I saw MIDNIGHT COWBOY in easter 1970 when i was 15. It was at a very quiet matinée in a very cold rural mountain holiday resort town in in Australia. I was alone as I had gone for a walk but discovered I was in time for the matinée. It was one of the great cinema experiences of my teenage life and left an impression on me that still resonates. After the screening, it was freezing and foggy outside and almost dark. I walked to a nearby park in the freezing fog, sat on a wet bench and cried and cried until the tears began to freeze too. I wiped them away and went home for dinner. Nobody the wiser except me. Recently I was the film again for the first time in 40 years. I am simply awestruck at the sense of NY 1969 that floods from the screen, the sense of the time anywhere in 1969 and the fact that the film is shattering in it's depiction of poverty and friendship in a bleak city. Recently I also went to NY and found that as fascinating for I felt NY was completely safe and totally unlike the squalor seen in their lives in the film. NY today is very pretty and epic and like a fun park. I have enduring respect and admiration for this extraordinary film. I hope you do too. The performances by Voight and Hoffman are award worthy, and Joe Buck, like Forrest Gump is the sexy flip side of the American Everyman. Directed by a Brit: John Schlesinger whose International eye for NY and the tawdry but fascinating life of USA 1969 has allowed this film to be as great as it is, only made one other great American films and that is the equally tangible and shocking Hollywood pit of 1937 called DAY OF THE LOCUST. Both films have trailers which every young film maker today should study for a perfect lesson in 'preview' creation.
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ptb-81 March 2012
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secondtake29 August 2012Midnight Cowboy (1969)
This is such a gritty, touching story of two ordinary vulnerable young men, told with such honesty, it's impossible to criticize it taken whole. "Midnight Cowboy" is a terrific movie.
It's terrific because of the two actors--an astonishing Dustin Hoffman, still a new name in Hollywood but already famous from "The Graduate" in 1967. And an equally astonishing Jon Voight, making his first large role in a movie. Each is a type of struggling man living on the fringe of New York (barely surviving in a boarded up building), extreme but never a caricature. They gel as a pair, helping each other but with a bit of reluctance because neither wants to quite admit they need help.
It's terrific further because of the filming, with lots of available light magic in dingy places. The cinematographer, Adam Holender, is remarkably making his first film here, though that might explain the freshness to a lot of the filming. There is in particular a lot of long lens (telephoto) shooting between more intimate scenes, showing layers of people and isolating the star in a moving world (a difficult thing to do with good focus).
It's also terrific for the writing, not just for the story but for the dialog. It strikes so subtly to some truth you don't quite expect, even though it's simple and almost obvious. The screenplay won an Oscar, as did the movie (Best Picture) and director John Schlessinger (Best Director). It's worth noting that Schlessinger is a British director with some very tightly conceived movies already under his belt (including the fabulous "Darling"), and here he seems to make New York as familiar as if he'd grown up here. Along those lines, Voight, playing the naive cowboy to a perfect pitch, is a native New Yorker. And Hoffman, though familiar with the city, is an L.A. kid.
Where does the movie run into trouble? Why isn't it in the top ten of all time? I think it might boil down to three kinds of inserts into flawless the main narrative. The first is a series of flashbacks that in various ways try to "explain" or fill in the psychological background of Voight's character. As if it needs explaining. Or if it does benefit us all to know how he got to his beautiful troubled state, maybe there is something shocking and sensational about the inserts, as effective as they are on their own nightmarish terms.
A second "insert" is a series of short sunny daydreams Hoffman's character has envisioning life in Florida in the sun. It's comic relief, and it mostly works, but there are cracks there. Finally there is a section of the actual narrative where the two men go to a party they've been invited to for spurious reasons (weird luck, mostly). It's too obviously an excuse to film a scene in a drug-addled Warhol-esque party. The hosts are effete artist types who want to film some strange New Yorkers out of context, and so we see the film film these filmmakers and so on. A great scene, but weirdly out of place.
But all of his is to be taken in stride as the meat of the story kicks back in each time. And here, with a melancholy soundtrack, you will be moved and entranced. Amazing stuff. Brave and a lesson in how a film can be adventurous and heartfelt and not painfully slick, all at once. And succeed artistically and commercially. -
It's not quite the timeless masterpiece you would hope it would be based on the acclaim it garnered, but 1969's "Midnight Cowboy" is still a powerhouse showcase for two young actors just bursting into view at the time. Directed by John Schlesinger and written by Waldo Salt, the movie seems to be a product of its time, the late 1960's when American films were especially expressionistic, but it still casts a spell because the story comes down to themes of loneliness and bonding that resonate no matter what period. The film's cinematic influence can still be felt in the unspoken emotionalism found in Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain".
The meandering plot follows Joe Buck, a naive, young Texan who decides to move to Manhattan to become a stud-for-hire for rich women. Full of energy but lacking any savvy, he fails miserably but is unwilling to concede defeat despite his dwindling finances. He meets a cynical, sickly petty thief named "Ratso" Rizzo, who first sees Joe as an easy pawn. The two become dependent on one another, and Rizzo begins to manage Joe. Things come to a head at a psychedelic, drug-infested party where Joe finally lands a paying client. Meanwhile, Rizzo becomes sicker, and the two set off for Florida to seek a better life. This is not a story that will appeal to everyone, in fact, some may still find it repellent that a hustler and a thief are turned into sympathetic figures, yet their predicaments feel achingly authentic.
In his first major role, Jon Voight is ideally cast as he brings out Joe's paper-thin bravado and deepening sexual insecurities. As Rizzo, Dustin Hoffman successfully upends his clean, post-college image from "The Graduate" and immerses himself in the personal degradation and glimmering hope that act as an oddly compatible counterpoint to Joe. The honesty of their portrayals is complemented by Schlesinger's film treatment which vividly captures the squalor of the Times Square district at the time. The director also effectively inserts montages of flashbacks and fantasy sequences to fill in the character's fragile psyches. Credit also needs to go to Salt for not letting the pervasive cynicism overwhelm the pathos of the story. The other performances are merely incidental to the journeys of the main characters, including Brenda Vaccaro as the woman Joe meets at the party, Sylvia Miles as a blowsy matron, John McGiver as a religious zealot and Barnard Hughes as a lonely out-of-towner.
The two-disc 2006 DVD package contains a pristine print transfer of the 1994 restoration and informative commentary from producer Jerome Hellman since unfortunately neither Schlesinger nor Salt are still living. There are three terrific featurettes on the second disc - a look-back documentary, "After Midnight: Reflections on a Classic 35 Years Later", which features comments from Hellman, Hoffman, Voight and others, as well as clips and related archive footage such as Voight's screen test; "Controversy and Acclaim", which examines the genesis of the movie's initial 'X' rating and public response to the film; and a tribute to the director, "Celebrating Schlesinger". -
vincevan12 February 2009I worked the Times Square area for several years, circa 1969, as a NYC Police Officer. I can tell you that the title characters and many others in this fabulous movie were right on the money. There were very few "normal" folks who were regulars to Times Square at that time. Most visitors and tourists looked right through them but they were all there. Sexual perverts aka chickenhawks, Pimps, and of course the young kids coming off the buses from the heartland by the hundreds, ready to be savaged. The music, drug culture, attitudes of too many parents, and excitement of being a young, all combined to make people think they could "make it" in an area like TS. So very many never made it to adulthood because of the lifestyle: drugs, beatings and assaults were so common. Those who survived were damaged psychologically as well as physically. Personally, I never felt so overwhelmed in my life. While handling one case, you just knew there were dozens more happening at the same moment in time. Midnight Cowboy was just one little slice of life on 42nd Street. An excellent movie.
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Lechuguilla15 June 2005Virile, but naive, big Joe Buck leaves his home in Big Spring, Texas, and hustles off to the Big Apple in search of women and big bucks. In NYC, JB meets up with frustration, and with "Ratso" Rizzo, a scruffy but cordial con artist. Somehow, this mismatched pair manage to survive each other which in turn helps both of them cope with a gritty, sometimes brutal, urban America, en route to a poignant ending.
Both funny and depressing, our "Midnight Cowboy" rides head-on into the vortex of cyclonic cultural change, and thus confirms to 1969 viewers that they, themselves, have been swept away from the 1950's age of innocence, and dropped, Dorothy and Toto like, into the 1960's Age of Aquarius.
The film's direction is masterful; the casting is perfect; the acting is top notch; the script is crisp and cogent; the cinematography is engaging; and the music enhances all of the above. Deservedly, it won the best picture Oscar of 1969, and I would vote it as one of the best films of that cyclonic decade. -
capkronos10 June 2002In my opinion, this is one of the greatest movies ever made in America and it deserved every single award it won and it's place on the AFI Top 100 list (though it's shamefully too low on the IMDB Top 250 list, at only #183 as of this writing). If you enjoy acting of the highest calibre (Voight and Hoffman are a superb match), well-drawn characterizations and inventive direction, editing and cinematography, you'll love this just as much as I did. Schlesinger paints a vivid, always credible picture of the late 60s New York City scene and it's many victims struggling to overcome personal demons and survive amidst the amorality, poverty and hopelessness of 42nd Street, New York City.
The filmmaking techniques employed here brilliantly capture the feel of the underground New York film movement (and of the city) and are nothing less than dazzling. I've seen many ideas (including the rapid-fire editing, the handling of the voice-over flashbacks, the drug/trip sequences and the cartoonish face slipped in during a murder scene to convey angst and terror) stolen by other filmmakers.
The relationship between Joe and Ratso is handled in such a way as to be viewed as an unusually strong friendship OR having its homosexual underpinnings. I think the director handled this in a subtle way not to cop out to the censorship of the times, but rather to concentrate his energies on the importance of a strong human connection in life, whether it be sexual or not.
MIDNIGHT COWBOY is a brave, moving film of magnitude, influence and importance that has lost absolutely none of it's impact over the years, so if you haven't seen it, you're really missing out on a true American classic. I recommend this film to everyone.
Score: 10 out of 10. -
alanbenfieldjr27 June 2017Two desperate characters meet. It's not a meet cute in the classic sense of the word but it's not far away from it either. It's also a melodrama, operatic but hidden in a reality that can't possibly be real. Dustin Hoffman is as bold as Bette Davis in a Warner Brothers melodrama. Amazing. And Jon Voight? - He wasn't the first choice, Michael Sarrazin was. Jon Voight plays his whore with a heart of gold with the decency of a Mary Astor in another melodrama from the the 40's. I've seen Midnight Cowboy 5 times, the first time in a theater, three other times in VHS or DVD - Last night I saw it in a huge screen in the house of a friend. HD I believe and, Oh my God. I wept. I was taken over completely by this two devastating, truly devastating characters. John Schlesiger the director, a genius. British by birth but he showed us an America that most people didn't know existed, not even Americans. This is a film for the ages.
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MubukuGrappa30 January 2005I often disliked Dustin Hoffman's acting. I watched his "Graduate", "Marathon Man", "Kramer vs. Kramer" etc. and in none of these I liked his style, which to me appeared to be very static and his expressions often stone-like. I liked his acting in movies like "Rain Man" and "Outbreak", but I didn't consider them spectacular either. This movie, however, changed that for me.
This movie is worthy of all the praise it gets. A reasonably simple story is turned into a beautiful movie by the strong performance of Hoffman and John Voight. How a small town stud goes to New York (where ladies are just waiting to get it from him and pay him for it) to find that the reality differs much from the picture he has had of the scenario.. is the story in a nutshell, which is interesting and, which could be true perhaps in any big city anywhere in the world.
The movie, after 35 years, still looks contemporary except for a scene that depicts a 60s-style party of drugs, sex and rock-n-roll.
Highly recommended. -
The film narrates how a young hustler cowboy called Joe Buck (John Voight) is going to New York seeking himself his life . There , he'll fight for existence in the urban forty second street . He befriends Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) and both of them confront the sleaziest side N.Y.C. Voight and Hoffman make an agreeable and friendly duo.
John Voight as a freelance stud makes a terrific acting . He is sympathetic , handsome , memorable but also vulnerable and naive . Dustin Hoffman as the cripple and ill Rizzo is superbly interpreted . He is crafty and seedy , besides a good and uncanny guy . They'll develop a likable friendship , helping themselves in the various misfortunes and distresses until the sensitive and exciting ending . The picture won Academy Awards to best picture , Director (John Schelesinger) , screenplay (Waldo Salt), Oscars very well deserved . Although the movie is principally interpreted by the magnificent duo , there is an excellent support cast constituted by famous and famed secondaries : Sylvia Miles , John McGiver , Brenda Vaccaro , Barnard Hughes and Jennifer Salt . Special mention to soundtrack by John Barry , the score is riveting and Willie Nelson's songs are awesome . The film is very fine directed by John Schelesinger .
The flick had maxim negative classification for sex , nudism abundant , scabrous theme and profane language . Rating : very Good . Above average and well worth watching . The film achieved much success , today is considered a classic cinema . -
KooksMonkey16 July 2004Watching Midnight Cowboy is like taking a masterclass in acting/ directing/ cinematography/ editing/ writing. I was too young to watch it when it was originally released, and only saw it for the first time a couple of years ago, but it has absolutely stood the test of time, and I have watched it several times since.
Everything about this film is brilliant, from the poignant performances from Voight and Hoffman (even though I know this movie well, I still find myself welling up every time Voight flashes one of his innocently pained looks, or Hoffman coughs in his sickly and ominous way) to the stunning cinematography and superbly edited dream sequences.
It's a shame that more of our contemporary filmmakers aren't prepared to take a risk on making movies that are as visually and aurally interesting as this one. Midnight cowboy should be required viewing at all film schools.
10/10 -
drqshadow-reviews8 March 2021Dreaming of a more glamorous existence, an idealistic Texas greenhorn (Jon Voight) walks out on his mundane dishwasher's life and hops a bus bound for New York City, certain he'll find instant success as a high-priced gigolo. The city, as always, has different lessons in store. Soon, our cowboy's strapped for cash and out on the street, too soft for the harsh realities of his dream job but too proud to accept anything less. In desperation, he hooks up with a similarly out-of-luck grifter (Dustin Hoffman) and the two develop a chemical bond that sees them through some dangerously lean times, while the busiest metropolis on the planet buzzes and bustles, blissfully oblivious, on the other side of the wall.
Notorious as the first X-rated film to see wide release, Midnight Cowboy earned its reputation with a risqué subject matter, explicit nudity, glamorized drug use and frank depictions of homosexuality (with a whole boatload of associated slurs). A lot of it still seems daring and edgy today, so I can only imagine how it looked to the viewers of 1969. Then again, there's a chance the setting itself adds a thing or two to the modern shock value. This is a real time capsule of a picture, a breathing document of a city that no longer exists, with an emphasis on subcultures and undercurrents that were pushed out of all the glossy framed photos. It's sixties New York, all right, but this particular close-up is more interested in the warts on its subject's nose and the dirt under its fingernails than the carefully-primped clothes and hairstyle it wears to mask the unsightly bits.
The unflattering depiction is fascinating, particularly to someone like me, who didn't live through that era, but the story often plods and telegraphs its intentions, with an unconventional series of flashbacks only further complicating matters. Hoffman and Voight are dynamite together, an unlikely duo whose connection resonates through the smoggy haze, and serve as major boons to a film that could have floundered otherwise. -
preppy-33 March 2004Young, handsome, muscular Joe Buck (Jon Voight) moves from Texas to New York thinking he'll make a living by being a stud. He gets there and finds out quickly that it isn't going to be easy--he goes through one degrading experience after another. At the end of his rope he hooks up with crippled, sleazy Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman). Together they try to survive and get out of the city and move to Florida. But will they make it?
Very dark, disturbing yet fascinating movie. Director John Schelsinger paints a very grimy portrait of NYC and its inhabitants. In that way it's dated--the city may have been this bad in 1969 but it's cleaned up considerably by now. He also uses every camera trick in the book--color turning to black & white; trippy dream sequences; flash forwards; flash backs (especially involving a rape); shock cuts; weird sound effects...you name it. It keeps you disoriented and off center--but I couldn't stop watching.
There isn't much of a story--it basically centers on the friendship between Rizzo and Buck. There is an implication that they may have been lovers (the final shot sort of shows that). It's just a portrait of two damaged characters trying to survive in a cold, cruel, urban jungle.
This was originally rated X in 1969--the only reason being that the MPAA didn't think that parents would want their children to see this. Nevertheless, it was a big hit with high schoolers (back then X meant no one under 17). It also has been the only X rated film ever to win an Academy Award as Best Picture. Hoffman and Voight were up for acting awards as was (mysteriously) Sylvia Miles who was in the picture for a total of (maybe) 5 minutes! It was eventually lowered to an R (with no cuts) when it was reissued in 1980.
Also the excellent song "Everybody's Talkin'" was introduced in this film--and became a big hit.
A great film---but very dark. I'm giving it a 10. DON'T see it on commercial TV--it's cut to ribbons and incomprehensible. -
Leofwine_draca26 November 2019MIDNIGHT COWBOY is an interesting, unique, Oscar-winning drama from 1969 that provides an acting showcase for the two leads. It tends to be much better directed than it is written, and there are still murky, strange aspects that don't make a whole lot of sense, the main character's back story for example. However, as a story of social isolation and living on the breadline in a cold-hearted city like New York, this is very nearly up there with the likes of TAXI DRIVER. Jon Voight is fine and convincing as the somewhat naive lead, but the real stand-out is Dustin Hoffman, going fully character in his acting; he should have got the Oscar for this exemplary, scene-stealing supporting turn. As for the social milieu, it reminded me a lot of Steinbeck's work, and is just as affecting.
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baruchandbenedict16 January 2008I don't see what the big fuss is about. The acting was very good, but I felt like the characters were undeveloped and the story went nowhere. It shows glimpses of Joe Buck's past just enough to get the point across that it was troubled, but it never connects it back to his current problems, so it's really irrelevant. Similarly, I was incredibly sympathetic to Rizzo's character, but thought his ambitions of escaping to Florida were kind of arbitrary and unexplained, and drew nothing from the story when he failed to make it. The whole film was just a story with no lesson, no message, no cultural significance. TOTALLY BLUE BALLED.
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Joe Buck (Jon Voight) decides he's going to leave his small life in Texas and make it big in the Big City. The women are there for the asking and the men are mainly "tutti-fruttis." Wide-eyed, he comes to New York City, not prepared for the series of humiliating misadventures he experiences, one worse than the other. In the middle of that chaos, he meets and befriends Rico "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffmann), a homeless-looking man who lives in an apparently condemned building.
There isn't much of a story as MIDNIGHT COWBOY is a series of vignettes destined to bring forth not only Joe Buck's plights in the City, but also inter-cut to his past and show us in shock cuts and semi-psychedelic dream sequences snippets of his past: his failed relationship with his girlfriend Annie (Jennifer Salt) who was gang-raped, his abandonment by his mother, and his apparent abuse by his grandmother, who also had a habit of hustling men for money. An air of pessimism dominates the film almost from the wistful beginning as Nilsson plays throughout the opening credits his deceptively flowery "Everybody's Talking'"; we feel that even while we want Joe to eventually make his mark in the City, the odds are high he won't and will end up working for pennies in a dead-end job -- shown in a masterful shot from his outside point of view later in the film as he watches a man work as a dishwasher in a soup kitchen through a window and sees himself. We know from the look in his eyes he does not want to end like this.
A dark story of dashed hopes, John Schlesinger creates haunting images of lost souls at the end of the 60s, and at the center, the prevailing friendship between two men as they struggle to make some sort of meaning to their lives amidst the elusive comfort of a dignified life. There is the implied notion that they may have been lovers -- Ratso's reaching out to hug Joe in the party scene and their the final embrace at the end certainly points at this -- but this is essentially a buddy film, one that manages to survive, literally, to the death, and bring some form of hope to Joe who at the end in Florida seems much changed, older, wiser. -
ElMaruecan8218 August 2011'Everybody's talking at me, I don't hear a word they're sayin', only the echoes of my mind ' well, hearing these beautiful words echoed something very deep in mine. A few movies have been gifted with a song that captures their spirit to the point we can't tell which one defines the other, elevating themselves to mirror more universal feelings. "Midnight Cowboy", Best Picture winner of 1969 is one of them.
Harry Nillson's poetry responds to the torment of a society in both urban and mental metamorphosis, torn between the past's heritage and the future's uncertainty, between America's deepest roots : God, Family, Community, Progress and an exhilarating fresh air of revolt and anti-establishment. In 1969, post-industrial societies were divided into a simplistic but no less significant dichotomy : the Old and the New order, everything was defined by its ability to move on, or to stay. The movie is about a man who's definitely moving, quitting a lousy job of dishwasher in a Texan diner to go to New York City, some sort of reversal conquest of the West. Joe Buck is his name.
Joe has every reason to be self-confident, he's tall, strong, young, healthy, blonde, "not a real cowboy, but one hell of a stud" is his motto. New York resonates in his inexperienced mind like 'New World'. The opening farewell to the hometown conveys an inspirational freedom of spirit and movements, incarnated by Joe's smile and constantly positive attitude. He can have all the chicks, but he's more interested in old and rich ladies for hustling is the job he wants to do and for something unconsciously attracts him to older ladies. Maybe deep in his heart, Joe is still a little child in quest of a strong motherly figure; this sweet and innate innocence is even highlighted when he plays peek-a-boo with a little girl, in the bus leading to New York. Joe realizes the gap between the world he wants to penetrate and his true nature, and this is the source of his discomfort.
"Midnight Cowboy" is punctuated with regular fast-paced flashbacks developing Joe's background story. Joe was raised by his grand-mother Sally in an overly loving intimacy and one obscure episode involves a disturbing event that has probably perverted his approach to sex. He's moving but something keeps him connected to a nostalgic vision of childhood. From Joe's point of view, nothing is wrong in his business, he's only taking his share of the American Dream with what is at hands. But from our perspective, he's simply lost, the repeated first line "Where's that Joe Buck?" taking its full meaning.
Jon Voight performance's perfectly embodies the excess of an idealism so childish it flirts with naivety and can only foreshadow great deceptions. After a few days in the racket, Joe loses more than he wins money, the height of irony is reached when he even gives one client 20$ after she burst out to tears, feeling insulted after Joe asked for money. Victim of his good nature again, Joe will be disillusioned by a small-time punk, named Rico Rizzo aka 'Ratso'. For 20$, Joe is sent to a supposedly future manager, who'll reveal himself to be a pervert zealot asking Joe to get on his knees ... so they can pray the Lord. Besides the flashbacks, the editing excels in tracing some interestingly subversive parallels. In one audacious scene for example : frenetic movements in bed activate TV channels with a remote control and a succession of pointless programs and manipulative ads, shows on screen.
TV appears like the Pandora box hiding the sad realities of the consumer society. Sex is part of this degeneracy where sacred values, religion and family, have been totally corrupted. And from the ambiguity of the "on your knees" line, resurrects Joe's traumatic experience when he was baptized. The movie depicts religion, in an incredibly revolutionary boldness, as a rape soul. Everything is abuse, consumption from the ultra-realistic, bold, and psychedelically dizzying direction of John Schelsinger, winner of the best Director Oscar. A spiritless society where money, urbanism, sex and bigotry mix in a repulsive nocturnal orgy, creating more frustration, loneliness and perversity, from a mother running a fake mouse around hers son's face to some old broads killing their loneliness by treating their dogs like human beings. For Joe who has no religion and no money, the salvation will come from the most precious thing that could have enriched his life : a friendship.
And this is where "Midnight Cowboy" emerges from the dirt and becomes one of the most classic and poignant friendship stories, between two men whose backs are put in the wall by a cynical society. The image in the poster shows them as misfits, but look at them closely and see how they complete each other, one has the looks, the youth, the health, and the strength, but is like a child, the other is street-wise, knows the ropes, he's crippled, unhealthy, and cruelly lacks in appearance but he's got pride. The iconic "I'm walkin' here" speaks to many lonely people rejected by society. Dustin Hoffman, in a 180 degree turn from his previous role as "The Graduate", demonstrates here his incredible versatility. The friendship between Razzo and Joe will strengthen them, in their daily struggles, to overcome the most nightmarish aspects of New York City, an alienating town whose depressing mood is incarnated by John Barry's iconic harmonica sound.
Joe and Razzo ultimately appear as the only persons we can identify with, victims of a ultra-individualistic urban world they don't belong to. In reaction, all they have is to dream of running on the beach, having fun together, in other words, applying the magic of Harry Nillson's song and 'going where the sun keeps shining' Whether they'll succeed or not is not relevant, but no matter how hard they're freezing their asses in New York, sun keeps shining in their hearts ... -
Vivekmaru4530 August 2013Midnight Cowboy is a 1969 American drama film based on the 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. The script was written by Waldo Salt, directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Jon Voight in the title role alongside Dustin Hoffman. The film won three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. To date, it is the only X-rated film ever to win Best Picture. It has since been labeled as one of the greatest American movies of all time.
The plot of the film deals with Joe Buck (Jon Voight), a young Texan who works as a dishwasher. As the film opens, Joe dresses in new cowboy clothing, packs a suitcase, and quits his job. He heads to New York City hoping to succeed as a male prostitute. Joe's naïveté is quickly evident. Initially unsuccessful, he succeeds in bedding a well-to-do middle-aged New Yorker (Sylvia Miles), but Joe ends up giving her money. Joe then meets Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), a crippled, street con man who takes $20 from Joe by offering to introduce him to a known pimp, who turns out to be a Bible thumper (John McGiver). Joe flees the encounter in pursuit of Rizzo.
Joe spends his days wandering the city and sitting in his hotel room. Soon broke, he is locked out of his hotel room and most of his belongings are confiscated. He tries to make money by agreeing to receive oral sex from a young man (Bob Balaban) in a movie theater. When Joe learns that he has no money, Joe threatens him. The following day, Joe spots Rizzo and angrily shakes him down. Rizzo offers to share his apartment in a condemned building. Joe accepts reluctantly, and they begin a "business relationship", hustling. The two loners develop a true bond. Rizzo's health, which has never been good, steadily worsens.
Joe's story is told through flashbacks. His grandmother raises him after his mother abandons him, though his grandmother frequently neglects him as well. He and his girlfriend, Crazy Annie are raped, after drawing the ire of local townspeople. She is institutionalized, and Joe joins the army. Rizzo's back story comes through stories he tells Joe. His father was an illiterate Italian immigrant shoe-shiner who worked down in a subway station, developed a bad back, and "coughed his lungs out from breathin' in that wax all day". Rizzo learned shining from his father but wont stoop to it. He dreams of moving one day to Miami.
An unusual couple approach Joe and Ratso in a diner and hand Joe a flyer, inviting him to a party. They enter a Warhol-esque party scene (with Warhol superstars in cameos). Naive Joe smokes a joint, thinking it's a cigarette, and, after taking a pill someone offered, begins to hallucinate. He leaves the party with a socialite (Brenda Vaccaro), who agrees to pay $20 for spending the night with her, but Joe cannot perform. They play Scribbage together, and Joe shows his limited academic prowess. She teasingly suggests that Joe may be gay, and he is suddenly able to perform. The two enjoy lively, aggressive sex. In the morning, the socialite sets up her friend as Joe's next customer, and it appears that his career is on its way.
When Joe returns home, Rizzo is bedridden and feverish. Rizzo refuses medical help and begs Joe to put him on a bus to Florida. Desperate, Joe picks up a man in a gay bar (Barnard Hughes), and when things go wrong, robs the man when he tries to pay with a religious medallion, instead of cash. With the cash, Joe buys bus tickets. On the journey, Rizzo's frail physical condition further deteriorates. At a rest stop, Joe buys new clothing for Rizzo and himself, discarding his cowboy outfit. As they near Miami, Joe talks of getting a regular job, only to realize Rizzo has died. The driver tells Joe there is nothing else to do but continue on to Miami. The film closes with Joe seated with his arm around his dead friend.
The chemistry between Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman is why this film works. Jon Voight plays his role to perfection. His dreams of making it big are foiled at every step of his adventure. In the end he gives up and is back to where he began. The loss of his good friend Rizzo will weigh very heavily on his soul. This film was rated X, but there is nothing here than than the occasional bare butt and breasts shown. In fact today's film show more trashy scenes than this film. For persons seeking to make a career as a male escort, this is a film you should see before you embark on your adventure. -
jeffhaller8 April 2018Hadn't seen this in many years. How intelligent we once were!. This is unlike anything: flashbacks, flash-forwards, fantasies, reality, psychodelia, and underneath all of it is a very sentimental unpretentious touching tale of people needing each other. This is not an easy one to describe and even tougher to recommend. If you prefer movies that don't do all the work for you, this is the one. You can't watch Midnight Cowboy casually. It demands a lot on viewers. And in case you don't this already, this is not a western. Not even the West Side of Manhattan really. See this with someone with whom you want to share observations of humanity, not all pleasant ones, too.
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"Midnight Cowboy" is not the sort of film I'd usually watch. I generally avoid films like this and is the first X-rated film I have seen. However, because it won the Oscar for Best Picture and is considered a classic, I decided to give it a try. For others out there who are also hesitant to watch, understand that the film today would receive an R rating, as there really isn't much nudity in the film at all. However, since the film is about a male prostitute, it still isn't what you'd call 'family friendly'!
The film begins with Joe Buck (Jon Voight) leaving his home in Texas. He's headed to New York to make his fortune as a male prostitute. Considering he isn't gay and isn't willing to sleep with guys, that makes his prospects REAL slim. On top of that, he's as dumb as a tomato and walks about town in cowboy gear--hardly the look that will drive women wild (he actually looks a bit like the cowboy from The Village People minus the mustache). Not surprisingly, he goes broke very quickly--partly because no women want to pay him and partly because people keep cheating him because he's so naive. He eventually meets up with a low-life named 'Ratso' Rizzo and the two of them BARELY scrape by--stealing, scamming and living in a condemned building. The film explores themes of fears of homosexuality and rape. It's all very sad and pathetic and isn't at all the sort of film to lift your spirits--particularly the awfully dark ending.
So did I enjoy watching the film? No. It's not the sort of film anyone could actually enjoy. It's more a film that is a joint character study--an unpleasant but oddly fascinating one. It's well made but not a film I could heartily recommend--you have to be the sort of person that would enjoy or at least appreciate the film.
By the way, you might already have noticed that the Muppet character, Rizzo (the rat), is a play on Hoffman's character from this film. Thank goodness they are alike in name only! -
BostonFlash11 October 2015This is one of the half-dozen films that left me shaken upon leaving the theater where I saw it in 1969 (at the age of 19). It has all the bizarreness and griminess that was New York in the late '60s, which was pretty frightening to a sheltered Brooklyn teenager. The direction and cinematography were highly unusual for that time, and the use of montages and cuts (and the trippy shots of the Warholesque party) made the film even more disorienting. The film never sags and holds your attention throughout, and the through line of the plot -- the friendship between Rizzo and Joe Buck -- has about as much emotional impact as anything else I've ever seen. Equally of interest is the psychological content of the flashbacks that show how Joe became the way he is. The star performances are outstanding -- hard to see how either of them could lose to John Wayne -- and the sheer variety of supporting actor performances is incredible. A fully realized, three-dimensional film that probably couldn't find backers today.
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jcoolum9 February 2006Midnight Cowboy is one of the most unique films I have ever seen. The film starts by introducing Joe Buck (Jon Voight) to us. We see him getting dressed in his cowboy suit and packing his suitcase. His suit is loud, with his bright shirt and cowboy hat, in an era that most people did not dress that way. He seems somewhat surreal and over the top. He goes to what seems to be his job and quits because he intends to travel to New York City from Texas. We are not quite sure what his intentions are. He mentions, to a friend, that he wants to become a male hustler when he arrives in New York. He meets many different people on the bus to New York. During this time, we see that Joe is essentially a nice person. There is a scene where he makes friendly gestures towards a kid. This scene is ironic because we get the impression that Joe is also a child. He seems very naive in almost every way. His naiveté is shown in the way he dresses, thinking himself to be a cowboy, in the way he acts, in the way he feels it is going to be easy to be a male hustler, and in the way he feels living in New York is going to be so much easier than living in Texas.
When Joe arrives in New York, he realizes that it was not going to as easy as he thought. He tries to get women to notice him and realize that he is a male hustler but to no avail. One woman does notice him and they have sex. Then she asks him for money for a cab before he asks for money for the sex. When he does, she breaks down and cries. Joe, being a genuinely nice person, offers her money for the cab and she eventually receives twenty dollars. This scene shows how naive Joe really is. Eventually Joe meets the other protagonist in the film, Rico Salvatore Rizzo a.k.a. "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman). Ratso seems to know the ropes and how the city works. He has one limp leg and he does not look like a very trustworthy person at first glance. Eventually, the two create a friendship after Joe needs a place to live and Ratso lets Joe live with him. Together, they meet hard times, without money and they live through a winter without heat.
Each main character has a plan or a dream. Joe wants to become a successful male hustler in order to become rich while Ratso wants to go to Florida and live there. It seems, while watching the film, that neither character will achieve his dream. It is sad, but realistic because, for most people, things do not work out the way they plan. In America, we have been taught that anyone can do anything; that is the American dream. This film shows quite the opposite. Joe never becomes a successful hustler and Ratso dies at the end of the film. Midnight Cowboy film mirrors Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider. Both films deal with journeys and the destruction of the American dream. Both films have sad endings and do not leave the audience with any good feelings. At the end of the film, Joe's naiveté leaves him at the end of the film. When Joe and Ratso arrive in Florida, Joe has to be one in charge because Ratso is unable to walk. Joe buys new clothes and dumps his cowboy outfit. This is the first time we see him without it. After Ratso dies, we know that Joe has to fend for himself and grow up.
As I said before, this was a unique film. It had great performances by Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman. It was superbly directed by John Schlesinger. The film still seems to be odd to me but a likable film nonetheless. It will go down as one of the best modern classics out there. I recommend the film. Even though I am not sure everyone will like it, it is still a film everyone should see. -
g-bodyl4 October 2015Midnight Cowboy is a very good movie, to say the least. I wasn't sure what to expect because of that controversial X-rating. But I was hearing this is one of the better influential films of the twentieth century, so I thought it was my duty to check it out. Now the film is about a close friendship that forged between two borderline criminals. How they go through life may not be endearing, but the friendship that is forged between them is very striking and moving. By the film's end, I have come to feel for the characters. The film does have a distinct overtone involving homosexuality, which is incredibly rare for a film in the 1960's. I think that is part of the controversy this film received. That being said, this is a fine work of art that stands to keep its hold in most influential films list.
John Schlesinger's film is about a Texas hustler named Joe Buck who decides to move east to explore opportunities involving money and women. But he quickly realizes that New York City is nothing like his Texas hometown. He meets this outcast named Ratso who decides to show him how to strike it rich in the Big Apple. As the adventures start sailing, an everlasting friendship is forged between the two men.
Now one thing that makes the film work the way it did was the outstanding performances. Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight have incredible chemistry with each other. Hoffman was coming off his role that fueled him to stardom in the Graduate and Voight just began what is the start of an incredible movie career. I really liked the makeup of the two characters. Voight, who is oblivious to the culture of the East with his cowboy attire in full swing while in the streets of NYC, and Hoffman who actually fits the name Ratso as I felt he resembled something of a human rat.
Overall, Midnight Cowboy is a fantastic movie. A movie about friendship. It was a heart-warming experience for me. The ending of the movie was very proper, if a tad emotional. I can see why people rave about this movie. Now this may not end up as my all-time favorite movie, but I'd certainly put it in my top 50 films. There are a few small flaws, but nothing that hurts the film in all. If you have doubts about Hoffman and Voight as great actors, just watch Midnight Cowboy.
My Grade: A -
FilmOtaku16 May 2004-Spoilers Within-
`Midnight Cowboy' was nothing like I expected. Generally, when you watch a movie where the plot is essentially a train wreck waiting to happen, there is a low point, a high point and then a REALLY low point. `Midnight Cowboy', the story of a cocksure and (briefly) idealistic and naïve hustler from Texas who moves to New York City to make his fortune doesn't have a high point. Indeed, I found myself actually wanting Joe Buck (Voight) and Ratso Rizzo (Hoffman) to have that brief moment where they actually succeed in promoting and selling Buck's `services' to women (or men), but that moment just doesn't come this is a film that is brutally real, and anything but glamorous.
The characters of Buck and Rizzo are complex without being heavy-handed, and their portrayal is inspired. At times the film turned pretty psychedelic, but it was a product of 1969, so it is forgivable. I found that it was impossible to turn away from the film, even for a minute because Schlesinger's pace and direction are absolutely compelling. This is certainly not a film to watch when you're trying to get a `pick me up', but it is an important one because it is a fine example of the realism that pervaded cinema in the late Sixties/early Seventies after the largely idealistic and/or melodramatic Fifties.
--Shelly -
DSearch13 June 2006In the words of another "classic" of the period, where do I begin? Finally saw this Academy Award winner on DVD (I was 14 when it made its X-rated theater debut) and was appalled at how bad it was.
Hoffman and Voight do credible jobs in the lead roles. And the soundtrack is enjoyable. But the plot is threadbare, and the two main characters so endlessly stupid as to be implausible.
(SPOILER example: In a scene which could have come straight from Jim Carrey's "Dumb and Dumber," Buck and Ratso hang outside a male escort agency to pickpocket a lead from a departing gigolo. The agency is RIGHT THERE why doesn't Buck simply apply for a job?) One gets the feeling if the two passed a display on Park Avenue offering free money, they'd conspire to steal the sign instead.
A party scene later in the film is straight out of the Late '60s Psychedelic Party filmmaker's manual. The main reason the predictability of the conclusion wasn't overly disappointing was because I stopped caring about these two clowns an hour into the film. Sad to say this Midnight Emperor is as unclothed as its Oscar statuettes.