Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Midnight Cowboy (1969) Directed by John Schlesinger

"Frankly, you're beginning to smell and for a stud in New York, that's a handicap."  Ratso.

Joe Buck (Jon Voight) is a penis in Cowboy Boots and a Hat.  He figures that there might be a market for him in New York City, and so he is off across country to make a living off of what comes naturally.

The only problem with his plan is he is too sweet and stupid to be a good gigolo.  He thinks a cute smile and a really phenomenal @$$ are enough.  But New York is stocked with predators, and the locals are far to jaded for Joe Buck to faze, much less impress.  His first conquest he ends up paying to stop her crying.  His first pimp sets him up with a bath-robed evangelist out to save his soul.  It is just not a good scene.

But as the money runs out, and Joe is actually living on the streets, he catches up with the gimpy little con man who bilked him out of his money; Ratso (Dustin Hoffman).  This character actually invented the word "Scuzzy" as an amalgamation of scummy and fuzzy.  And it is a word that fits, but Ratso, like Joe Buck, is too nice to be a real predator, and he invites Joe to share his apartment.

Of course it is in a condemned building, without heat or electricity, but Ratso teaches the cowboy a few things about surviving on the margins.  Together they try to figure out the art of marketing Joe to his target audience; his heterosexuality is a huge draw back in the world's oldest profession.  Yet the two men bond, not as lovers, but as friends, possibly the only friends either has ever had.

Like so many New York stories, this one is about the spiral, the final circling of the cloacae of the city; she is not forgiving to would-be predators with hearts of gold.

As the movie runs there are several tricks and themes; one, I love the way it plays sound bite montage; either when he's listening to the radio, and the songs and messages seem to be aimed right at him, or when the TV remote got stuck under them, and kept surfing through the channels.  There is a story, of sorts, pieced together like a ransom note of glued together letters.

The others are Joe Buck's flashbacks; the incidents that shaped him to become a would be hustler, from his loving granny, to the night that ruined his life with his girl.  With Ratso, they are not dreams of the past, but visions of the future, with Joe servicing an endless train of mink clad matrons in wheel chairs, while Ratso rakes in the dough.

The music underscores the movie, setting mood and often narrating, from lullabies and The Caissons Go Rolling Along, to the now classic "Everybody's Talkin'" If Joe Buck had just listened to the music in the beginning, and called his clients little dogies he would have been better off. (Whoopee-tee-yi-yo. Get along little dogies. It's your misfortune and none of my own.)

This is the only film to ever be rated X and go on to win the Oscar for Best Picture.  It has sex, drug, nudity, homosexual subtext, and that scene in the theatre, and it still won the Oscar. In an interesting side-note, Ratso and Joe get into an argument over cowboys. Ratso proclaims "Cowboys are fags!" Joe's comeback is "John Wayne is a cowboy! Are you calling John Wayne a f*g?" Coincidentally, Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight were nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for their roles as Ratso and Joe, respectively. They lost out - to John Wayne in True Grit.  How do feel about that, pilgrim?  It also won the Oscar for Best Writing and Best Director.

Are the boys heroes, villains, victims?  Arguing that is half the fun.  But forty one years later, it still holds up. Timeless.

Certified Lean-N-Mean, and entered into Captain D's Good Movies Write Off.

Gay Movies:

La Mission***Burnt Money***8: The Mormon Propo$ition***In The Flesh***The Sensei***The 24th Day***Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon***ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction***East Side Story***Dorian Blues***Creatures From the Pink Lagoon***Satyricon***Ice Men***Richard O'Briens Rocky Horror Tribute Show***Prom Queen***The Kids are All Right***Between Love and Goodbye***The Mudge Boy***That Man: Peter Berlin***A Single Man***Almost Normal***Outing Riley***Outrage!***Law of Desire***Love is the Devil***Cowboy Junction***Horror in the Wind***Bedrooms and Hallways***Cut Sleeve Boys***Big Eden***For A Lost Soldier***Midnight Cowboy***Redwoods***The Massuer***Boy Culture***Breakfast With Scot***The Fluffer***Flesh***Little Ashes***L.I.E. ***Dorian Gray***9 Dead Gay Guys***Shank***I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry***Beautiful Boxer***Bangkok Love Story***Schoolboy Crush***Shelter***Back Soon***Dog Tags***Theft***The Mulligans***The Velvet Goldmine***Swashbuckler***Smoke Signals
***C'Thulhu***Milk***The Picture of Dorian Gray***Brideshead Revisited***Notes on a Scandal***RocknRolla***Mamma Mia!
***Priscillia: Queen of the Desert***The History Boys***Brokeback Mountain***The Broken Hearts Club*** Yaji and Kita: Midnight Pilgrims ***Surge of Power ***In & Out ***Mambo Italiano ***Touch of Pink ***To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar ***Wolves of Kromer ***Rocky Horror Picture Show ***Taboo ***Deathtrap 


Gay Themed Series:

Spartacus: Blood and Sand
Dante's Cove
Hex
Carnivale Season One
Carnivale Season Two
Rome Season One
Rome Season Two
True Blood
True Blood: Season Two
The Book of Daniel: The Complete Series
Torchwood: Children of Earth
Torchwood: Season One


Gay Animation:

Pirate's Booty***Sensitive Pornograph***Loveless: The Complete Series***Loveless: Hope on the Run***Loveless: Soul of Chains***Loveless: Lost and Found***Embracing Love: A Cicada in Winter***Embracing Love: Cherished Spring ***Stonewall & Riot***Drawn Together Movie: The Movie***Drawn Together: Season 2***Drawn Together: Season 3

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age