Rustlers' Rhapsody

Rustlers' Rhapsody
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Hugh Wilson
Produced by	David Giler Walter Hill
Written by	Hugh Wilson
Starring	Tom Berenger G. W. Bailey Marilu Henner Fernando Rey Andy Griffith
Music by	Steve Dorff
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	May 10, 1985 (United States)
Running time	88 min.
Language	English
Budget	$15 million
Box office	$6,090,497

Rustlers' Rhapsody (1985) is an American comedy-Western film. It is a parody of many Western conventions, most visibly of the singing cowboy films that were prominent in the 1930s and the 1940s.

The film was written and directed by Hugh Wilson and stars Tom Berenger as a stereotypical good-guy cowboy, Rex O'Herlihan, who is drawn out of a black-and-white film and transferred into a more self-aware setting. Though supposedly Wilson received his inspiration from working at CBS Studio Center, the former Republic Pictures backlot, the movie was filmed in Spain.

Patrick Wayne, son of Western icon John Wayne, co-stars, along with Andy Griffith, Fernando Rey, G.W. Bailey, Marilu Henner and Sela Ward.

Henner was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award as Worst Supporting Actress.

The concept of the movie is explained in a voiceover intro by G. W. Bailey, who wonders what it would be like if one of the 1930s/1940s Rex O'Herlihan movies were to be made today. At that point, in a scene reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz, the cinematography shifts from black & white to color and the soundtrack changes from mono to surround sound.

As a consequence of this paradigm shift, Rex O'Herlihan (Berenger), a "singing cowboy," is the only character aware of the plot outline. He explains that he "knows the future" inasmuch as "these Western towns are all the same" and that it's his "karma" to "ride into a town, help the good guys, who are usually poor for some reason, against the bad guys, who are usually rich for some reason, and ride out again." Rex's knowledge is also connected to the unspecified "root" vegetables he digs up and eats.