Pure Country movie storyline. Wyatt “Dusty” Chandler (George Strait) is 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 purposely forgets several bars of a chart-topping hit and his fans don’t even notice. Disillusioned, Dusty walks off after the concert without telling his manager, Lulu (Lesley Ann Warren). The only person he tells is his best friend and drummer, Earl (John Doe), and that he is “taking a walk,” but does not say exactly where he is going or for how long.
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 stays on at the ranch, paying room and board and taking roping lessons, all the while earning the respect of owner Ernest (Rory Calhoun) and falling in love with Ernest’s granddaughter, Harley (Isabel Glasser), a woman determined to save the struggling spread with victory in a Las Vegas rodeo.
When Dusty learns that Lulu has secretly replaced him onstage with her boyfriend, Buddy Jackson (Kyle Chandler), dressed like Dusty and lip-syncing to a recording of Dusty, he returns to the stage. He demands that his stage shows be toned down, without all the smoke and elaborate lighting of which he had grown weary.
His first appearance after his “vacation” is in Las Vegas at the same time as the rodeo Harley Tucker is competing in. He writes a special love song just for her and arranges for her and her family to have front-row seats to the concert. True to his wishes, he does the show without all the hoopla and sits on the edge of the stage – playing and singing “I Cross My Heart,” which wins him Harley’s love.
Pure Country is a 1992 American dramatic musical western film directed by Christopher Cain and starring George Strait in his acting debut, with Lesley Ann Warren, Isabel Glasser and Kyle Chandler. The film was considered a box office bomb, however, the soundtrack was a critical success and, to date, is Strait’s best selling album. The film was followed by two sequels, Pure Country 2: The Gift (2010) and Pure Country: Pure Heart (2017).
Pure Country was filmed in 1991 throughout Texas, but mostly in Maypearl. The graveyard scene was shot at Cresson Cemetery in Cresson, Texas, and the concert sequences were filmed at concert venues in Fort Worth, including North Side Coliseum. The bar scenes where Dusty meets Harley were filmed at Western Kountry Klub, located between Midlothian and Mansfield Tx.
Pure Country (1992)
Directed by: Christopher Cain
Starring: George Strait, Lesley Ann Warren, Isabel Glasser, Kyle Chandler, John Doe, Rory Calhoun, Molly McClure, James Terry McIlvain, Toby Metcalf
Screenplay by: Rex McGee
Production Design by: Jeffrey Howard
Cinematography by: Richard Bowen
Film Editing by: Jack Hofstra
Set Decoration by: Derek R. Hill
Music by: Steve Dorff
MPAA Rating: PG for some mild violence, sensuality and language.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: October 23, 1992
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