# Bronco Billy

Bronco Billy is a 1980 American Western comedy-drama film starring Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke. It was directed by Eastwood and written by Dennis Hackin. The film focuses on the financially struggling owner of a traditional Wild West show and his new assistant.

## Plot

"Bronco" Billy McCoy is an aging trick-shooter performing to meager crowds in "Bronco Billy's Wild West Show", a rundown traveling circus reminiscent of Buffalo Bill's Wild West, of which he is the owner and operator. For the show's finale, a blindfolded Bronco Billy shoots balloons around a female assistant strapped onto a revolving wooden disc. The last balloon is with a knife, but the assistant moves her leg and is injured, so then quits.
Due to poor show attendance, Billy has been unable to pay his crew for the last six months, though they stick with him. At the next town, Bronco Billy goes to the city hall to obtain a permit. Also there are Heiress Antoinette Lily and John Arlington, who have eloped. Antoinette despises her future husband, but must marry before turning 30 to inherit a large fortune. Their car breaks down at the motel opposite the Wild West show. The next morning, Arlington steals Antoinette's money, luggage, and the repaired car.
Left stranded, Antoinette asks Bronco Billy for help. He hires her as his new assistant under the alias, "Miss Lily", though she agrees to only one show. Antoinette ad libs her lines, entertaining the audience, but irritating Billy.
Antoinette discovers that Arlington has been arrested for her murder (framed by Antoinette's stepmother and her scheming lawyer friend, who stand to gain the inheritance). Seizing an opportunity for revenge, Antoinette rejoins the Wild West show to remain incognito. She gradually learns that Billy's performers are not actually cowboys, but largely ex-convicts, alcoholics, or both, and have remade their lives into what they want to be. Billy is a failed shoe salesman from New Jersey, who shot his wife in the leg for sleeping with his best friend. Nevertheless, Antoinette begins to warm to the troupe.
Performers Lorraine Running Water and Chief Big Eagle announce they are expecting a baby together. The crew celebrates at a bar, though a fight breaks out. When Antoinette is nearly sexually assaulted, Billy and the crew come to her rescue. After, youngest member Leonard is arrested after being recognized as an Army deserter. Bronco Billy uses the show's meager savings to bribe the sheriff into releasing him, enduring the sheriff's verbal taunts. When the circus tent burns down, everyone blames Antoinette for their bad luck, but Bronco Billy defends her. He proposes robbing a train to raise money for a replacement. They attempt the heist in the antiquated Western way (driving alongside in a car and Billy on horseback to jump on), but a modern train derails their effort.
The troupe arrives at a mental institution, where they annually perform pro bono. The director, Dr. Canterbury, provides them with accommodations and the inmates make a new circus tent sewn together with American flags. Antoinette and Bronco Billy spend the night together. By chance, one inmate is Antoinette's husband, Arlington. His crooked lawyer persuaded him to plead insanity after he supposedly "murdered" Antoinette. When Arlington sees her, proving Antoinette is alive, he is released. Bronco Billy and the show depart without Antoinette.
Antoinette returns to her luxurious life, but she is bored and misses Billy, who drowns his loneliness with alcohol. During a performance, Bronco Billy is about to introduce his new assistant, "Miss Lily", who is actually fellow performer "Lefty" LeBow dressed as a woman. The real "Miss Lily" appears, instead. The show, now a raving success, runs smoothly. Bronco Billy ends it with a positive message for the children in the audience.

## Cast

* Clint Eastwood as Billy "Bronco Billy" McCoy
* Sondra Locke as Antoinette Lily
* Geoffrey Lewis as John Arlington
* Scatman Crothers as "Doc" Lynch
* Bill McKinney as "Lefty" LeBow
* Sam Bottoms as Leonard James
* Dan Vadis as Chief Big Eagle
* Sierra Pecheur as Lorraine Running Water
* Walter Barnes as Sheriff Dix
* Woodrow Parfrey as Dr. Canterbury
* Beverlee McKinsey as Irene Lily
* Doug McGrath as Lieutenant Wiecker
* Hank Worden as Station Mechanic
* William Prince as Edgar Lipton
* Tessa Richarde as Miss Mitzy

## Production

Eastwood received Dennis Hackin and Neal Dobrofsky's script and decided to join the film with Sondra Locke. The film was shot in two months in the Boise, Idaho area in the fall of 1979. Additional filming took place in eastern Oregon and New York. Filmed on a low budget of $5 million, it finished two to four weeks ahead of schedule.

## Soundtrack

The soundtrack, which was headlined by Merle Haggard and Ronnie Milsap, also featured singing by Eastwood himself.

## Critical reception

Eastwood has cited Bronco Billy as being one of the most affable shoots of his career, and biographer Richard Schickel has argued that the character of Bronco Billy is his most self-referential work. The film was a modest commercial hit, but was appreciated by critics. Janet Maslin of The New York Times believed the film was "the best and funniest Clint Eastwood movie in quite a while," praising Eastwood's directing and the way he intricately juxtaposes the old West and the new.

## Box office performance

Although the film grossed four to five times its cost (some $25 million) during its United States theatrical release, Eastwood considered it insufficient. In a French interview, Eastwood spoke about the film's financial reception, "It was an old-fashioned theme, probably too old fashioned since the film didn't do as well as we hoped. But if, as a film director, I ever wanted to say something, you'll find it in Bronco Billy."

## Awards and nominations

* 1st Golden Raspberry Award
    Nominated: Worst Actress (Sondra Locke)

## Stage musical

A stage musical adaptation premiered in Los Angeles in 2019 with a book by Hackin, with music and lyrics by Chip Rosenbloom and John Torres, and additional lyrics by Michele Brourman. It premiered in London in 2024.