Midnight Cowboy

This article is about the 1969 film. For the novel upon which this film is based, see Midnight Cowboy (novel). For other uses, see Midnight Cowboy (disambiguation).

Midnight Cowboy
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Schlesinger
Produced by	Jerome Hellman
Screenplay by	Waldo Salt
Based on	Midnight Cowboy  by James Leo Herlihy
Starring	Dustin Hoffman Jon Voight Sylvia Miles
Music by	John Barry
Cinematography	Adam Holender
Editing by	Hugh A. Robertson
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	May 25, 1969 (1969-05-25)
Running time	113 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$3.2 million
Box office	$44,785,053

Midnight Cowboy is a 1969 American drama film based on the 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. It was written by Waldo Salt, directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Jon Voight in the title role alongside Dustin Hoffman. Notable smaller roles are filled by Sylvia Miles, John McGiver, Brenda Vaccaro, Bob Balaban, Jennifer Salt and Barnard Hughes; M. Emmet Walsh is an uncredited, pre-fame extra.

The film won three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. To date, it is the only X-rated film ever to win Best Picture.

Plot summary

Joe Buck (Jon Voight), a young Texan, works as a dishwasher. As the film opens, Joe dresses like a rodeo cowboy, packs a suitcase, and quits his job. He heads to New York City in the hope of leading the life of a male prostitute. Joe's naïveté becomes evident quickly. Initially unsuccessful, he finally succeeds in bedding a well-to-do middle-aged New Yorker (Sylvia Miles), but Joe ends up giving her money. Joe then meets Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), a crippled, third-rate con man who tricks Joe out of $20, by offering to introduce him to a well-known pimp, who instead turns out to be a Bible thumper (John McGiver). Joe flees the scene in pursuit of Rizzo.

Joe spends his days wandering the city and relaxing in his hotel room. Once broke, he is locked out of his hotel room and most of his belongings are confiscated. He finally attempts to make money by agreeing to receive oral sex from a young man (Bob Balaban) in a movie theater. When he turns out to have no money, Joe threatens him. The next day, Joe spots Rizzo and angrily shakes him down. Rizzo offers to share his place, an apartment in a condemned building. Joe reluctantly accepts, and they begin a "business relationship", helping each other hustle. Alone without each other, a genuine bond develops between the two men. However, Rizzo's health steadily worsens.

Joe's life is told through flashbacks. His grandmother raises him, after his mother abandons him, though his grandmother frequently neglects him, as well. He and his girlfriend are raped, after drawing the ire of local townspeople. She is sent to a mental institution, while Joe joins the army. Rizzo's backstory comes mostly through the things he tells Joe. His father was an illiterate Italian immigrant shoeshiner who worked deep in a subway station, developed a bad back, and "coughed his lungs out from breathin' in that wax all day". Rizzo learned shining from his father but refuses to follow in his footsteps. He dreams of moving one day to Miami.

At one point, an odd-looking couple approach Joe and Ratso in a diner and hand Joe a flyer inviting him to a party. They enter a Warhol-esque party scene (with Warhol superstars in cameos). The naive Joe smokes a joint, thinking it's a regular cigarette, and, after taking a pill offered to him, begins to hallucinate. He leaves the party with a socialite (Brenda Vaccaro), who agrees to pay him $20 for spending the night with her, but he suffers from temporary impotence. They play a game of Scribbage together, in which Joe shows his limited academic prowess. She teasingly suggests Joe may be gay, and he is suddenly able to perform. The two have lively, aggressive sex. In the morning, the socialite sets up a friend of hers to be Joe's next customer, and it appears his career is on its way.

When Joe returns home later, Rizzo is in bed, feverish. Rizzo adamantly refuses medical help and begs Joe to put him on a bus to Florida. Desperate for money, Joe resorts to picking up a man from a gay bar (Barnard Hughes), but Joe ends up robbing him, when the man tries to give him a religious medallion, instead of cash. With the money, Joe buys two bus tickets to Florida. During the long journey, Rizzo's frail physical condition deteriorates further. At a rest stop, Joe buys new clothing for Rizzo and himself, discarding his cowboy outfit. As they reach near Miami, Joe talks about getting a regular job, only to realize Rizzo has died. The driver tells Joe there is nothing else to do but continue on to Miami. The film ends with Joe seated with his arm around his dead friend.

Cast

• Dustin Hoffman as Enrico Salvatore "Ratso" Rizzo
• Jon Voight as Joe Buck
• Sylvia Miles as Cass
• John McGiver as Mr. O'Daniel
• Brenda Vaccaro as Shirley
• Barnard Hughes as Towny
• Ruth White as Sally Buck
• Jennifer Salt as Annie
• Viva as Gretel
• Bob Balaban as Young Student

Production

Midnight Cowboy was Adam Holender's first cinematography assignment; he was recommended to Schlesinger by Holender's childhood friend, filmmaker Roman Polanski.

The opening scenes were filmed in Big Spring, Texas. A roadside billboard stating "IF YOU DON'T HAVE AN OIL WELL...GET ONE!" was shown while the New York-bound bus carrying Joe Buck rolled through Texas. Such advertisements, which were common in the Southwestern United States during the late-1960s and throughout the 1970s, promoted Eddie Chiles' Western Company of North America.

Joe first realizes the bus is nearing New York when he hears a Ron Lundy broadcast on WABC while listening to his portable radio. At the time the movie was being filmed in 1968, Lundy worked the midday shift (10 AM–1 PM) Monday through Saturday at the radio station.

Joe stayed at the Hotel Claridge, located at the southeast corner of Broadway and West 44th Street in Midtown Manhattan. His room overlooked the northern half of Times Square. The building, designed by D. H. Burnham & Company and opened in 1911, has since been demolished.

A motif that was featured three times throughout the New York part of the movie was the sign at the top of the facade of the Mutual of New York (MONY) Building at 1740 Broadway. It was extended into the Scribbage scene with Shirley the socialite when Joe's incorrect spelling of the word "money" matched that on the signage.

Despite his portrayal of Joe Buck, a character hopelessly out of his element in New York, Jon Voight is a native New Yorker, hailing from Yonkers. Dustin Hoffman, who played a grizzled veteran of New York's streets, is actually from Los Angeles.^{[citation needed]}

The line "I'm walkin' here!", which reached #27 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes, is often said to have been improvised, but producer Jerome Hellman disputes this account on the 2-disc DVD set of Midnight Cowboy. The cab was driven by a hired actor during a scripted take, and the production team filmed it to look like an ad-lib.^{[citation needed]} However, Hoffman explained it differently on an installment of Bravo's Inside the Actors Studio. He stated there were many takes to hit that traffic light just right so they didn't have to pause while walking. In that take, the timing was perfect and the cab came out of nowhere and nearly hit them. Hoffman wanted to say, "We're filming a movie here!", but he decided not to ruin the take.

Upon initial review by the Motion Picture Association of America, Midnight Cowboy received a "Restricted" ("R") rating. However, after consulting with a psychologist, executives at United Artists were told to accept an "X" rating, due to the "homosexual frame of reference" and its "possible influence upon youngsters". The film was released with an X. The MPAA later broadened the requirements for the "R" rating to allow more content and raised the age restriction from sixteen to seventeen. The film was later rated "R" for a reissue in 1971 with no edits made. The film retains its R rating to this day.

Accolades

The movie earned $11 million in rentals at the North American box office.

The film won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay; it is the only X-rated film to win an Oscar in any category, and one of three X-rated films to be nominated for an Oscar (the other being Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film A Clockwork Orange and Bernardo Bertolucci's 1972 film Last Tango in Paris). Both Hoffman and Voight were nominated for Best Actor awards and Sylvia Miles was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, in what is one of the shortest performances ever nominated (clocking in approximately five minutes of screen-time). In addition, the film won six BAFTA Awards. It was also entered into the 19th Berlin International Film Festival.

In 1994, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Soundtrack

John Barry, who supervised the music and composed the score for the film, won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Theme. Fred Neil's song "Everybody's Talkin'" also won a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, for Harry Nilsson.

Schlesinger chose the song "Everybody's Talkin'" (written by Fred Neil and performed by Harry Nilsson) as its theme, and the song underscores the entire first act of the film. (Other songs considered for the film included Nilsson's own "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City", and Randy Newman's "Cowboy".) The song "He Quit Me" was also on the soundtrack, performed by Lesley Miller; it was written by Warren Zevon, who also included it (as "She Quit Me") on his debut album Wanted Dead or Alive. The soundtrack also features music from Elephant's Memory, Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson.

External links

• Midnight Cowboy at the Internet Movie Database
• Midnight Cowboy at Rotten Tomatoes