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Old 12-29-2005, 05:22 PM
pryor15 pryor15 is offline
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Default 100 films: Midnight Cowboy



starring: Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman, Sylvia Miles, and Barnard Hughes
written by: Waldo Salt, from the novel by James Leo Herlihy
directed by: John Schlesinger
X, 113 min, 1969, USA


The only X-rated film[1] ever to win the Oscar for Best Picture[2], John Schlesinger's poignant Midnight Cowboy stars Jon Voight as Joe Buck, a wannabe cowboy and male prostitute from Texas who's come to New York City to make his fortune. His sales pitch, if you can call it that, is "I ain't a f'real cowboy. But I am one helluva stud!" Problem is he's a pretty bad businessman. His first attempt results in giving the woman $20 and his second--allowing a young Bob Balaban to give him a blow job in a movie theatre--doesn't make him any money either. Enter "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), a sleazy degenerate who offers to manage him, but ends up conning him. After Buck hunts Rizzo down, they slowly form a friendship based largely on co-dependence as Buck tries to help a dying Rizzo get down to Florida.

Visually and narratively Midnight Cowboy operates from the same film DNA as Easy Rider and a host of other films from the auteur era. Schlesinger employs flashbacks both to fill in Buck's tortured backstory and provide a venue for Rizzo's delusions of grandeur. He even cuts occasionally to black and white to tell certain horrible parts of Buck's history. They filmed on real New York streets will real pedestrians, so when Dustin Hoffman gives his famous line, "I'm walking here! I'm walking here!" after a cab almost hits him, it's actually Hoffman improvising to a real cab driver who's driven into the shot. It isn't entirely out of the question to assume they filmed in a real condemned building. The film has that sort of feel. And it works in every way. For Buck to get so quickly as easily beaten by the city, it has to look like a real menace and there's no other way to do it. You can't mimic that sort of thing with extras and cranes and fifteen production assistants running around. You have to get a cameraman and a small crew and just shoot it like some French New Wave film.

Contrast this with the opening scenes in Texas centered around a proud, optimistic Joe Buck. He has all the confidence in the world and why wouldn't he? He's good looking, young, and apparently a great lover. The sky is always blue and it's always a beautiful day. Nothing, it seems, will prevent him from being the toast of New York. Jon Voight, in his breakout role, plays him as a man who can have any woman he wants, all he has to do is tip his hat and flash his big smile and they'll come running. But in New York, he finds his success rate is much, much lower. Cowboys aren't in high demand outside of the gay community and big smiles are easy to come by. So slowly his smile loses some luster, his clothes get a little ratty, he starts to smell. His confidence gets low enough that when he finally does score at a Factory party[3] he suffers a temporary bout of erectile disfunction[4].

He gets $20 for his time, though, thanks to Rizzo's negotiating. When Buck tracks down Rizzo to get his money back from the early con, he demands repayment in management services. Rizzo offers to let him stay in his condemned apartment, where Buck wisely keeps one eye on his few possessions. Eventually they form a fast friendship, teaming up to steal small items from the neighborhood. Hoffman plays Rizzo as a limping slimeball who knows all the angles, but there's a part of him that just needs to be needed, so he takes Buck under his wing, as it were, and Buck begins to worry about Rizzo's declining health. Hoffman's performance is easily the best in the film and perhaps the best of his storied career[5].

Eventually Buck makes a big enough score to get his close friend on a bus to Florida, but after a New York winter in a building with no heat, it appears to be too late for anything but miracles. For the duration of the trip this self-proclaimed hustler looks after his sleazy friend the way a mother would look after a sick child. What began as a friendship of convenience has developed into a lasting love between two men who would be completely lost without each other. At the last stop before their destination, Buck gets out to buy Rizzo a change of clothes and in the process abandons the cowboy outfit, boots and all, shoving them into a trash can. He remarks to Rizzo that maybe he'll get a real job in Florida; there's got to be an easier way to make some money. Rizzo then quietly passes away and Buck puts his arm around him, holding him up as if to say this is his friend and he's proud to say he loves him. Joe Buck, who used to be one helluva stud, is now one helluva changed man. A real man.

*****************
[1] The film was released in 1969 during a small window of time after the onset of film ratings and before the X rating was dominated by the porn industry and subsequently abandoned by Hollywood. The film has since been re-classified without undergoing any changes. It was given an M rating (Mature) in 1971, which later became R. But, for the sake of authenticity, we list it here as X.

[2] It ended up with 3 Oscars (Picture, Director, and Screenplay) against 7 nominations (Hoffman and Voight in the Best Actor in a Leading Role category, Sylvia Miles for Supporting Acress, and Hugh Robertson for Editing).

[3] Andy Warhol was supposed to make an appearance in the film, but was killed prior to filming. The rest of the scene remained as planned, so you can pretty much figure out what the party was like.

[4] Never good in that line of work, especially if you're starting out.

[5] The Muppets, if I remember correctly, named a rat after his character. It is a fitting likeness.




the complete list of OOT reviews, as compiled by diebitter
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  #2  
Old 12-29-2005, 05:34 PM
bdk3clash bdk3clash is offline
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Default Re: 100 films: Midnight Cowboy

[ QUOTE ]
[5] The Muppets, if I remember correctly, named a rat after his character. It is a fitting likeness.

[/ QUOTE ]


Rizzo the Rat


Ratso Rizzo
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Old 12-29-2005, 05:40 PM
MonkeeMan MonkeeMan is offline
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Default Re: 100 films: Midnight Cowboy

Haven't seen this in many years. How's it hold up to the ravages of time?
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Old 12-29-2005, 05:45 PM
pryor15 pryor15 is offline
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Default Re: 100 films: Midnight Cowboy

[ QUOTE ]
Haven't seen this in many years. How's it hold up to the ravages of time?

[/ QUOTE ]

very well
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Old 12-29-2005, 05:46 PM
Blarg Blarg is offline
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Default Re: 100 films: Midnight Cowboy

As has been said, the true title of every story is Lost Illusions. This story has a guy who has illusions among the silliest and most self-defeating, and is punished very harshly for them. Like most people would, he finds that a degrading, miserable experience. Not that Joe was dropped from the heavens to the misery of anonymous big city poverty, but he still wasn't ready for it. Despite his own borderline ethics and the set of personal tragedies he is running from, he is still an optimist about the way the world basically works and what he might be worth to it. His hope and outlook are untenable in the real world, and you feel for him in his long downward slide, and in the way the world bites chunks of his illusions off and transforms him, humiliatingly, piecemeal into itself. Sometimes he loses comically, and sometimes in a soul-wrenching way, but there's always an underlying sadness and inevitability about it. For a guy like Joe, there's nowhere to go but down, at least if he's going to stay Joe. And when he can neither stay Joe nor adapt, he finally runs, but only to another illusion, though this time more brightly lit.

Another one of the beautiful existential films of the 60's and 70's of the type that draws little interest from today's storytellers but is a treasure trove of wry knowledge and understanding of the human condition. Well worth seeing, and more than once. The music ties in absolutely brilliantly in this film, mounting to a real emotional crescendo, and reminds us fondly and regretfully of all our illusions at the same time, how fundamentally linked to decency and humanity some of them can be, and how doomed. This is the type of movie that will make some people angry or contemptuous because they'll see some part of themselves in it, even subconsciously, and hate the reminder. The rest of us will find Joe an old friend.
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