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Midnight Cowboy (1969)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
16 June 1969 (Brazil)
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Tagline:
Whatever you hear about Midnight Cowboy is true. more
Plot:
A naive male prostitute and his sickly friend struggle to survive on the streets of New York City. full summary | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Friend
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New York City
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Hustler
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Texas
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Male Prostitute
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Awards:
Won 3 Oscars.
Another 23 wins
&
12 nominations
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NewsDesk:
(47 articles)
A Single Man Gets Degayified Posters
(From Alternative Film Guide. 24 November 2009, 1:43 AM, PST)
6 Actors That Should Probably Not Watch Their Own Movies
(From FilmSchoolRejects. 23 November 2009, 7:16 PM, PST)
(From Alternative Film Guide. 24 November 2009, 1:43 AM, PST)
6 Actors That Should Probably Not Watch Their Own Movies
(From FilmSchoolRejects. 23 November 2009, 7:16 PM, PST)
User Comments:
Much better than expected
more (242 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | 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 |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
113 min
Country:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
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:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
During the filming of the snowstorm sequence in which Joe Buck and Ratso Rizzo walk down Mercer Street and arrive at the Warhol party, the snow machines made so much noise (filming was in July) that sound recording was impossible. After filming was finished for the scene, "looping" was necessary. Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight recorded their dialog and then with a hundred or so cast and crew standing silent in 10 inches of Styrofoam snow, Bernice, the Saint Bernard tied to the railing in front of the loft building where the party was being held looped her "dialog": barking furiously at Dustin Hoffman's menacing Ratso.
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Goofs:
Crew or equipment visible: Ceilingless set and lighting equipment can be briefly seen in several shots in Cass' bedroom.
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Quotes:
Movie Connections:
Featured in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies: 10th Anniversary Edition (2007) (TV)
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Soundtrack:
Hush, Little Baby
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FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (242 total)
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I sat down to watch "Midnight Cowboy" thinking it would be another overrated '60s/'70s movie. Some of my favorite films come from the '70s, in the same vein as "Midnight Cowboy" ("Taxi Driver," "Mean Streets," "Panic in Needle Park," etc.) but there are many, many overrated ones as well that have gained strong reputations amongst critics for being groundbreaking - unfortunately a vast majority of them don't hold up as well today. I sort of feel this way about "Easy Rider." (Although it, too, is one of my favorites.)
So, I didn't expect much from "Midnight Cowboy" but got a lot back. It's a touching story, well-made and well-told with some of the best performances of all time. Dustin Hoffman, as Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo, gives one of his best - it's a bit funny at times (he sounds like a cartoon character when he speaks - maybe because of the Lenny/"Simpsons" connection), but Hoffman is entirely convincing. Half of the film's budget went towards his paycheck as he was just becoming a major star in Hollywood. Opposite him is the second-billed Jon Voight as Joe Buck, the "cowboy" who travels North to the Big Apple in the hopes of becoming a male prostitute. Soon his naive ways land him in trouble and he pairs up with a crippled scam artist named "Ratso" - who offers to become Joe's "manager" for a certain percentage of profits.
The movie is quite long at two hours but never really seems very long. Some films can tend to drag, especially some of the films that were made in the '70s because (as it's been said in "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls") the directors were the stars of the movies in the 1970s and occasionally they got a bit too infatuated with their material, going on too long examining characters/scenes/etc. that aren't important. Just about the only scene I felt was a bit too long and unnecessary was the drug party - it makes the film seem extremely outdated (similar to the drug odysseys in "Easy Rider") and really harms its flow because it's not needed.
Other than that, "Midnight Cowboy" is an almost flawless motion picture. I was pleasantly surprised. It does have its flaws (flashbacks are a bit tacky and never used as well as they could have been, for instance) and some of the scenes are a bit uneasy (such as the gay movie theater sequence) but if you can handle its content "Midnight Cowboy" is a truly great motion picture, an uncompromising examination of life on the streets in the late '60s/early '70s. It's a depressing movie, yes, and by today's standards might seem a bit outdated and heavy on the liberal perspective of "life is horrible, etc."...but I still love it and particularly the extremely touching ending will stay with me for a long, long time.
Highly recommended. One of the best films of the '70s. (It was technically released in late 1969 but I'd still categorize it as a 1970s film. It also won the Best Picture Oscar, being the first - and only - X-rated motion picture to do so. It was later re-rated R on appeal.)
4.5/5