Pure Country

The big-screen debut of country singer George Strait is a familiar tale of a star returning to his roots, a route traveled the same year by John Mellencamp in Falling From Grace (1992). Strait plays Dusty Chandler, one of the hottest performers in country music. Dusty feels that his elaborate stage show is overwhelming his music, a suspicion confirmed one night when he forgets several bars of a chart-topping hit and his fans don't even notice. Disillusioned, Dusty tells his manager Lula (Lesley Ann Warren) and best buddy Earl (John Doe) that he's taking a break. 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 (Molly McClure) and ending up at the ranch of the Tucker family, where nobody recognizes him. He becomes a hired hand, earning the respect of owner Ernest (Rory Calhoun) and falling in love with Ernest's daughter Harley (Isabel Glasser), a woman determined to save the struggling spread with victory in a Las Vegas rodeo. When Dusty learns that Lula has secretly replaced him onstage with her boyfriend (Kyle Chandler), he stages a showdown that wins Harley's affections.