is very impressive, a wide range of performers including, even, William Burroughs.

However odd the film might seem, it is actually narrated by the author, Tom Robbins.


1. A strange comedy? The work of Gus Van Sant? His interests and themes? His career? Adaptation of Tom Robbins’ book. Robbins’ fans being very dissatisfied? Robbins himself doing the voiceover?

2. The realistic style, yet stylized? Sissy’s hometown, New York City, on the road, the range of states, the ranch? The musical score?

3. The title, the 1960s and seventies? Issues, the perspective of the nineties?

4. The big cast, the many cameos, creative characters, presented briefly?

5. Sissy’s life, fantasy, real? Visual? The characters, the plot, the mystic touch, pop psychology, platitudes, causes? Sissy and her thumbs? Language, speeches, communication? Pop art?

6. The story of Sissy, as a little girl, her parents, the birthday cake and song, her father’s taunts about her thumbs? Her mother’s love for her? The large thumbs? Going to the doctor, and later returning to him after he was disbarred, for the operation on her thumb? At home, the other children, growing up, going to the fortune-teller, her reaction, the mother being upset, the prediction that there will be many women in her life?

7. Sissy’s life and her hitching on the road, the variety of people who gave her a lift, her discussions with the black man? Her decision to go to New York City? Her life as a model, the posters and billboards? Going to see the countess, the bond with the countess? The jobs? His setting her up with the painter? Sending her to the ranch? Wanting her to do the advertisement for deodorants, the beauty of the cranes? His comments about women, others?

8. The countess, John Hurt’s performance, explanation of being of Russian countess, born to a a Baptist family in Mississippi? The affected manner, the young boy in attendance? His interest in Sissy, promoting her? His later going to the ranch? His being injured, the danger of brain damage? Survival?

9. Sissy dressing up, going on the dates with the painter, seeing him, his family, his asthma and collapse, being carried away? His parents and their comments and concern? The young woman and her advances on Sissy? The young man and his helping?

10. Sissy on the road again, her thumbs, arrival at the ranch? Miss Adrian and her meeting her, welcoming her, her room, her being waited on? The advertisement for Chink? The explanation of his background? His sayings? Her going to visit him, the sexual encounter?

11. Delores, her work, her performance? Introduction to the cowgirls, the big number of them, their style, lesbian, the issues? Wanting freedom? Sissy and her interest in native American background? The cows, shooting, substituting goats?

12. Life that the ranch, the meeting with Bonanza Jellybean, her explanations to Sissy, her background, their talking, the attraction, the relationship?

13. The making of the commercial, the cranes, Sissy dressed as a crane, the filmmakers?

14. The cranes, where, meeting, at the ranch, the disappearance? The role of the cowgirls and protecting the cranes, using them? Setting and free? The flock?

15. The police coming to the ranch, the upsets in the shootings, the countess being injured? Miss Adrian?

16. The cowgirls banding together, a form of feminism, of the 1970s, from the perspective of the nineties? Freedom, lifestyle, dress, manner, relationships?

17. Delores and the drugs, feeding them to the cranes, her being taken, prison, her return, her leadership?

18. The build-up to the shootout, Bonanza and her guns, her being shot, the final talk with Sissy? Death?

19. What would happen to Sissy? Her past life? Her future?