On M List of Movie Reviews
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Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Rate:
10
Viewed:
8/06, 7/16, 5/20, 9/21
8/06:
Midnight Cowboy is an all-time great classic.
Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman give the best performances of their careers. They'll be forever remembered for this film.
It's a study of human nature: hopes, broken dreams, disillusionment, desperation, suffering, loneliness, and loss of innocence.
They're brilliantly read on Jon Voight's face. And Ratso knew all about it because he, too, went through the same thing
a lifetime ago.
The "I'm walkin' here! I'm walkin' here!" scene is the difference maker when it comes to being awarded the Best Picture in
1970. It got everybody's attention and set the tone.
Recently, Jon Voight had an interview and was asked what changes would have to be made for Midnight Cowboy if it was
filmed today. He thoughtfully said, "I'm sure it would been a gay picture." Well, you know what? That's true.
The result was Brokeback Mountain. Because of the Americans' fragile mentality today,
Midnight Cowboy isn't good enough for them anymore. But back then, it was an arresting film.
All in all, Midnight Cowboy is the hallmark of Jon Voight's and Dustin Hoffman's careers and remains one of the most
important pictures made.
7/16:
Midnight Cowboy is the most unconventional Best Picture winner and remains the first and only X-rated
picture so to be honored.
If not for Dustin Hoffman's spontaneous "I'm walkin' here! I'm walkin' here!" reaction, chances are
things might have turned out differently. When he did it, greatness came out, and Jon Voight recognized it instantly. His on-screen reaction was
genuine before he ran over to the director and yelled at him, "Did you get that? Did you get that?"
Jon Voight may given the performance of his career, but it's Dustin Hoffman who's even more brilliant. It's hard to
capture this kind of acting that he showed for Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo because he makes every scene special with his pitifulness.
The story is about a wannabe hustler who gets outhustled by everybody. It's sad and funny at the same time.
There's a great deal of neo-noir when Joe and Ratso are down on their luck and aren't too smart to figure
out some practical solutions. In other words, they're human beings. "Pathetic" is the first adjective that comes to my mind
when describing these two.
By the way, Waldo Salt, who won the Oscar for adapting the screenplay, went on to pen
Serpico,
which was Oscar-nominated, and Coming Home, an Oscar winner, with both of them being all-time classics.
All in all, John Schlesinger hit the gold in Midnight Cowboy, a masterpiece that Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman
will be forever remembered for.
5/20:
Midnight Cowboy features two hopelessly stupid characters that don't know any better when it comes to taking care of
themselves.
At the end, Joe Buck said, "'Cause, hell, I ain't no kind of hustler. I mean, there must be an easier way of makin' a livin'
than that." Yeah...like getting a job when he could've done that while living in New York City instead of freezing himself
to death in some condemned rathole building. His friend had a clear case of pneumonia and should've went to the hospital;
because he was indigent, it would have been free for him.
No matter what, it's an outstanding picture with the best acting ever from Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman. The Academy screwed it
up when they put latter in the Leading Actor category when he was really a supporting actor, and he should've won the Oscar.
It's a top ten performance of all time. His "I'm walkin' here!" scene is still unforgettable.
I'm not sure what the people were thinking of when they decided to label Midnight Cowboy an X-rated picture. It seems
tame today, perhaps not much stronger than a 'PG' picture. Playing a big role in the inflation of Joe Buck's idealistic
mind, lots of advertisements and moments reflecting the pop culture are still true in this day and age, and they're empty
as ever.
Remember the scene when Joe Buck said, "John Wayne is a cowboy! Are you calling John Wayne a fag?" Yeah,
well...True Grit's John Wayne beat both of these guys for the Best Actor Oscar. Unsurprisingly, John Wayne called their
characters a couple of "fags" but commended their acting.
All in all, I feel bad for Joe Buck, and I think he can do way better.
9/21:
Before seeing Midnight Cowboy again, I read a book called Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation,
and the Making of a Dark Classic by Glenn Frankel who provided a lot of insider info.
A few important myths are finally dispelled:
One, the taxi scene was actually in the script, but Dustin Hoffman's reaction was spontaneous, causing him to ad-lib the
famous line: "I'm walkin' here! I'm walkin' here!" The actor has lied so many times about what happened over the years
which explains why nobody, except for the filmmakers, knew the true story.
Two, the film was never X-rated to begin with; the ratings board had already decided on 'R,' finding nothing objectionable,
but the promoters decided otherwise for more effect which worked anyway. Technically, Midnight Cowboy isn't the
first X-rated picture to win Best Picture. Going forward now, no film will ever accomplish the feat.
Three, Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman weren't the original choices although it's obvious that they were perfectly cast. The
success of The Graduate eventually made latter a shoo-in for the role although he did show up as Ratso for the audition
which helped in cementing the deal. As for the discovery of Jon Voight, Marion Dougherty never got the credit,
causing her to be angry when she insisted he be used over everybody else including Michael Sarrazin who was the primary
choice all along. When Michael Sarrazin's agent found out that his client had been selected for the role, he started talking about figures,
forcing United Artists to nix the idea immediately and go with Voight instead. After Sarrazin found out
what happened, he angrily ripped the phone out of the wall and, of course, fired the agent.
I don't know why anyone says Midnight Cowboy is a homosexual picture because it's certainly not. The plot is about
two guys who are down on their luck and decide to rely on each other for moral support. That's all there's to it. Although
I can understand why John Wayne hated the movie, he, to his credit, thought the acting by Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman was
terrific even though both lost to him when he won the Oscar for True Grit. The transistor radio carried
by Jon Voight in the film was a new thing at the time, but he recorded the voices of various Texans for his research
and played the tape endlessly until he got the accent down pat.
There are several weird scenes that had been finally explained in the book. The pet thing on TV was actually caught by
one of the the filmmakers by random chance who yelled that he had to have it in the film. Another episode that's highly
memorable as it happened to John Schlesinger: while touring Sunset Boulevard one day, he saw a woman doing this crazy
behavior with her toy mouse and therefore decided he had to have it in the film. He did the same after seeing a
man lying face down on sidewalk in Manhattan. The rape scene involving Joe Buck and Crazy Anne was left ambiguous on purpose;
it's just something that happened in Joe's past.
The party scene was staged by Andy Warhol's Factory members. Andy himself was going to appear, but he got shot
by Valerie Solanas, the writer of SCUM Manifesto, during the time which eventually led to a movie called
I Shot Andy Warhol. So, they did the whole thing for a week or so without
him, and Andy Warhol was pissed off for missing it. All the scenes in Texas, New York City, and Florida were shot on location although the run-down
apartment was done on a sound stage.
Back to Midnight Cowboy, it's a true 60's New York picture that made legends out of Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman.
It'll never be old. Before then, John Schlesinger was making European crap with Julie Christie prior to coming to
America for the first time. When Midnight Cowboy was released, it immediately became a timeless classic while everything
else that he did had been forgotten not long afterwards.
All in all, John Schlesinger was having a nervous breakdown one day, worrying about the potential failure of
Midnight Cowboy, and Jon Voight came to snap him out of it by boldly declaring, "We will live the rest of our artistic
lives in the shadow of this great masterpiece."