NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Paramount Blu-ray (June 2020): Paramount have transferred the 1980 Travolta vehicle Urban Cowboy to Blu-ray. It is on a dual-layered disc with a high bitrate but the image has almost no visible grain structure intact. It looks inordinately soft and I can't help but think DNR is the culprit. What a shame. Inside Gilley's Bar is very dark so I would like to compare it to another release but don't have anything available. Bottom line is that this does not look very film-like at all. The 80's stock was weak but this looks like ugly digitization to me. 

On their Blu-ray, Paramount use a robust DTS-HD Master 5.1 track (24-bit) in the original English language. It carries some depth for the effects of mechanical bull-riding, construction work and separation in crowd noises. The score is by Ralph Burns (Cabaret, All That Jazz, Star 80) but more prominently would be samples of country music, often performed by the likes of Jimmy Buffett, Joe Walsh, Dan Fogelberg, Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, Mickey Gilley, Anne Murray, The Eagles, Bonnie Raitt, The Charlie Daniels Band, Kenny Rogers, and Boz Scaggs. These are usually short samples to add to the favor and atmosphere of Gilley's. It sounds very solid in the lossless and there is a German and French lossy Dolby DUBs as options.  Paramount offer optional English, English (SDH), French or German subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Paramount Blu-ray offers new supplements including the 1/4 hour "Good Times with Gilley: Looking Back at Urban Cowboy" - essentially an interview with Mickey Gilley reflecting back on the heyday of his bar, plus 8-minutes of newly published deleted scenes that fans may find interesting. Repeated from previous digital editions are outtakes and rehearsal footage of riding the mechanical bull and the package includes a leaflet with access to a digital copy of the film.

One of the formulaic 80's flics, Urban Cowboy settles in a Texas cowboy bar scene with Travolta looking as handsome as any man has a right to. Debra Winger looking like a comely but bold and irreverent, cowgirl and Scott Glenn as the muscular immoral badass. It's Hollywood carried by decent production values, star appeal in a countrified milieu. Not bad at all for a revisit of some surface entertainment - nostalgia, too seeing as it's 40-years ago. The Paramount Blu-ray image is a head-scratcher but the audio is strong with some relevant new extras. Those sensitive to digitization should steer clear. 

Gary Tooze