I'm Walkin' Here!

#43—Midnight Cowboy

Many of us out there have grand aspirations to better ourselves some way somehow. I’m willing to bet, however, that not a lot of us have the courage to chase after those dreams. Movies always do a great job of showing the audience of how easy it is to follow your dreams and to achieve the greatness that we all believe we have in ourselves. We all know this to be slightly skewed, don’t we? Though there are some films that paint a little dimmer picture when it comes to chasing ambitions. Films like the next movie on the American Film Institute’s 100Year…100 Movies list. The only film to be rated X and win the Academy Award for Best Picture, John Schlesinger’s (The Next Best Thing) classic Midnight Cowboy.

Joe Buck (Jon Voight Ray Donavon) is a small Texas town dishwasher who comes up with a brilliant idea one day; he wants to move to New York City. Not only does he want to move to New York, but he wants to become a male prostitute. Joe feels that he can satisfy a woman enough to live off of the money they give him to have sex with him. Sadly for Joe, that reality doesn’t turn out so well and in time begins to take money from both woman and men, mostly men at first, for his services. Over time he meets a small time con man named Enrico Salvatore "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman The Graduate) and the two become close friends and “business” partners. The two friends fall on some rough times and soon Joe must decide if this is the life he wants to continue living.

I must say that I was actually quite moved by this movie and It’s characters. I really thought that the story really transcends generations and is not specific to any time in film history. The story is universal in a sense that it is about a man looking to the big city to fill his dreams and the harsh reality that comes with those dreams. But what really sets this movie apart from most of the films on the AFI list, is it’s risk taking during a time of revolution and change not only in cinema but in the real world. This film was rated X due to the explicit sex scenes and homosexual connotations/actions, but viewing this film through this generations eyes, this movie is really quite tame.

I felt real sympathy for both of these characters. Jon Voight gives a pure innocence to Joe that can’t be denied. Joe is coming to the city thinking the world is going to crumble at his feet, but the plan soon viciously backfires on him and it is up to Voight to give the audience the real confusion from Joe. I did respect that Voight kept this up for the entire movie and subtly gave Joe an almost “glass is half full” attitude throughout the film. Though, I think Hoffman had the most difficult of jobs with his character. When he first meet Rizzo, he is swindles Joe and the audience must dislike him after that. However, Hoffman brilliantly gives Rizzo redeeming qualities that by the end of the film you love Rizzo and you didn’t even realize that you do.

Schlesinger, as I mentioned, takes huge risks with this film and they pay off wonderfully. This is a film with really harsh realities about the world during the late 60s and exposes life styles that may not have been ready to have been exposed. A sexual revolution was going on during this time and yet audiences during this time were never fully exposed to it. Not like today. Especially with the films the Academy nominated this past year; The Danish Girl and Carol. These types of movies are mainstream now and praised highly, but films like Midnight Cowboy were very controversial.

I did enjoy this film and recommend it to all of you out there. Funny thing is that I actually think that this film should have been higher on this list. With the risks and awesome performances this film gives the audience, I just don’t understand it’s placement. Oh well, I guess who am I to question.

The Verdict: Should Have Been Higher.