Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Hadn't seen this in many years. How intelligent we once were!. This is unlike anything: flashbacks, flash-forwards, fantasies, reality, psychodelia, and underneath all of it is a very sentimental unpretentious touching tale of people needing each other. This is not an easy one to describe and even tougher to recommend. If you prefer movies that don't do all the work for you, this is the one. You can't watch Midnight Cowboy casually. It demands a lot on viewers. And in case you don't this already, this is not a western. Not even the West Side of Manhattan really. See this with someone with whom you want to share observations of humanity, not all pleasant ones, too.

Midnight Cowboy is no easy pill to swallow. On the surface it is a brutal and unforgiving portrait of what happens to those who dare to follow their dreams and wind up fruitless. But what lies underneath is a beautiful tale of an unlikely friendship.Jon Voight plays Joe Buck, an ambitious young Texan who decides to quit his menial job as a dishwasher to pursue fortune in New York City. However upon arrival he quickly discovers that the Big Apple isn't the land of opportunity he thought it was. All is not lost for Joe however as he finds companionship and a home in the form of a seedy conman named Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo who is played by Dustin Hoffman.The movie details Buck's odyssey from Texas to New York and we as the audience are with him every step of the way. Voight manages to embody lost youth in his haunting portrayal of Buck. Hoffman's performance is incredible and one of his very best. His transformation from playing Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate to playing Rizzo is nothing short of miraculous. The development of the friendship which the movie revolves around is subtle and completely natural. Hoffman and Voight have an on screen chemistry which-nearly 50 years later-has yet to be replicated.In the backdrop of this dynamic lie very interesting themes. One of which is the theme of idealistic dreams. While Buck thinks New York is the answer to his problems, Rizzo thinks Florida is the answer to his. In this way the screenwriter Waldo Salt cleverly taps into a subject that still lingers today; the idea that the answer to our problems lies in exotic places. Midnight Cowboy is-in its own peculiar and understated manner-leading an attack on 1960s consumerism and the superficial mindsets that formed with it.Midnight Cowboy is my favourite movie of all time and I've often wondered why that is the case. After much contemplation I have come to the conclusion that it is because it deals with a subject matter I hold dear in a harsh and most importantly; very *real* way. Friendship is a concept that I and I think most people hold in high esteem and this movie explores that concept like no other. Make no mistake about it, I don't think the featured characters were good people. However after watching their trials and tribulations and seeing them at their most vulnerable and most humane, it's difficult not to care for them.I knew this movie was special when I smiled at the characters. But not because they did something amusing; because they were smiling too.

An X-rated film at the time of its release, Midnight Cowboy is the definition of the Hayes Code ending and New Hollywood beginning. The film centers around Joe Buck, a young Texan dishwasher played by Jon Voight, whose confidence in his looks and southern charisma lead him to pack for New York with the intention of becoming a male prostitute. The irony being, his first "taker' ends up being a working woman herself and Buck ends up giving her money instead. In New York, Buck meets Ratso, a street smart New Yorker with a limp whose blunt nature and smart mouth are a perfect compliment to Buck's dry Texan humor. In addition to exploring sexuality and the boundaries of sexual explicitness which with the American public was comfortable in the late 1960s, the film does a fine job touching upon mental illness, with the local girl Annie, drug use and experimentation, as observed in the party scene, and also the alienation many felt during this period. Alienated characters were a staple in film noir and loneliness and finding one's purpose are themes most people can identify with. However, something about the loneliness of the two main characters in this film whose bond with one another is the only thing preventing the other from emotionally crumbling is too real and strikingly well executed in the film's end. A must watch for any fan of classic New Hollywood movies.

Covering themes of friendship, sexuality, and poverty, "Midnight Cowboy" remains one of the most powerful films of all time. It tells the simple story of a kind hearted man with a traumatizing past who moves to New York in order to become a hustler. Over time, he befriends the sick, slimy, and impoverished Rico "Ratso" Rizzo as the two follow a path of homelessness and failure, but there is light at the end of the tunnel."Midnight Cowboy" covers many taboo subjects as it explores male prostitution and homosexuality, making it heavily controversial in its day (it was originally given an X rating), but today it is fairly tame compared to most modern R rated films. Still, this is a mature and adult film not only because of its often graphic content, but because of how damn heavy and complex its emotions are. The two leads are not necessarily good or bad guys, they are the type of people who you occasionally glance on the city street. Typical bums trying to make some cash. But, in "Midnight Cowboy" they become memorable and well developed characters; people that you can relate to and despise. They have moments of victory and moments of sorry, and you often find yourself unexpectedly rooting for this pair that would normally remain nothing but an extra in your everyday life, only receiving ridicule and brief mild sympathy.