Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Awards Won: 

• Best Picture, Best Director (John Schlesinger), Best Writing (Screenplay based on another medium)

Nominated for:

• Best Actor in a Leading Role (Jon Voight), Best Actor in a Leading Role (Dustin Hoffman), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Sylvia Miles), Best Film Editing (Hugh A. Robertson)

Other nominees that year:

• Anne of a Thousand Days, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Hello, Dolly!, Z

IMDb Description:

• A naive hustler travels from Texas to New York to seek personal fortune but, in the process, finds himself a new friend.

My thoughts:

So this is my first movie I've watched for this new blog and it was a pretty great one to start with. I'll do my best to not spoil anything when I write my thoughts. I really enjoyed it, despite some flaws that I'll address in a bit. I'll start with the positive elements. Firstly, this has aged very well, there were some inevitable cues that this film is pushing 50, but the story is just as impactful today as ever. It's a story of a very optimistic young man named Joe Buck (Voight) who moves to New York to work as a prostitute. Not your typical pipe dream. He hops on a bus from Texas with a huge smile, dreams of raking in cash, and some very naive beliefs about how desperate New York women are to pay a cowboy for a good time. He quickly learns through some terribly misguided attempts, that you can't just walk up to a woman on the street in broad daylight and expect to elicit money from her in exchange for your service. 

The story takes a turn when he meets up with Enrico Salvatore Rizzo, a con man that tricks him out of $20. He introduces himself as "Rico," but an adversary calls him "Ratso" and that becomes his name for the majority of the film (on IMDB his name is simply Ratso). From there the story builds a relationship based on that deception and grows it into a true friendship as these two disenfranchised men try to survive a harsh New York winter with no money, no real home, and certainly no prospects. And that's all I really want to say about the plot.

Now you have an idea of the type of story this is, but not only is the plot interesting, the style in which it's presented is actually what first made me like this movie quite a bit. For such an old film, the editing was very modern (it's no surprise it was nominated for that Oscar as well). It utilized flashbacks throughout the story to explain Joe Buck's past and why he has some tremendously messed up feelings towards sex. It also presented surreal fantasy scenes, i.e., when Rico and Joe thought they were going to make some money they imagined their new life, but what was great about these fantasy scenes was that as soon as things started going poorly in reality the fantasy's turned on themselves. Like when you think you're having a dream, only for it to turn into a nightmare. 

Style and plot are great, but what holds your interest through this movie will be the two main characters; Joe and Rico. Throughout the film I found myself relating to both of them at different times. Joe tries his best to always remain optimistic, even when things clearly could not get much worse. Whereas Rico is cynical and untrusting of the world around him. I wrote a note while watching that Joe was naive, but in a believable way. I still believe that, but I woke up the next morning thinking he was still believable, just not likeable. He's an idiot for most of this movie, and even in the end he may have learned a few things, but certainly not enough. 

Rico steals the show, at least for me. You feel for him much more than you ever do for Joe. Joe creates his own mess, but Rico gives the impression that he never had a chance. I mentioned this before, but for the vast majority of the movie (and even in the credits) Rico is referred to as Ratso. This is something that is clearly a point of contention with Rico, it's something that cuts him to his core. And every damn time someone, especially when Joe, calls him Ratso I feel for him.

There aren't a lot of obvious flaws in this movie. The biggest one for me came around the halfway point of the movie. Joe and Rico end up going to a party and it turns out to be what I imagine every trippy 60's party to be. It's filmed in a way that I'd call cliche, but it's hard to say if at the time it was cliche, or just now. Either way I found myself checking out during this scene. It's lots of closeups, smash-cuts of people doing drugs, random laughing, and Rico stealing food. The latter part is the only reason I don't really hate this scene, because Rico remains untrusting and becomes the audience surrogate unsure of what to make of the happening-scene around him. 

The only other real flaw I can think of is the character of Joe Buck. I don't hate this character, but his naivety becomes frustrating pretty quickly. It is interesting, but not believable. After about halfway through the film you expect Joe to start smartening up, but he doesn't waiver in his ignorance or optimism. It becomes a question of is he just simple, in denial of his bleak situation, or does he really believe things are going to be okay? After the very dark climax of the movie it seems he has finally come to realize some things about the world, but it feels like it should've happened sooner. 

Final Thoughts:

This is a great film that everyone should watch. Between the characters, interesting editing, and a plot full of great scenes, it's very clear why this movie got the attention it did. Other than the couple of nit-picky things, there's not too much I can say about this movie that isn't positive. It makes me yearn for more young-Dustin Hoffman movies.

Favourite Quote:

"We're going to tell all these people my name is Rico."

My rating:

9/10

Looking Ahead:
Up next is 1970's Patton. I don't know much about this movie other than the oft-parodied scene where he gives a speech in front of a giant American flag. It's an almost 3 hour movie so fingers crossed that I like it! No promises when I'll have my next post up.