Directed by:
John SchlesingerScreenplay:
Waldo SaltCinematography:
Adam HolenderComposer:
John BarryCast:
Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles, John McGiver, Brenda Vaccaro, Barnard Hughes, Ruth White, Jennifer Salt, Bob Balaban, Paul Morrissey, Taylor Mead (more)VOD (2)
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One of the British New Wave’s most versatile directors, John Schlesinger came to New York in the late 1960s to make Midnight Cowboy, a picaresque story of friendship that captured a city in crisis and sparked a new era of Hollywood movies. Jon Voight delivers a career-making performance as Joe Buck, a wide-eyed hustler from Texas hoping to score big with wealthy city women; he finds a companion in Enrico “Ratso” Rizzo, an ailing swindler with a bum leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida, played by Dustin Hoffman in a radical departure from his breakthrough in The Graduate. A critical and commercial success despite controversy over what the MPAA termed its “homosexual frame of reference”, Midnight Cowboy became the first X-rated film to receive the best picture Oscar, and decades on, its influence still reverberates through cinema. (Criterion)
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Reviews (8)
Once again, I formed an impression of a movie that turned out to be different from what the film actually is. It doesn't change the fact that it's an excellent film, primarily because of the outstanding performances. Both Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman deliver great performances in a story that is at times unnecessarily psychedelic, but overall, easily understandable and impactful.
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For me, Midnight Cowboy will probably never be a cult film, but it's a great way to pass the time. Excellent performances by the lead duo, especially Dustin Hoffman. The unmistakable period music spiced up the overall feel of the film. I really liked the interludes between scenes, which at times seemed quite depressing. A solid story about two oddballs and "outcasts" in society who formed a strong bond of friendship.
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An increasingly interesting in today’s terms (and, from my point of view, far dreamier) look at the New York streets of the late 60s and early 70s as a melting pot of ethnicities, subcultures, and social classes. It's the realistically unembellished depiction of the lower castes of a vibrant big city that is the most interesting element of the film. Then Jon Voight himself had such a terrifying effect on me that I watched most of it with bulging eyes and my comforter pulled up under my nose. I’ve seen puppets that looked more human than he did.
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Naivety and honesty hurt – not just Joe, but the viewer as well. And sometimes it hurts to leave a familiar place and go somewhere where everything is supposed to be better, and in the end, nothing is better. In the wrong places, honesty and trust will simply destroy you. But this entire interpretation of mine would only be a simplified message of the story if Dustin Hoffman's Rico did not appear in the film. He brings a biting, evoking, absolute melancholy to the cowboy campaign. The awakening of the former generation, and a warning for the present.
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The acclaimed Oscar-winning masterpiece about the power of friendship and the unfulfilled dream of a better life. If I had to pick a single film that best depicts the atmosphere of American society in the late 1960s, its depression, the subconscious trauma of the Vietnam War, religious frenzy, social divisions, the rise of the hippies and the psychedelic music era, I'd pick this one. In no other film has New York been such a filthy sewer, where social outcasts dream of a sunny Florida. And Dustin Hoffman should have won an Oscar for his brilliantly acted (and written) role.
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