| Midnight Cowboy | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | John Schlesinger |
| Produced by | Jerome Hellman |
| Written by | Waldo Salt (screenplay) James Leo Herlihy (novel) |
| Starring | Dustin Hoffman Jon Voight Sylvia Miles |
| Music by | John Barry |
| Cinematography | Adam Holender |
| Editing by | Hugh A. Robertson |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | May 25, 1969 |
| Running time | 113 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3.6 million |
| Gross revenue | $44,785,053 |
Midnight Cowboy is a 1969 American drama film based on the 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. It was written by Waldo Salt, directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Dustin Hoffman and then-newcomer Jon Voight in the title role. Notable smaller roles are filled by Sylvia Miles, John McGiver, Brenda Vaccaro, Bob Balaban, and Barnard Hughes, and the film also features an uncredited cameo by M. Emmet Walsh.
The film won three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Contents |
The film follows the story of a young Texan named Joe Buck (Jon Voight), who works as a dishwasher in a diner. As the film opens, Joe dresses himself like a rodeo cowboy, packs a suitcase, and quits his job. He heads to New York City in the hope of leading the life of a stud for hire.
Joe's naivete becomes evident as quickly as his cash disappears upon his arrival in New York. He is unsuccessful in his attempts to be hired as a stud for wealthy women. When finally successful in bedding a middle-aged New Yorker (Sylvia Miles), Joe's attempt to "talk business" results in the woman breaking down in tears and Joe giving her $20 instead. Joe meets the crippled Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), a third-rate con man who easily tricks Joe out of twenty dollars by offering to introduce him to a well-known pimp, who instead turns out to be a religious fanatic (John McGiver). Joe flees the scene in pursuit of Ratso, but he is long gone.
Once broke, Joe is locked out of his hotel room for failure to pay the bill. He finally attempts to make money by having sex with another man, but even this plan goes awry when the teenager (Bob Balaban) reveals that he doesn't have any money. The next day, Joe spots an unsuspecting Rizzo at a diner. He angrily shakes Ratso down for every penny he has — all sixty-four of them — but Ratso surprisingly offers to help Joe, by sharing his place, an apartment in a condemned building. Joe reluctantly accepts the offer, and they begin a business relationship, helping each other pickpocket, steal and further attempt to get Joe hired as a stud. They are both completely alone without each other, and a genuine bond develops between the two men. Ratso had a cough when the two first met during the summer, and as the story progresses into winter, his health steadily worsens.
The events of Joe's early life are told through flashbacks interspersed throughout the film. He had been to church and baptized as a boy, but had only frightening memories of the experience, and he equated religion with disappointment. The only two people Joe loved were his grandmother Sally, and his onetime girlfriend Crazy Annie. His grandmother raised Joe after his mother abandoned him, but often left him alone to go off with beaux. (One of them, a wrangler named Woodsy Niles, was Joe's only father figure.) Sally Buck died while Joe was away serving in the Army. Annie had been a promiscuous girl who changed her ways after meeting Joe. This didn't sit well with the men of their hometown. After the two were caught together, Annie is raped by a gang of males, and Joe is unable to stop them. Annie was later sent to a mental institution. She remains a constant presence in Joe's mind.
Ratso's story comes mostly through the things he tells Joe. His father was an illiterate shoeshiner who worked deep in a subway station, developed a bad back, and "coughed his lungs out breathin' in that wax every day!" Ratso learned shining from his father, but refuses to follow (such as he could, after polio crippled one leg) in the old man's footsteps.
At one point, an odd-looking couple approach Joe and Ratso in a diner and hand Joe a flyer inviting him to a party. They enter into a Warhol-esque party scene (with Warhol superstars Viva, Ultra Violet and others in cameo appearances). The naive Joe smokes most of a joint (cannabis) thinking it's a cigarette, then takes a pill offered to him and begins to hallucinate. He leaves the party with a socialite (Brenda Vaccaro), who agrees to pay him $20 for spending the night with her. Ratso falls down a flight of stairs as they are leaving, but insists he is fine. Joe and the socialite attempt to have sex, but he suffers from temporary impotence. They play a word game together in which Joe reveals his limited academic prowess. She teasingly suggests that Joe may be gay, and that does the trick: he is suddenly able to perform, and the two have lively, aggressive sex. In the morning, the socialite sets up a friend of hers to be Joe's next customer, and it appears his career as a gigolo is on its way.
When Joe returns home later, Ratso is in bed, sweating and feverish, and admits to Joe that he is unable to walk. Joe wants to take Ratso to a doctor, but Ratso adamantly refuses. He wants to leave New York for Miami; this has been his goal the whole time. A frightened Joe is determined to take care of his friend, and leaves the apartment to scrounge some money. He picks up an older male customer (Barnard Hughes), but the man tries to send him away at the last minute out of guilt. Joe's desperation boils over when the man gives him a religious medallion instead of cash. He beats and robs the man, stuffing the telephone receiver into his mouth when he thinks the man is calling the hotel front desk for help.
With the money, Joe buys two bus tickets to Florida. During the long journey Ratso's already serious physical condition deteriorates further. During a rest stop, Joe touchingly buys bright new clothing for Ratso and himself. He throws away his cowboy outfit, and admits "I ain't no kinda hustler." As they reach Florida and near Miami, Joe talks about plans to get a regular job, only to ultimately realize that Ratso has died beside him. After Joe informs the bus driver, the driver tells him that there is nothing else to do, but continue on to Miami. The film ends with Joe seated with his arm around his dead friend, numbly staring out the bus window as row after row of palm trees go by.
The opening scenes were filmed in Big Spring, Texas.
Before Dustin Hoffman auditioned for this film, he knew that his all-American image could easily cost him the job. To prove he could do it, he asked the auditioning film executive to meet him on a street corner in Manhattan, and in the meantime, dressed himself in filthy rags. The executive arrived at the appointed corner and waited, barely noticing the beggar less than ten feet away who was accosting people for spare change. At last, the beggar walked up to him and revealed his true identity.
Despite his portrayal of Joe Buck, a character hopelessly out of his element in New York, Jon Voight is ironically a native New Yorker, hailing from Yonkers. Dustin Hoffman, who played a grizzled veteran of New York's streets, is actually from Los Angeles.
The line "I'm walkin' here!", which reached #27 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes, is often said to have been improvised, but producer Jerome Hellman disputes this account on the 2-disc DVD set of Midnight Cowboy. The cab was driven by a hired actor during a scripted take, and production team filmed it to look like an ad-lib. However, Hoffman told it differently on an installment of Bravo's Inside the Actors Studio. He stated that there were many takes to hit that traffic light just right so they didn't have to pause while walking. That take, the timing was perfect and the cab came out of nowhere and nearly hit them. Hoffman wanted to say "We're filming a movie here!" but he decided to not ruin the take.
Schlesinger chose the song "Everybody's Talkin'" (written by Fred Neil and performed by Harry Nilsson) as its theme, and the song underscores the entire first act of the film. (Other songs considered for the film included Nilsson's own "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City" and Randy Newman's "Cowboy".) The song "He Quit Me" was also on the soundtrack; it was written by Warren Zevon, who also included it (as "She Quit Me") on his debut album Wanted Dead or Alive. This film was Adam Holender's first cinematography assignment; he was recommended to Schlesinger by Holender's childhood friend, filmmaker Roman Polanski.[1]
The film won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay; it is the only X-rated film to win an Oscar in any category, and one of two X-rated films to be nominated for an Oscar (the other being Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film A Clockwork Orange). Coincidentally, the previous year had seen the sole G-rated Best Picture winner, Oliver!. Both Hoffman and Voight were nominated for Best Actor awards and Sylvia Miles was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, in what is one of the shortest performances ever nominated (clocking in under four minutes of screen-time).
The film won six BAFTA Awards.
John Barry, who supervised the music and composed the score for the film, won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Theme. "Everybody's Talkin'" also won a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, for Harry Nilsson.
In 1994, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
American Film Institute
recognition
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Oliver! |
Academy Award for Best
Picture 1969 |
Succeeded by Patton |
| Preceded by The Graduate |
BAFTA Award for Best
Film 1970 |
Succeeded by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid |
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Midnight Cowboy is a 1969 film about a naive male prostitute and his sickly friend who struggle to survive on the streets of New York City. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1969.
Contents |
| Midnight Cowboy | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | John Schlesinger |
| Produced by | Jerome Hellman |
| Written by | James Leo Herlihy (novel) Waldo Salt (screenplay) |
| Music by | Jeffrey Comanor, Floyd Huddleston Warren Zevon (songs), John Barry |
| Cinematography | Adam Holender |
| Editing by | Hugh A. Robertson |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | May 25, 1969 |
| Running time | 113 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English / Italian |
| Budget | $3.6 million |
| IMDb profile | |
Midnight Cowboy is a 1969 movie, released by United Artists. John Schlesinger directed it, and Waldo Salt wrote the screenplay based on the James Leo Herlihy novel. It stars Dustin Hoffman (in his first starring role after The Graduate), along with Jon Voight in the title role.
It is the only X-rated movie to win an Academy Award for Best Picture.[1] Schlesinger won a Best Director Award; both Hoffman and Voight were nominated for Best Actor.
In 1971, it was given the "R" rating by the MPAA. Apart from this, nothing was changed in the movie.
Joe Buck (played by Voight, in his first major acting role) was an orphan who was raised by his grandmother in Texas. Sally died after Joe grew up, when he was drafted into the US Army. He had a girlfriend, who was called Crazy Annie, but she had been sent to a psychiatric hospital. With both women gone from his life, Joe had no family or close friends. After he left the Army, he worked as a dishwasher, and dreamed of moving to New York City, to become a "hustler" – a male prostitute. He saved money to make the trip, bought some stylish cowboy clothes, and traveled to New York on a bus.
Joe knew little about the realities of both New York and his chosen job, and he soon found himself homeless, with no money and only rare chances to earn any. When he first met "Ratso" Rizzo (Hoffman's character), Ratso swindled Joe out of $20, but when they met again, Ratso offered to share his "place", which turned out to be a room in a condemned building. The two became partners. Ratso shared what he knew about New York with Joe, and became his "manager" (pimp), and Joe shared any money he got with Ratso. Ratso was sick, probably with tuberculosis, and as time went on he depended more and more on Joe. Ratso cheered both of them up with stories about his plans to move to Florida before winter came.
The weather turned cold as the year ended, but Joe and Ratso got a break, when they were invited to a big party. Along with eating (and stashing for later) as much of the food there as they could, Joe met a socialite who finally treated him the way he'd always wanted to be, in New York City, and paid him likewise. Ratso, however, became even more ill, and was unable to walk or stand for long. He refused to go to a doctor or a hospital, and insisted Joe take him to Florida.
Joe tried to set up another encounter with the socialite, to raise travel money, but failed. He donated blood to get grocery money, and by chance met a traveling salesman. The salesman invited Joe to spend the night with him, but later felt guilty, and sent Joe home with a St. Christopher medal. When Joe found Ratso sicker than ever, he returned to beat and rob the salesman, for the money they needed.
Joe and Ratso left for Florida on a bus, headed to Miami. Joe bought new clothes for them both, and threw away his cowboy clothing. "I ain't no kinda hustler," Joe decided, and he planned to find a regular job once they reached Florida. Joe and Ratso talked and joked during most of the trip, but Ratso died before they arrived. Joe realized how much he had cared about Ratso as a person, and that what he'd missed most in his life was someone to be close with. Joe had lost his grandmother and his sweetheart. Now he'd lost his best friend, and Joe was scared to go on alone.
| Preceded by Oliver! | Academy Award for Best Picture 1969 | Succeeded by Patton |
  | Review and scene-by-scene description - Midnight Cowboy (1969) |
| | entry for Midnight Cowboy - Midnight Cowboy (1969) |
| | Official site - Midnight Cowboy from MGM.com |
| | Review - Midnight Cowboy Trailer, Reviews and Schedule for Midnight Cowboy |
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