Taglines: The Boss. The Law. The Dreamer. The Flame. The Heartbreaker. The Girls of Coyote Ugly.
Coyote Ugly movie storyline. An aspiring musician becomes one of the most famous bartenders in New York in this high-spirited comedy-drama. Small-town girl Violet Sanford (Piper Perabo) dreams of making a name for herself as a singer and songwriter, so she moves to New York City in hopes of landing her big break.
Needing to support herself until stardom rolls around, she takes a job as a barmaid at a new nightspot called Coyote Ugly, where the owner Lil (Maria Bello) and the staff of attractive young women dance on the bar, flirt with the mostly male clientele, sing along with the jukebox, and goad the customers into matching them shot for shot. Soon, local media pick up on the bar’s success, turning the staff into unexpected celebrities, a situation that presents its own set of problems.
Coyote Ugly is a 2000 American romantic musical comedy-drama film based on the actual Coyote Ugly Saloon. Set in New York City, the film stars Piper Perabo and Adam Garcia. It was directed by David McNally, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Chad Oman, and written by Gina Wendkos.
Coyote Ugly opened fourth at the North American box office making US$17,319,282 in its opening weekend. It went on to gross $60,786,269 domestically and $53,130,205 around the world to a total of $113,916,474 worldwide, becoming a box office success. Principal photography took place in Manhattan and small towns in New Jersey including South Amboy and Sea Bright for a month. Production then moved to California and shooting took place in Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Pasadena, and San Pedro.
The film was based on an article, “The Muse of the Coyote Ugly Saloon”, in GQ by Elizabeth Gilbert, who worked as a bartender in the East Village. The bar, which opened in 1993, quickly became a favorite of the Lower East Side hipsters. As mentioned in the film, the slang term “coyote ugly” refers to the feeling of waking up after a one-night stand, and discovering that your arm is underneath someone who is so physically repulsive that you would gladly chew it off without waking the person just so you can get away without being discovered. Coyotes are known to gnaw off limbs if they are stuck in a trap in order to facilitate escape.
About the Story
Violet Sanford leaves her hometown of South Amboy, New Jersey, her father Bill, and her best friend Gloria, in order to pursue her dreams of becoming a songwriter in nearby New York City. The pizza shop where she works has a wall covered with the autographs of employees that left, hoping to make it big, and Violet adds hers to the wall. Violet tries unsuccessfully, a lot of times, to get her demo tape noticed by the recording studios. One night, she tries to get herself noticed by a music industry scout.
The bartender jokingly points out Kevin O’Donnell, making her believe that he is the bar owner. When the joke is discovered, Violet feels that Kevin was making a fool out of her. With only a few dollars left in her pocket after her apartment is robbed, she goes to an all-night diner and notices three girls, Cammie, Rachel, and Zoe, flaunting the hundreds of dollars in tips they earned. After inquiring, she finds out that they work at a trendy bar named Coyote Ugly.
She finds her way to the bar and convinces the bar owner Lil to give her an audition. Violet’s first audition does not go well; but after breaking up a fight between two customers, Lil agrees to give her a second audition. At her second audition, Violet douses the fire warden in water costing Lil $250. In order to keep her job, she has to make up $250 in one night. Kevin turns up at the bar, but ends up being auctioned off to one of the women in the bar. In order to pay off her debt to Kevin, Violet agrees to go on four dates with him. The two begin a relationship.
Kevin commits himself to helping Violet overcome her stage fright so that she can sell her music. Violet’s stage fright was shown to be inherited from her mother who also came to New York to be a singer. Also shown is Violet’s ability to sing to songs that she did not write. This fact is verified when she sings on the bar in the bar in order to save the necks of Cammie and Rachel, who were trying to break up a fight between the customers.
One night, a patron takes a picture of Violet in the middle of a raunchy move and with water pouring on her. When the picture appears in the paper, Bill happens to see it and gets angry at her. She continues to pursue her dream, though, despite being sidetracked with work at the bar. After getting fired when Kevin gets into a fight at the bar, Violet returns to New Jersey for Gloria’s wedding and returns to New York when Bill was in a car accident.
Coyote Ugly (2000)
Directed by: David McNally
Starring: Piper Perabo, Maria Bello, Tyra Banks, Bridget Moynahan, Adam Garcia, John Goodman, Izabella Miko, Melanie Lynskey, LeAnn Rimes, Michael Weston, Ellen Cleghorne
Screenplay by: Todd Graff, Gina Wendkos
Production Design by: Jon Hutman
Cinematography by: Amir M. Mokri
Film Editing by: William Goldenberg
Costume Design by: Marlene Stewart
Set Decoration by: Rosemary Brandenburg
Art Direction by: Gae S. Buckley, Bruce Alan Miller
Music by: Trevor Horn
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sensuality.
Distributed by: Buena Vista Pictures
Release Date: August 4, 2000
Views: 346
