Midnight Cowboy
is a 1969
American
drama movie
, released by
United Artists
.
John Schlesinger
directed it, and
Waldo Salt
wrote the
screenplay
based on the
James Leo Herlihy
novel
. It stars
Dustin Hoffman
(in his first starring role after
The Graduate
), along with
Jon Voight
in the
title
role
.
It is the only
X-rated
movie to win an
Academy Award
for Best Picture.
[1]
Schlesinger won a Best Director Award; both Hoffman and Voight were nominated for Best Actor.
In 1971, it was given the "R" rating by the MPAA. Apart from this, nothing was changed in the movie.
Joe Buck (played by Voight, in his first major acting role) was raised by his grandmother in
Texas
. She died after Joe grew up, when he was
drafted
into the
US Army
. He had a girlfriend, who was called Crazy Annie, but she had been sent to a
psychiatric hospital
. With both women gone from his life, Joe had no-one in his life. After he left the Army, he worked as a
dishwasher
, and dreamed of moving to
New York City
, to become a "hustler" ? a
male
prostitute
. He saved money to make the trip, bought some stylish
cowboy
clothes, and travels to NYC on a bus.
Joe knows little about the realities of both New York and his chosen job, and he soon finds himself
homeless
, with no money and only rare chances to earn any. When he first meets Rico "Ratso" Rizzo (Hoffman's character), Ratso
swindled
(tricks) Joe out of
$
20, but when they met again, Ratso offered to share his "place", which turned out to be a room in a condemned building. The two became friends. Ratso shares what he knew about New York with Joe, and became his "manager" (
pimp
), and Joe shares any money he makes with Ratso. Ratso is sick, probably with
tuberculosis
, and as time goes on he depends more and more on Joe. Ratso plans to move to
Florida
before winter starts.
The weather turns cold as the year ended, but Joe and Ratso got a break, when they were invited to a big party. Along with eating (and stashing for later) as much of the food there as they could, Joe meets a
socialite
who finally treated him the way he had always wanted to be, in New York City, and paid him likewise. Ratso, however, became even more ill, and was unable to walk or stand for long. He refuses to go to a doctor or a hospital, and insists Joe takes him to Florida.
Joe tries to set up another encounter with the socialite, to raise travel money, but failed. He donated blood to get grocery money, and by chance meets a traveling
salesman
. The salesman invites Joe to spend the night with him, but later feels guilty, and sends Joe home with a
St. Christopher
medal. When Joe finds Ratso sicker than ever, he returns to beat and rob the salesman, for the money they needed.
Joe and Ratso leaves for Florida on a bus, headed to
Miami
. Joe buys new clothes for them both, and throws away his cowboy clothing. "I ain't no kinda hustler," Joe decided, and he plans to find a regular job once they reached Florida. Joe and Ratso talk and joke during the trip, but Ratso dies before they arrived. Joe realizes how much he had cared about Ratso as a person, and that what he had missed most in his life was someone to be close with. Joe had lost his grandmother and his sweetheart. Now he had lost his best friend, and Joe is scared to go on alone.
The movie won
Academy Awards
for
Best Picture
,
Best Director
, and
Best Adapted Screenplay
. Both Hoffman and Voight were nominated for
Best Actor
awards and Sylvia Miles was nominated for
Best Supporting Actress
. Miles had one of the shortest performances ever nominated (clocking in under four minutes of screen-time).
The film won six
BAFTA Awards
. It was also entered into the
19th Berlin International Film Festival
.
[2]
[3]
John Barry
, who supervised the music and composed the score for the movie, won a
Grammy for Best Instrumental Theme
.
Fred Neil
's song "
Everybody's Talkin'
" also won a
Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
, for
Harry Nilsson
.
In 1994, the movie was picked by the
Library of Congress
to keep in the United States
National Film Registry
.