[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/broncobilly.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[ShowWithinAShow Poster within a poster]]]]

->''"Do you understand what Bronco Billy and the Wild West Show are all about? You can be anything you want. All you have to do is go out and become it!"''
-->-- '''Lorraine Running Water''', ''Bronco Billy''

''Bronco Billy'' is a 1980 film directed by Creator/ClintEastwood, starring Eastwood and Creator/SondraLocke.

Bronco Billy [=McCoy=] (Eastwood) is the boss of a traveling Wild West show. He uses his [[TheGunslinger gunslinger]] skills during the main act of the show. Things are not going well for the show and the troupe is running out of money. Moreover, Bronco Billy is looking for an assistant for his performance. The troupe crosses path with Antoinette Lily (Locke), a rich heiress who has just married a guy she does not love, because she had to marry someone not to lose her inheritance. The groom is soon fed up with Antoinette's temper and he leaves her after stealing all her money. Antoinette has no choice but asking the help of Bronco Billy.

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!!''Bronco Billy'' provides examples of:
* AintTooProudToBeg: Bronco Billy begs the sheriff to release Leonard James.
* AmoralAttorney: Edgar Lipton, the lawyer of Antoinette's stepmother. He proposes Antoinette's husband to confess the murder of his wife in exchange of $500,000 and promises to arrange things to spare him the electrical chair.
* BarBrawl: There is one when the troupe goes out to celebrate Running Water's pregnancy.
* BlastingItOutOfTheirHands: Bronco Billy does it with the gangsters in the bank. He also tells children he did it in the past.
* BigDamnHero: After the BarBrawl, Bronco Billy arrives just when Antoinette Lily is going to be raped.
* BookEnds: The film opens and ends with a performance of Bronco Billy's Wild West Show. The first one is gloomy; the last one is a triumph.
* BornInTheWrongCentury: Bronco Billy and the rest of his troupe seem stuck in the mentality that it is still the days of the WildWest. Or at least that one can live as if it still was...
* BreakTheHaughty: The haughty RichBitch Antoinette Lily is without a penny, so she has to ask for the help of people she despises. Bronco Billy takes advantage of the situation to force her to become her assistant.
* BreakUpMakeUpScenario: After Antoinette Lily meets her husband again in the asylum, she goes back to New York. Antoinette and Billy then miss each other for some time. In the end, she comes back to live with Bronco Billy.
* BrickJoke: When Bronco Billy asks Woodrow Parfrey to help him to get a new marquee, he says he knows his sewing workshop makes flags for the army. Later, we see to new marquee: it is entirely made of American flags sewed together.
* BrosBeforeHoes: Bronco Billy is a good friend, even in extreme situations:
-->'''Antoinette Lilly:''' Have you ever been married? \\
'''Bronco Billy:''' Sure. A long time ago. \\
'''Antoinette Lilly:''' Did you love her? \\
'''Bronco Billy:''' With all my heart. Sometimes that just isn't enough. \\
'''Antoinette Lilly:''' What happened? \\
'''Bronco Billy:''' I caught her in bed with my best friend. \\
'''Antoinette Lilly:''' What did you do to him? \\
'''Bronco Billy:''' I shot her. \\
'''Antoinette Lilly:''' What! What about him? \\
'''Bronco Billy:''' He was my best friend.
* TheCityVsTheCountry: Antoinette Lily lives in New York. She ends up in the country without a penny. She learns to appreciate the life of Bronco Billy's troupe, who worships the WildWest. {{Subverted|Trope}}, because the members of the troupe are not real country people. Bronco Billy confesses he is a native of New Jersey.
* ContrivedCoincidence: Bronco Billy decides to ask the help of the director of a psychiatric institution to get a new marquee. By chance, Antoinette Lily's husband is treated in this institution.
* DamselInDistress: After the BarBrawl, two guys threaten to rape Antoinette Lily. Bronco Billy saves her with the help of his troupe.
* DefrostingIceQueen: At first, Antoinette Lily does not seem able to feel any human emotion. They way she treat her groom is significant. Progressively, she gets closer to Bronco Billy and his friends. She finally falls in love with him.
* DirtyCop: Sheriff Dix, [[spoiler: who finally accepts Bronco Billy's bribe, but not before humiliating him.]]
* FallenPrincess: Antoinette Lily is first depicted as an AlphaBitch. After her husband stole her money, her temper does not change immediately, but progressively, we realize she is like that because she did not receive much love in her childhood (her father died when she was nine). In the end, she becomes sweet.
* FastestGunInTheWest: Bronco Billy is nicknamed the "fastest gun in the West." His performance during the Wild West show demonstrates he is quick. He also neutralizes thieves in a bank office.
* FriendToAllChildren: Bronco Billy enjoys telling children about his legend. He also gives free shows for orphans.
* GoAmongMadPeople: John Arlington, Antoinette Lily's husband, is jailed in an asylum. This was arranged by Edgar Lipton to spare him the electrical chair.
* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: In the beginning, when she acts as a haughty RichBitch, Antoinette Lily uses a cigarette holder. She uses it again when she goes back to New York near the end.
* HollywoodNuns: Bronco Billy gives a free show in an orphanage run by nuns in penguin suits.
* HookHand: Lefty [=LeBow=] replaced his lost hand by a hook.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: During the show, Bronco Billy reaches a moving target with his gun and his knive with a blindfold.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Bronco Billy is tyrannical with his employees. When they complain that they have not been payed for months, he flies into a rage. His behaviour with Antoinette Lily is not nice at first: he forces her into being his assistant because he knows she has no choice. However, he really cares for his employees. When Leonard James is arrested, he does everything he can to get him out of trouble. He defends Antoinette Lily, too, when she is nearly raped. Moreover, he performs a lot of free shows for orphans, mentally ill people...
* TheJinx: Lefty [=LeBow=] and other members of the troupe think Antoinette Lily is one.
* KneelBeforeZod: When Bronco Billy begs the sheriff to release Leonard James, the sheriff takes advantage of the situation to humiliate Billy.
* KnifeThrowingAct: During the show, an assistant stands against a spinning wheel as a target and Bronco Billy (with a blindfold) has to hit balloons placed around her with his gun and then with a knife. During the first show, the assistant moves and is hit by the knife.
* LovelyAssistant: Bronco Billy has one in his show. In the begining, he injures one during his KnifeThrowingAct and he has a hard time finding another one. Finally, Antoinette Lily accepts this job (at first, just for one show).
* MediaScrum: When it is revealed that Antoinette Lily is alive, many journalists rush to the psychiatric institution where she is to interview her.
* NewOldWest: Bronco Billy and his troupe are nostalgic for the WildWest. Their show is an attempt to revive the Old West. At some point, they even try to rob a train.
* OnOneCondition: Antoinette Lily must marry someone before she is thirty, if she wants to keep her inheritance.
* PoliceBrutality: The sheriff's deputies beat Leonard James when he is arrested.
* RichBitch: Antoinette Lily is a rich heiress and she has a bad temper.
* RichesToRags: Antoinette Lily is a rich heiress. Her husband stole all the money she carried, so she does not have even 10 cents to make a phone call. She has to follow Bronco Billy's troupe, because he is the only one willing to help her. Progressively, she learns to appreciate him and she shares voluntarily his precarious life.
* SandInMyEyes: When Antoinette Lily has tears streaming down her face, she insists she's not crying. The smoke-filled bar is irritating her eyes.
* SexlessMarriage: Antoinette Lily does not want to have sex with her husband. She does not event want him to touch her.
* TheSheriff: The corrupt Sheriff Dix.
* TrainJob: {{Subverted|Trope}}. Bronco Billy and his troupe try to rob a train, [[spoiler:but they cannot even stop the train. The train just passes by them.]]
* TrueCompanions: The members of the troupe of the Bronco Billy's Wild West Show are very close to each other and they stand together in times of trouble, like when Leonard James is arrested.
* UptownGirl: Bronco Billy and Antoinette Lily fall in love. He is poor and does not know she is rich at first. When it is revealed she is a rich heiress, she returns to New York. After some time, she comes back to live with him.
* WickedStepmother: Her stepmother has difficulty hiding she is very happy when she hears that Antoinette Lily is probably dead and she might get the full inheritance.
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