Midnight Cowboy (DVD, 2006, Collector's Edition)

One of Jon Voight's first films, this was the one that kicked off his film career. This would be the film that also exploited Dustin Hoffman's true acting talent. This would also be the first X-rated film ever to win an Oscar for Best Picture (although by today's standards, it would barely even be rated-R). This would also be one of the first great films that kicked off one of the best decades of American film, the 1970s.

I'd been dying to see this film for some time. It was a landmark film in so many ways and it was great in so many ways. It's a story about a very positive, though very naive boy from Texas named Joe Buck (Jon Voight) whose past haunts him and wants to escape his hometown Texas life (and his past) for a life of sex and gigolo-ism in New York City. He finds that the New York life isn't all it's made out to be and he struggles, all the while getting hustled himself and having to subject himself to the pains and horrors of a small-town kid trying to make it in the big city. He befriends one of the guys who hustles him (Dustin Hoffman) and you see their friendship grow throughout the film as they struggle to survive together.

I thought the film was incredibly well done. It was real ahead of it's time for 1969, complete with flashbacks, flashing images, personal horror, violent emotion. The direction was phenomenal and the acting was some of the best these actors have done in their careers. The mise-en-scene portrays a very dark NYC complete with homelessness, violence, anger, etc. The kind of NYC you feel in many films of the 70s - Rosemary's Baby, Saturday Night Fever, any Woody Allen film etc.

I really felt every shift in emotion that I don't get from very many films nowadays. The flashes going through the mind aren't just of his past but of his present and of both simultaneously. His inner conflict is further complicated by his sense of southern positive yet naive attitude toward life that makes the viewer feel a huge sense of sympathy towards him. His ability to forgive those who've hustled him and to befriend complete strangers pains the viewer because you almost want him to walk away. To go back home. But as we learn later in the film, even his resilience is challenged.

His sympathy towards other human beings is what seems to keep him going. His desire to make it big is only paralleled with his desire to have a companion in life. He finds it in Enrico Rizzo (Hoffman) and you see a true friendship take form.

The film was overall pretty depressing but just a great feat of filmmaking that I would suggest to anyone who wants a great film to watch.

Considering all things, Midnight Cowboy was the pinnacle of personal expression in the then known society facing difficulties from all angles. To make a film about these subjects then was still considered taboo to many and received the first X rating from the motion picture association who was then trying to be honest to the general public.

John Voight plays a young Texan Joe Buck, who was caught up in several tragic events in his life up until now and decides to head off to New York City in hopes to becoming a male prostitute. There, he meets Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), who first tries to hustle Joe, but soon becomes drawn to him through desperation and poverty. The two live together in an abandoned building throughout the winter, until things turn for the worst. Joe Buck's dreams are soon replaced by compassion towards Rizzo, and soon becomes a two-bit hustler just to help Rizzo complete his dream of moving to the sandy beaches of Florida.

There are moments in the this film where both actors now talk about in which there was a couple of scenes where improvisations were used. The most famous is the one in which both talk about coming back to life again. You should watch closely to find the minds of the young actors as they, themselves had a chance to show there talents. Of course, the film won an Academy award for best picture, which was not surprising.

The soundtrack to Cowboy has always been on of the highlights of the buzz surrounding this film. Although it has a poignant country like style to it at times, it helps us get a taste of life from all 4 corners of the states around the late 60s. Recently many people may wish to revisit this time period, and Composer John Barry caught it well when picking the arrangements and vocal talent for the film.

The most haunting melody of all is of course the theme song, yet Harry Nillson adds his excellent flavor on the soundtrack with the first track Everybody's Talkin', which is an extended version of the original written by Barry Gibb, which is not surprising at all.

Of course the film was intended to strike a cord into the youngster setting out to make there way out in the world who had little to know chance in life. John Voight's character Joe Buck captures this so well, yet the film failed to deliver a strong and compassionate message about the true meaning of life, except that the life you want may just be a figment of your drifting shadows of reality, floating from one bad situation to the next.

I'm giving this a perfect score for realism. 5/5

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Was a strangley different movie

I had to write an analysis of this movie for my class.
For a movie in this day and age is still a risky movie.
there is many scenes of taboo material strewn through out the movie.