‘My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys’ (PG)

Yo, buckaroos. Has Hollywood ever got a lot of Rocky Balbologna to foist on you. "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" is not just a country tune that growed, but an hommage. Herein, star Scott Glenn just saddles up the Italian Stallion and moseys on down underdog lane.

Glenn plays H.D., a lean, laconic rodeo performer who goes home to mend after he is gored by a bull named Thunderbolt. But he finds things have changed a heap since he last visited the family five years ago. The farm is deserted, his dog is gone and his sister (Tess Harper) has put his father (Ben Johnson) into an old age home. What's more, his high school sweetheart (Kate Capshaw) is now a widder with two kids.

Attractively scarred and tanned, H.D. takes off his shirt right quick to reveal his well-maintained upper body. Then he breaks his father, Jesse, out of the home and takes him back to the ranch. Just as his sister has predicted, the old man comes crying to her when H.D. leaves briefly to visit his old flame, Jolie. Armed with a power of attorney, Sis threatens to sell the ranch and return Jesse to the home. Jolie wants to get married.

All this paves the way for H.D.'s heroic return to the rodeo, where he must wrap his mighty thews round four bulls for a total of 32 seconds and $100,000. But first he's got to get in shape, an ordeal that brings him closer to Jesse, who believes it is his son's mind, not his body, that has been crippled by failure. And all the creek jogging and hay-bale tossing in the whole dang world can't heal a man's pride. No, that takes something extra, like riding the barn. "It's the third bull," Jesse explains when asked why H.D. is sitting on the barn roof, looking very much like a hood ornament.

A little zen bullism and a couple million grip-strengthening exercises later, H.D. is off to Bullmania for a showdown with Thunderbolt. But first he must earn the privilege by beating the best riders in America. And that's a lot of bull riding, I can tell you.