Of Hope and Destruction

Midnight Cowboy (1969) A naïve young man leaves his home in Texas to become a hustler in New York City. When he arrives, he discovers a cold, unwelcoming city that works to destroy him in every way. With the help of a strange friend, he may find a way to stay alive.

Directed by John Schlesinger

Starring Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles, John McGiver, Brenda Vaccaro, Barnard Hughes

Why I Liked It – A tale of desperation that still brings a ray of humanity to it all.

This movie is a stunning piece of non-traditional Hollywood fare. While one of the leading men is good-looking, he’s not very bright. The other bears the appropriate nickname of Ratso. They live on the fringes of society, barely surviving on petty theft and sex work. They scrabble, quarrel and end up never making their dreams come true. The movie is sad overall, but the end came with an uplift for me. The result would be three Academy Award wins (Best Picture, Best Director and Best Writing Based on Another Source), and four more nominations (Best Actor in a Leading Role for both Hoffman and Voight, Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Sylvia Miles, and Best Film Editing). It’s a stunning movie. It’s not a comfortable story for a comfortable audience. That makes it the classic it has become.

Dustin Hoffman plays Ratso Rizzo, the sniveling, filthy brains of this duo. With a body broken by disease, Rizzo gets through his life by animal cunning. He lives in filth without a friend until he meets Joe Buck (Jon Voight). Joe left his small-town roots in Texas for a dream of hitting it big in New York. His blond hair, blue-eyed country boy looks would bring the women of the Big City flocking. The expectation was that he’d get all the sex and money he’d ever want. As the city has for so many years, it crushed Buck’s dreams in short order.

Two sets of needs meshed when the two men meet. Rizzo has nothing to sell (that anyone wants), but has a hustler’s eye for an opportunity; while Buck has a marketable product, but has no idea how to go about selling it. The friendship that grows is strange, just like the two friends. They find a rhythm and reason to their lives once they join forces. Sadly, it doesn’t bring much happiness to them outside of that friendship. The movie offers us one of the strangest “buddy movies” ever made. It drags Rizzo and Buck through some of the darkest pits they can imagine. In the end, it offers a kind of salvation, I guess?

There are so many compelling acting jobs here. The superb character actor John McGiver appears in a role that is unlike his usual roles. Add Brenda Vaccaro, Barnard Hughes, and Bob Balaban. Miles is brilliant as the woman who first takes to Buck as a pay-for-play bed partner. At the center of it all are the legendary performances of Hoffman and Voight. Hoffman was playing clean cut, college boys like Ben Braddock in “The Graduate”, meaning that this role was a 180-degree turn for him. Without “Midnight Cowboy”, I have to wonder if he’s given a shot at roles like “Little Big Man”, “Papillon” or “Lenny”. Those roles all come in the five years that follow this movie. From that point on, Hoffman is a star. For Voight, the five years that followed this movie also launched a career. Moving from minor roles and TV guest appearances, he would move to “Catch-22”, “Deliverance”, “Conrack”, and “The Odessa File”. While never reaching the professional heights of his co-star, Voight was a recognizable and bankable actor throughout the 1970s.

“Midnight Cowboy” holds a special place as regards the portrayal of gay culture/marginalized people on the big screen. While the relationship between Rizzo and Buck isn’t shown as homosexual on screen, there is a profound emotional connection between the two. The movie explores a different way for men to be in a relationship. Because of that, the movie is sometimes spoken of as a movie milestone for gay culture. I’m unqualified to offer an intelligent opinion on the subject, but presents the concepts in a clearer manner than Hollywood’s usual custom.

The final touch is theme music for the movie, “Everybody’s Talkin'” by Harry Nilsson. Originally just a placeholder, the song’s bright pop sound was the perfect counterpoint to the grim reality of the story. It’s amazing.

The result is one of the best movies ever made.

You can stream “Midnight Cowboy” on Roku, Tubi, Pluto TV, Plex, Hulu, Sling TV, YouTube TV, Fandango at Home, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Google TV, and YouTube.

Rating – ***** Highest Recommendation