Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Director:

John Schlesinger

Writers:

Waldo Salt (screenplay)
James Leo Herlihy (novel)

Release Date:

16 June 1969 (Brazil)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Whatever you hear about Midnight Cowboy is true.

Plot:

A naive male prostitute and his sickly friend struggle to survive on the streets of New York City.

Plot Keywords:

Friend | New York City | Hustler | Texas | Male Prostitute

Awards:

Won 3 Oscars. Another 23 wins & 12 nominations

Cast

Dustin Hoffman	...	Ratso
Jon Voight	...	Joe Buck
Sylvia Miles	...	Cass
John McGiver	...	Mr. O'Daniel
Brenda Vaccaro	...	Shirley
Barnard Hughes	...	Towny
Ruth White	...	Sally Buck - Texas
Jennifer Salt	...	Annie - Texas
Gilman Rankin	...	Woodsy Niles - Texas (as Gil Rankin)
Gary Owens	...	Little Joe - Texas
T. Tom Marlow	...	Little Joe - Texas
George Eppersen	...	Ralph - Texas
Al Scott	...	Cafeteria Manager - Texas
Linda Davis	...	Mother on the Bus - Texas
J.T. Masters	...	Old Cow-Hand - Texas

Runtime:

113 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Italian

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono | Dolby Digital (DVD Release)

Certification:

Canada:R (Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Canada:14A (Manitoba) (DVD rating) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) (original rating) | Iceland:16 | South Korea:18 | Brazil:16 | Canada:18A (Canadian Home Video rating) | Norway:15 (TV rating) | USA:TV-MA (TV rating) | Argentina:18 | Australia:M | Canada:18+ (Quebec) | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Netherlands:12 (re-rated) | New Zealand:R18 | Norway:18 | Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:M18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 (video rating) (1988) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:R (re-rating) (1971) | USA:X (original rating) | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

114 East 72nd Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Florin Productions

Trivia:

John McGiver played the religious fanatic, Mr. O'Daniel, with Jon Voight as Joe Buck, who'd been led to believe that O'Daniel is a bigtime pimp. McGiver had also played "Sen. Thomas Jordan" in The Manchurian Candidate (1962). In the remake of that film 42 years later (The Manchurian Candidate (2004)), Voight played "Sen. Thomas Jordan".

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Joe Buck is sitting on the porch, dressed in a military suit, talking about his grandmother's death, he spits backwards.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Joe Buck: Whoopee-tee-yi-yo. Get along little dogies. It's your misfortune and none of my own.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in O anthropos roloi (1972)

Soundtrack:

Florida Fantasy

Big Joe Heads To The Big Apple

Virile, but naive, big Joe Buck leaves his home in Big Spring, Texas, and hustles off to the Big Apple in search of women and big bucks. In NYC, JB meets up with frustration, and with "Ratso" Rizzo, a scruffy but cordial con artist. Somehow, this mismatched pair manage to survive each other which in turn helps both of them cope with a gritty, sometimes brutal, urban America, en route to a poignant ending.

Both funny and depressing, our "Midnight Cowboy" rides head-on into the vortex of cyclonic cultural change, and thus confirms to 1969 viewers that they, themselves, have been swept away from the 1950's age of innocence, and dropped, Dorothy and Toto like, into the 1960's Age of Aquarius.

The film's direction is masterful; the casting is perfect; the acting is top notch; the script is crisp and cogent; the cinematography is engaging; and the music enhances all of the above. Deservedly, it won the best picture Oscar of 1969, and I would vote it as one of the best films of that cyclonic decade.