1969 film directed by John Schlesinger, based on the eponymous novel by James Leo Herlihy. The first rated X film to win the Best Picture Oscar, it challenged numerous social norms and film taboos in place at the time. Jon Voight plays a Texas yokel who dresses up as a cowboy and moves to Manhattan, where he hopes to become a male prostitute. Joe tries (and largely fails) to engage in heterosexual relationships with women for money, and meanwhile befriends an Italian-American con man played by Dustin Hoffman. After dabbling in recreational drug use and petty crime, the cowboy gradually comes to realize that he is gay. Dustin Hoffman's character falls ill, and the two men try to head to Florida for a change of scenery, but things do not end well.