The movie “City Slickers” is a classic that came out in 1991. It was a fun and funny adventure about a group of three friends that left the day-to-day grind of city life for a 2-week adventure on a dude ranch. The first couple days are spent learning how to ride a horse, rope a cow and herding cattle. After a comedy of errors, they embark on a cattle-driving adventure.
The cattle driving excursion is a series of misadventures and hardships that test the three friends and forces them to confront some inner demons on their trail to self-discovery. One of the key figures is a grizzly old cowboy named Curly (Jack Palance), he is the trail boss and quite an intimidating character who seems to be present for every stupid mistake that our heroes make. After surviving some of the trials on the trail, they start the breakthrough Curly’s tough exterior, he begins to warm up to the group and the main character Mitch (Billy Crystal) in particular. This is the pretense to my favorite parts of the movie, Mitch and Curly are riding along the trail just talking about lives problems, when Curly says; “you city folk spend about 50 weeks a year gettin’ knots in your rope, and then you think two weeks out here will untie ‘em for ya.” He stops and looks Mitch and says, “Do you know what the secret of life is?” Mitch replies, “No, what?” Curly holds up the index finger on his gloved hand and says, “This!” Mitch says, “Your finger?” Curly goes on to explain that he means that only one thing matters in life. Mitch says, “That’s great, but what’s the one thing?" Curly responds, “That’s what you gotta figure out.”
I have thought of that line many times over the years and have used it on others on more than one occasion, although never in the grizzled voice of Curly and not with nearly with the same bravado. This life lesson that Curly was letting Mitch in on is that it is up to us to figure out the one thing in our life that matters most to us. You need to put aside all of the noise and obstacles that invade us on a daily basis and remember what you care about most, your family, your friends, your faith, being the best person that you can be, to lead by example and to focus on what is important now. Dropping in Lou Holtz’s three rules to live by into the mix; Do what’s right, Do your best and Show people that you care.
In short, City Slickers is worth a rewatch, it is more than just an aging comedy. It brilliantly covers the topics of family, friendships, a midlife crisis, and the search for meaning in life. It’s a funny and poignant adventure with great scenery, a cattle drive (Covering the Western Movie Genre), a happy ending and a great life lesson.
Let me know what you think.
