Jon Voight
Brenda Vaccaro
John McGiver
Ruth White
Sylvia Miles
Barnard Hughes
Cinematography:
Adam Holender
Distributed By:
United Artists
Release Date:
May 25, 1969
Runtime:
113 minutes
Country:
United States
Language:
English
Budget:
$3.2 million
Box Office:
$44.8 million
Midnight Cowboy is a 1969 American drama film, based on the 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. The film was written by Waldo Salt, directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight. The film depicts the unlikely friendship between two hustlers: naïve sex worker Joe Buck (Voight), and ailing con man Rico Rizzo (Hoffman), referred to as "Ratso".
Why It Rocks
James Leo Herlihy's novel, which dealt with a deluded male prostitute who drifts into destitution in New York City, was an extremely unlikely choice for a mainstream movie, and yet the producer was willing to take on the project with blacklisted screenwriter Waldo Salt being hired to adapt the novel. (His first important work in 20 years)
The film condenses a lot of the novel’s unwieldy background material into impressionistic flashbacks scattered throughout the film. More critically, one central character, Ratso Rizzo, was changed from a youngster to an adult, making more explicit the homosexual content of the plot.
It's considered another in a series of films that drew a dividing line between "old" and "new" Hollywood. It also left a huge influence on other filmmakers, both with subject matter, and the director's improvisatory, freewheeling style: including flash-forwards, associative editing, and mixed film stocks.
What distinguishes this film from any of its imitators or works it inspired, was the director's compassion for his characters. While, other films deal with similarly deprived people, this is one of the few that asks viewers to understand and love them.
At its core, the film's a love story between two flawed, doomed characters. The fact that they were men raised the hackles of conservative thinkers, and that both men aren't just sympathetic, but appealing, may be the film's greatest accomplishment. It ultimately transcends its sordid settings, its sexual issues, its trendy allusions and stylistic excesses. It is one of the great film romances of the 1960s.
Though Hoffman’s Rizzo can be seen as a continuation of Chaplin’s Little Tramp, Schlesinger adamantly resists the easy sentimentality of films like City Lights. It is a mark of his accomplishment that the film manages to be uplifting rather than either maudlin or sordid.
Powerful performances from Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman who play the two main leads. It should also be noted that Voight took a series of screen tests to shape his role.
The same can also be applied to Brenda Vaccaro and Barnard Hughes
Even some newcomers manage to provide good roles. Sylvia Miles has a flamboyant six-minute scene that got her nominated for an Oscar, and Bob Balaban was still a college student, during his time in the film.
As Schlesinger was fascinated by American culture, a lot of the shooting was done in real locations in New York City, aside from a couple scenes done on set, as well as some shot in Texas and Florida.
Like in a previous film, Schlesinger uses a telephoto lens for street scenes, enabling him to set the camera as far as the blocks away from the performers.
John Barry's haunting musical theme, mostly played on harmonica, is essential to the film. It set a tone of nostalgia and lost innocence that helped soften the often sordid settings.
Just as invaluable is Fred Neil's 1996 song "Everybody's Talkin'"
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