"Midnight Cowboy" is an excellent film that demonstrates the gap between ambitions and reality, and gives a flavor of what New York City (and rural Texas) was like in the late 1960s. "Midnight Cowboy" was also a landmark film in its explicit treatment of sexual behavior, especially homosexuality, which initially earned an 'X' rating. (The rating was later rescinded after the Oscars had awarded it "Best Picture".)
Joe Buck (Jon Voight) is a young Texan who decides to leave his dishwashing job and move to New York City. He is naively certain that he can make a good living as a "hustler", meaning a prostitute with older women as customers.
Upon reaching New York, he is soon hustled
himself. Slow to realize the difference between
reality and his fantasies, he becomes
impoverished and a male prostitute. He moves into
a condemned apartment already occupied by
small-time con and cripple Ratso Rizzo (Dustin
Hoffman) who has dreams of his own: living as an
important man in Florida.
The director, John Schlesinger, makes frequent
use of brief, long-ago flashbacks of Buck's
childhood, and pairs these flashbacks to relevant
events in the present. We learn that Buck was
raised by his grandmother, who had multiple
boyfriends and who neglected and possibly
sexually abused him. There are also fantasy
scenes paired with their real-world result. For
example, Voight approaches a would-be customer,
and there is a fantasy scene of him escorting her
to a posh suite. The reality scene has her making
a quick exit, leaving Voight standing in the
street with a stupid look on his face. These
flashback/fantasy scenes are even better than the
rest of the film, and it is a wonder that more
films do not make use of them. Certainly
Schlesinger was deserving of his 'Best Director'
Academy Award.
Dustin Hoffman is endearing in the role of Rizzo.
Hoffman can be very likable in secondary roles
(as in "Papillon"), where his character can show
more eccentricities.
Voight was a late casting, after the role had
been offered to Michael Sarrazin and even Elvis
Presley. The Joe Buck character is perhaps too
naive and stupid, but Voight is very credible as
a yokel. (86/100)
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