General info:
Credits:
Year:
1969
Director:
John Schlesinger
Cast:
Jon Voight --Joe Buck
Dustin Hoffman --Ratso
Sylvia Miles --Cass
John McGiver --Mr. O'Daniel
Brenda Vaccaro --Shirley
Barnard Hughes --Towny
Running time: 113 minutes
Everybody's talkin' at me
I don't hear a word they're saying
Only the echoes of my mind
People stop and stare I can't see their faces
Only the shadows of their eyes
In Midnight Cowboy, Jon Voigt plays a country-boy who ventures off to the big city, with the intent of becoming a male prostitute. But the city isn't exactly as he imaged it. Dressing up like a cowboy and standing in the streets just isn't enough.
It's nearly impossible to discuss or describe Midnight Cowboy without bringing up the ubiquitous theme of the movie: Naiveté. The first and probably most important appearance of our friend naivety occurs in the mind of our friend Joe Buck, a narcissistic pseudo-cowboy and the main character of Midnight Cowboy. He's going to move to New York City, and become a male prostitute. The idea is something we immediately pass off as foolish, and for good reason: it is foolish. Joe doesn't know this. His only knowledge of city life is the romanticized version he's seen in movies and heard in second-hand stories. Chances are, even if someone who has lived in the city all his life spent an hour telling Buck how and why his plan will fail, they would be ignored. Joe Buck isn't the smartest guy in Texas either, and he doesn't have the kind of mony that will last him long in the city.
Buck isn't the only naive one in the film. He later becomes friends with Enrico Salvatore Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), uniformly known as 'Ratso', who knows the city like the back of his dirty, dirty hand. But Ratso doesn't get any respect. Hoffman's improvised line, as a car just about runs him over, "I'm walking here! I'm walking here!" is the perfect example of Ratso's position in life, but the best example, would be his name itself. Everybody, even his newfound friend, call him by the nickname he loathes (Ratso).
He probably doesn't deserve much respect in the first place. He lives in an abandoned building, obtains money and food by stealing and small-time scamming and visually could be best described in word: filthy. He's extremely sick, but refuses to go to the doctor.
How does Ratso continue on living a life like that? What is his will to live? Florida. He convinces himself that Florida is the solution to every single one of his life's problems. He'll have everything he doesn't have, when he makes it to Florida. Food. Women. Respect. Health. We know that Florida isn't nearly as magical as Ratso portrays it to be, but his disillusioning is innocent, and it can't hurt him...until they actually decide to go to Florida, of course.
The film gives us a painfully realistic look at New York City, 1969. It was shot on location; all of Midnight Cowboy's city scenes give us a realistic view of the New York City, at that time and place and the party scenes give us a realistic view of the other? NYC, at that time and place (where Andy Warhol ruled as king).
Midnight Cowboy was originally rated X. After it took home the prestigious Best Picture award at the Academy Awards, the rating was lowered to a much more appropriate R. Schlesinger certainly earned his Best Director. Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight were both nominated for Best Actor, but they lost it to another famous cowboy, John Wayne, only the best western actor of all time. Regardless of the Academy Awards, Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight give performances that other actors could never even dream of emulating. Dustin Hoffman had already jumped into the spotlight two years previously with The Graduate, so this was just solidifying his position as a star. Voight, however, used Midnight Cowboy to pop out of obscurity and he's been quite successful ever since.
Midnight Cowboy is one of my favorite movies of all time. I can't find any fault in the movie, but if one were to complain, the complaint would most likely target the flashback sequences, which weren't as fascinating as the rest of the film. Personally, I'm all for these, they reveal details of Buck's past history.
But, if you haven't seen Midnight Cowboy, I implore you: do so soon, it's an amazing film.
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