Midnight Cowboy (Two Disc Collector's Edition)

Midnight Cowboy (Two Disc Collector's Edition) Review

To say that I have never seen `Midnight Cowboy' until this past weekend is rather embarrassing since, well, it is highly considered to be one of the greatest films of all time. Alas, it has taken me some time to track it down and delegate time to soak it in, and now that I have done that I have to say that I am simply awe-struck.

This film is marvelous.

First of all, I want to make a quick note to the fool who lambasted this for having a `sad ending'. I understand that people like to watch films for entertainment value, but to downgrade this film's overall impact because you don't like the downer ending is rather ignorant. Yes, the `gay for pay' scene (as you put it) was groundbreaking and even watching it all these years later it holds a very distinct impact. And, so you are `corrected', even Joe makes it clear that he is "not a real cowboy". He went to New York for the strict reason to capitalize on his good looks and get `paid for a lay', and his confused sexual past would make it rather understandable that he was `looser' with his `tricks'.

Anyways.

The film centers around two `losers', Joe and Rizzo who bond over their shared loneliness. Joe moves from Texas to New York, planning on becoming a hustler to make a living. Upon a chance meeting with Rizzo (that doesn't go so well), the two wind up wallowing in their solitude together, working hard to exploit each other to make a living. While the majority of the films center seems to go no where (climactically), it serves to build a tragic portrait of two wasted lives. In many ways, the film reminds me of John Huston's tragically underrated `Fat City'. In fact, the endings are similarly tragic, especially when you consider the emotional weight it carries for the characters. Throughout the film Rizzo is dying to reach Florida, a place he considers a safe-haven. It is only appropriate that Florida bring with it insurmountable pain (or would that be a welcomed release?).

The performances by the two stars is nearly otherworldly, especially Dustin Hoffman, who chews up every scene. Many may label his performance `gimmick', but there is so much earnest heart and drive in his every tick that he bleeds forth a reality that surpassing mere cliché. Voight is a perfect compliment here, serving up a more subdued and `observational' character.

I do want to note that Sylvia Miles cameo performance as Cass shockingly received an Oscar nomination. If ANYONE from this film deserved a nomination for illuminated her few scenes, it would have been Brenda Vaccaro!

Many have noted the homosexual connotations and insinuations surrounding this film and its treatment of the two main characters. While this is surely no `Brokeback Mountain' in that area (nor is it as `good' a film, if we're being honest) it definitely earns the speculation on the subject, especially when you consider how wildly defensive both characters are about their sexuality. While I would never jump the gun and label either of them `gay', I must say that the film likes to tote the line so-to-speak with its own understanding of the characters `preferences'. In the end, there is a love between these two men that transcends the boundaries of sexuality, and for that I am truly grateful.

Few films can capture the desperation that simmers under the skin of the lonesome, and `Midnight Cowboy' (while subjectively dated) refuses to date itself. This is one for the ages.

Midnight Cowboy (Two Disc Collector's Edition) Overview

Daring. Provocative. Shocking. Compelling. Nearly thirty years after its original release, "Midnight Cowboy is still heartbreakingand timeless" (The New York Observer). This Academy Award® winner* for Best Picture, Director and Screenplay also boasts Oscar®-nominated** performances by Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, neither of whom have "ever been better on screen than they are here" (Chicago Tribune)! When Joe Buck (Voight), a good-looking,naively charming Texas "cowboy" makes his way to the Big Apple to seek his fortune, the only wealthhe finds is in the friendship of Ratso Rizzo (Hoffman), a scrounging, sleazy, small-time con man with big dreams. Living on the tattered fringe of society, these two outcasts develop an unlikely bond one that transcends their broken dreams and get-rich-quick schemes and makes Midnight Cowboy "that rarest of things: [a film] every bit as moving now as it was when it was [first] released" (Premiere). *1969 **1969: Actor

Midnight Cowboy (Two Disc Collector's Edition) Specifications

The first, and only, X-rated film to win a best picture Academy Award, John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy seems a lot less daring today (and has been reclassified as an R), but remains a fascinating time capsule of late-1960s sexual decadence in mainstream American cinema. In a career-making performance, Jon Voight plays Joe Buck, a naive Texas dishwasher who goes to the big city (New York) to make his fortune as a sexual hustler. Although enthusiastic about selling himself to rich ladies for stud services, he quickly finds it hard to make a living and eventually crashes in a seedy dump with a crippled petty thief named Ratzo Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman, doing one of his more effective "stupid acting tricks," with a limp and a high-pitch rasp of a voice). Schlesinger's quick-cut, semi-psychedelic style has dated severely, as has his ruthlessly cynical approach to almost everybody but the lead characters. But at its heart the movie is a sad tale of friendship between a couple of losers lost in the big city, and with an ending no studio would approve today. It's a bit like an urban Of Mice and Men, but where both guys are Lenny. --Jim Emerson

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