Chipper Xavier
"Convict Cowboy" (1995) is a made for television, modern-day-heterosexual-movie-western starring Jon Voight as Ry Weston and Kyle Chandler as Clay Treyton. You may recognize the obvious allusion to "Midnight Cowboy" (1969), which won 3 Oscar Awards, in which Voight also starred. Despite the similar title and shared actor, Convict won no awards, although the director, Rod Holcomb, made a commendable effort.The film starts with a simple formula: Voight is shown atop a bull, riding it hard to take the prize. In short order, the director reveals that the bull ride takes place within the confines of a prison rodeo. Next, we happen upon a drunken Chandler as he stumbles about some western downtown street. Chandler causes a bit of property damage, fights with the arresting officers, and gets himself arrested and thrown into jail for two years, where he meets Voight. Voight is serving out a life sentence for murder, but has been granted the privileges of a trustee as he supervises the prison ranch.Voight and Chandler meet when Chandler connives his way onto Voight's ranch detail. The scenes which follow serve to develop the characters of both actors, and are reasonably well filmed. Unfortunately, the director creates story arcs which the characters are not fleshed-out enough to properly resolve.With a run time of 98 minutes, you get the feeling that this film could have finished up in about an hour. Some of the problems this movie presents are pretty standard for television fare: Voight's action scenes atop bucking broncos and bulls are all shot in slow motion atop a still set piece - Voight does not straddle a living animal during these completions. Also, the romance between Voight and Marcia Gay Harden, who plays a veterinarian, has nowhere to go - it stops at just one kiss. That leaves the obvious friendship between Voight and Chandler - surely their relationship will be developed more fully - but unfortunately, it isn't. Aside from a drawn out fistfight and a few cheesy bits of romantic advice from Chandler to Voight on how to woo women, there is very little bedrock on which to base their camaraderie.Where does that leave our film? Well, nowhere, really. Ben Gazzara, playing a prison warden, is meant to convey to us that Voight has never stood up for any other inmate the way he stands up for Chandler - but the moment arrives too soon, and is simply not believable. At the film's conclusion, its empty nature becomes apparent: Voight is still a prisoner, and Chandler hasn't really learned much at all.The story may fall flat, but the scenery and set pieces are exceptional. That is one recommendation I can give this film. The director uses lots of livestock - horses, bulls and calves. There are also views of rolling plains and great, open fields, which give the film a sense of western space and freedom. The prison is most likely a real one. The rodeo takes place on what appears to be a professional rodeo circuit.If you are looking for a deeper, more intelligent film, be sure to purchase or rent Midnight Cowboy, starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight. Convict Cowboy seems to be a cheap and bawdy homage to the earlier film. Although Voight does all that is asked, Convict fails on most levels - but we'll give the director an "A" for effort.Chipper F. Xavier, Esq.
Rodrigo Amaro
"Convict Cowboy" is a good chance to see Jon Voight acting nicely, something very different of his latest performances where most of his characters are annoying and bossy. Also a good chance to see Kyle Chandler with a fine performance too. Here Chandler plays a drunken cowboy who was arrested after invading a shop. He's sent to a country prison where most of the prisoners's job is taking care of the horses, and join rodeos like the cowboy of the title played by Voight, convict of murder and sentenced to remain all his days in prison. They start to work together and develop a strict sense of trust and friendship. Nothing happens in the plot except the involvement between Chandler and some dangerous inmates who keep bothering him to make some drug transfers to them. You'd probably seen that many times before in other prison movies. And of course there's the rodeo, eight seconds on the bull, dramatic moments with slow motion scenes and that kid of stuff.A movie to watch when you have nothing better to do, or if you're a fan of Voight, Chandler, Marcia Gay Harden (she plays an veterinary and love interest of Voight's character), Ben Gazzara, Glenn Plummer and Stephen McHattie (best performance in the movie as the villain). That's it! 6/10
