The 1994 action/comedy/drama The Cowboy Way arrives on Blu-ray for the first time this week thanks to Mill Creek Entertainment. Pepper Lewis (Woody Harrelson) and Sonny Gilstrap (Kiefer Sutherland) won the 1993 New Mexico State Rodeo Championship and were set to win the National Rodeo Championship, but Pepper was a no-show, leaving his partner (or is that pardner?) in the lurch. And so, for the past year, Sonny hasn’t really spoken with his former best friend. That is, until their common friend, ranch hand Nacho Salazar (Joaquín Martínez), goes missing after heading to New York to bring home his daughter Teresa (Cara Buono). Nacho had paid an unscrupulous man named John Stark (Dylan McDermott) to illegally smuggle his daughter out of Cuba and into the U.S. However, Stark changed the terms of his deal, demanding more money from the immigrant families, forcing them to pay off their debts in his sweat shops.

Sonny begrudgingly allows Pepper to join him in his trip to New York City to find Nacho and his daughter, but the bickering during their road trip is just the start of their adventure. As they make their way into the loud city, it quickly becomes clear that they’re not in Kansas New Mexico anymore…these cowboys are nothing like these city folks! They soon get the attention of Stark and his goons, who try to put a permanent end to their investigation into the Salazars. But Sonny and Pepper are a resourceful team when they work together, and they’re going to have to put aside their issues and cowboy up if they’re going to succeed.

The Cowboy Way is a great mix of action and humor. It starts off as an estranged buddy road trip, then turns into more of a fish-out-of-water comedy, before going full buddy action-comedy. The film has a surprising amount of heart mixed in as the cowboys work to reconcile the issue that has been dividing them. At the start of the movie, there is this strained relationship between Sonny and Pepper. Sonny is the more responsible, gentleman-like, iconic cowboy. He had planned to settle down and buy a ranch with his rodeo winnings. Meanwhile, Pepper is much more of a wild card. He drinks, chews tobacco, and spends his money faster than he earns it. When we first see Pepper after the incident, he’s playing a sexy game of “Big Chief” with his married girlfriend, role-playing as the Indian “savage” trying to get the “pale face woman” (this scene would never get made in a movie today!). Sonny is still furious about what happened in the past, but he needs to put his grudge aside in order to help Nacho, who may be in dire trouble. Once the cowboys arrive in NYC, we get more of a fish-out-of-water comedy, with these uncultured guys shocking the staff of the ritzy Waldorf Astoria—though Pepper’s odd behavior catches the eye of fashion designer Margarette (Marg Helgenberger, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation). They also make a scene at Stark’s Latin dance club, where they strike up a bar fight with one of Stark’s goons, Chango (Luis Guzmán), who they later use some unorthodox cowboy interrogation methods on. The movie also has an action/comedy vibe as the guys team up with mounted NYC police officer Sam ‘Mad Dog’ Shaw (Ernie Hudson, Ghostbusters) in their search for Nacho and takedown of Stark. This all culminates in a big action sequence that perfectly blends the guys’ cowboy rodeo talents with their new asphalt jungle location.

Kiefer Sutherland and Woody Harrelson are a hoot, and have such great chemistry with one another. They really do feel like longtime buddies. Sutherland’s Sonny is the perfect straight guy to Harrelson’s wild Pepper. There’s even a bit of that simple-minded, dim-witted “Woody” mixed into Harrelson’s performance. Dylan McDermott’s John Stark is much more of a straightforward, ruthless bad guy. There isn’t anything tongue-in-cheek or played for laughs in his performance. He will do whatever it takes to further his career, permanently eliminating any obstacles that get in his way. Some of the other humor comes from the side characters who interact with these out-of-their-element cowboys.

Mill Creek Entertainment has given The Cowboy Way its first HD disc release, but unfortunately, the picture quality leaves much to be desired. Darker scenes—such as the opening sequence when we see Stark at the dock welcoming his latest imports—are a bit too dark and details are difficult to make out at times. Other scenes have been over-sharpened, making the original film grain really stand out in a distracting way. I eventually got used to this, but the picture quality was pretty disappointing overall. The audio track was far more impressive, making excellent use of the surround channel to add some ambiance and make the film feel more immersive—such as the roar of the crowd and echo of the announcer at the rodeo competitions, the sounds of music and patrons at Stark’s night club, or just the general noise of the city. Dialog was also easy to understand throughout. The disc comes packed in a standard HD keepcase without a slipcover. There is no bonus material or digital copy included.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:46:44)

• 1080p / Widescreen 1.85:1
• Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
• Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:

This release contains no bonus material.

Final Thoughts:

The Cowboy Way is a fun and entertaining fish-out-of-water buddy action/comedy. Stars Kiefer Sutherland and Woody Harrelson have great chemistry as the estranged friends and cowboys in the city who must put aside their differences and utilize their rodeo skills in order to save the day. The technical presentation of the Blu-ray is a mixed bag—while the audio is excellent, the video is overly-sharpened and accentuates the film’s natural grain in a bad way. Like other recent Mill Creek releases, the disc is barebones and doesn’t include any bonus material or digital copy. The film itself is worth a look, I just wish the presentation had been better.