Midnight Cowboy. (18.)
Directed by John Schlesinger. 1969
Starring Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman, Brenda Vaccaro, Sylvia Miles, John McGiver, Barnard Hughes, Jennifer Salt, and Bob Balaban. 113 mins. Out on Blu-ray as part of the Criterion Collection.
Things people remember about Midnight Cowboy in order of proximity. “Hey, I'm walking here.” Nilsson's Everybody's Talking At Me. The final scene. John Barry's Wah...wah, wah...wah, wah....wah, wah theme. Most distantly, that it was the first "X" rated movie to win the best picture Oscar, just a year after that bauble had been presented to Oliver! Most people probably assume that there is a substantive movie behind it but that's not entirely the case.
Strapping Joe Buck (Voight) quits his job washing dishes in a diner in Texas, puts on his cowboy costume and gets on the bus to New York, intent on becoming a hustler, pimping himself out to rich old ladies. Instead, he soon finds himself shacking up with limping conman Ratso Rizzo (Hoffman) in a condemned property. When Buck can earn money it is usually not with rich old ladies but furtive gay men.
If there was a ranking of Oscar winners that have not stood the test of time (as opposed to Driving Miss Daisy or Crash that didn't stand the test of at that time) I think Midnight Cowboy would be well up there. It is often said that a European eye is best at capturing the nature of America on film – Wim Wenders' Paris Texas and numerous other examples I can't bring to mind right now. But Schlesinger, just over on the boat from completing Far From The Madding Crowd, slaps down the gaudy excesses of the US with such a heavy hand that your disdain turns on the filmmakers rather than the harsh excesses of capitalism.
He overdoes the experimentation too. The flashbacks to Buck's Texas past that are scattered around the first half of the film are supposed to subliminally convey the first half of the book, by James Leo Herlihy, that the film is based on. Subliminal is good, being asked to make an effort is good, but I instinctively rejected them in this film. This is partly because I never really grasped what they were trying to tell me. Maybe that's my dimness, but subliminal storytelling is still storytelling and the onus is on them to impart the information. The film never really feels like it has a firm grasp on all the modish techniques it is using, though it sure does seem pleased with itself for having them. When you get to the party scene, where Buck and Ratso go along to a loft happening, with loads of the Warhol crowd, you might begin to suspect that this is actually a rather square enterprise.
What saves the film is the work of the two leads. It works best as a kind of preliminary run through of Rainman; Hoffman again playing the damaged half of a relationship that becomes increasingly co-dependent. Hoffman's showy but still impressive turn has tended to overshadow Voight's splendid contribution. Fathering Angelina and becoming a Republican has torpedoed his reputation but he is mighty here in what was effectively his first lead role. His Joe Buck is an oversized baby; every blond haired child who ever exclaimed Gee Whizz in a Disney film. With his Yes Mams and Yes Sirs and the sideburns, he is Glen Cambell taking the Elvis role.
Extras
Extensive and helpful.
Audio commentary from 1991 featuring director John Schlesinger and producer Jerome Hellman
New video essay with commentary by Holender
New photo gallery with commentary by photographer Michael Childers
The Crowd Around the Cowboy, a 1969 short film made on location for Midnight Cowboy
Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter’s Journey, an Academy Award-nominated documentary from 1990 by Eugene Corr and Robert Hillmann
Two short documentaries from 2004 on the making and release of Midnight Cowboy
Interview with actor Jon Voight on The David Frost Show from 1970
Voight’s original screen test
Interview from 2000 with Schlesinger for BAFTA Los Angeles
Excerpts from the 2002 BAFTA Los Angeles tribute to Schlesinger
Trailer
PLUS: An essay by critic Mark Harris
Directed by John Schlesinger. 1969
Starring Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman, Brenda Vaccaro, Sylvia Miles, John McGiver, Barnard Hughes, Jennifer Salt, and Bob Balaban. 113 mins. Out on Blu-ray as part of the Criterion Collection.
Things people remember about Midnight Cowboy in order of proximity. “Hey, I'm walking here.” Nilsson's Everybody's Talking At Me. The final scene. John Barry's Wah...wah, wah...wah, wah....wah, wah theme. Most distantly, that it was the first "X" rated movie to win the best picture Oscar, just a year after that bauble had been presented to Oliver! Most people probably assume that there is a substantive movie behind it but that's not entirely the case.
Strapping Joe Buck (Voight) quits his job washing dishes in a diner in Texas, puts on his cowboy costume and gets on the bus to New York, intent on becoming a hustler, pimping himself out to rich old ladies. Instead, he soon finds himself shacking up with limping conman Ratso Rizzo (Hoffman) in a condemned property. When Buck can earn money it is usually not with rich old ladies but furtive gay men.
If there was a ranking of Oscar winners that have not stood the test of time (as opposed to Driving Miss Daisy or Crash that didn't stand the test of at that time) I think Midnight Cowboy would be well up there. It is often said that a European eye is best at capturing the nature of America on film – Wim Wenders' Paris Texas and numerous other examples I can't bring to mind right now. But Schlesinger, just over on the boat from completing Far From The Madding Crowd, slaps down the gaudy excesses of the US with such a heavy hand that your disdain turns on the filmmakers rather than the harsh excesses of capitalism.
He overdoes the experimentation too. The flashbacks to Buck's Texas past that are scattered around the first half of the film are supposed to subliminally convey the first half of the book, by James Leo Herlihy, that the film is based on. Subliminal is good, being asked to make an effort is good, but I instinctively rejected them in this film. This is partly because I never really grasped what they were trying to tell me. Maybe that's my dimness, but subliminal storytelling is still storytelling and the onus is on them to impart the information. The film never really feels like it has a firm grasp on all the modish techniques it is using, though it sure does seem pleased with itself for having them. When you get to the party scene, where Buck and Ratso go along to a loft happening, with loads of the Warhol crowd, you might begin to suspect that this is actually a rather square enterprise.
What saves the film is the work of the two leads. It works best as a kind of preliminary run through of Rainman; Hoffman again playing the damaged half of a relationship that becomes increasingly co-dependent. Hoffman's showy but still impressive turn has tended to overshadow Voight's splendid contribution. Fathering Angelina and becoming a Republican has torpedoed his reputation but he is mighty here in what was effectively his first lead role. His Joe Buck is an oversized baby; every blond haired child who ever exclaimed Gee Whizz in a Disney film. With his Yes Mams and Yes Sirs and the sideburns, he is Glen Cambell taking the Elvis role.
Extras
Extensive and helpful.
Audio commentary from 1991 featuring director John Schlesinger and producer Jerome Hellman
New video essay with commentary by Holender
New photo gallery with commentary by photographer Michael Childers
The Crowd Around the Cowboy, a 1969 short film made on location for Midnight Cowboy
Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter’s Journey, an Academy Award-nominated documentary from 1990 by Eugene Corr and Robert Hillmann
Two short documentaries from 2004 on the making and release of Midnight Cowboy
Interview with actor Jon Voight on The David Frost Show from 1970
Voight’s original screen test
Interview from 2000 with Schlesinger for BAFTA Los Angeles
Excerpts from the 2002 BAFTA Los Angeles tribute to Schlesinger
Trailer
PLUS: An essay by critic Mark Harris
