MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN COWBOYS

Set in the rodeo country of Guthrie, Oklahoma, MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN COWBOYS deals with themes of relationship and heroism. Through hard training and discipline, H.D. Dalton hopes to achieve his dream of winning big at the annual rodeo.

The film opens as H.D. receives a terrific mauling from number-one-bucking bull, Thunderbolt, after which he returns home to recover. Until now, he has been a two-bit rider of bulls, sacrificing love and marriage to follow the rodeos.

His problems intensify when he returns: his Dad has been taken to a nursing home, and his one-time girl friend, Jolie, wants nothing to do with him. When he visits Dad, however, H.D. deems him fit to be home, much to the chagrin of sister, Cheryl, who put him in the nursing home. Cheryl and banker husband, Clint, plan to sell the elder Dalton’s land and make a huge profit.

Jolie proves elusive and hard-to-get. She’s a widow with two young children who tired of waiting for H.D. earlier and wants no part of waiting again. Jolie tells him: “You cowboys are all alike. You shuffle in and out of people’s lives with a big grin on your face; then, move on.”

Placating Jolie, H.D. assures her of his love and says he will stay put. The problem is, how will he make it? All he knows is riding the bulls. He figure he needs money, lots of it, in order to marry Jolie and fight Cheryl’s restraining order for their Dad.

H.D.’s Dad, a crusty former bull rider himself, goes into action, putting his son through all manner of rigorous, excruciating training maneuvers, so H.D. can enter and win the rodeo prize.

The film climax comes on rodeo day when H.D. needs to qualify in order to ride Thunderbolt again. His Dad slips out of the hospital and arrives in time to give him encouragement, and Jolie waits breathlessly in the stands.

MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN COWBOYS has a number of action-packed, suspenseful scenes of rodeo events and a fairly interesting love story, but it also contains excessive obscenities and profanities and a graphic fornication scene.

What comes to mind with this film (along with numerous others) as the characters carelessly take the Lord’s Name in vain and have illicit sexual experiences is: “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:18).

Unfortunately, this film not only sets a bad example, but encourages young people to do likewise. MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN COWBOYS degrades the memory of those great cowboy heroes of yesteryear.