I missed this movie the first time around so I thought I was about to view a comedy – not even close. If I knew the subject of this X-rated film, I probably wouldn’t have bothered. Still, it is a classic American film and as such, I am happy to have finally seen it.
Joe Buck, professing to be a Texas cowboy, lands in New York with the intention of hustling rich women with his studly qualities, thus becoming a rich man. The role of Joe Buck gained Jon Voight a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. One wonders why Dustin Hoffman as the legendary Ratso did not win an award although he was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor.
All other actors played minor characters. The focus was chiefly on Joe Buck and Ratso and their growing friendship. The inexperienced Joe was unlucky enough to run into Ratso in the first week of his move to New York. Ratso, a crippled loser, makes his way by hustling, stealing and conning others, and recognizes the perfect victim in Joe Buck. He offers to manage Joe in his efforts to hustle rich women. Naïve Joe is no match for the sophisticated set he aspires to hoodwink, and Ratso does not live up to his boast of making them both rich.
The pair is thrown into party scenes where drug pushers attempt to lure new clients through providing drugs for unsuspecting first-time users. There are also graphic and violent scenes as Joe continues his quest for meeting new ladies.
Ratso’s living quarters, which he invites Joe to share, is an abandoned building which is fine in fair weather, but winter is coming on and Ratso’s chronic cough wears on all of us as he pleads for Joe to go to Florida with him for the winter. Joe finally agrees and the bus ride to Florida establishes how sick Ratso really is and how solicitous Joe is about the first real friend he has ever had.
The sad part about this film is that there are actually people living the kind of life that Ratso and Joe lived – stealing fruit from local vendors, picking pockets, pawning treasured items, and begging cigarettes. Midnight Cowboy is a classic movie, though hardly uplifting. It will leave you feeling disheartened and perhaps grateful for the gifts that you take for granted in your everyday life.
Source:
Movie – Midnight Cowboy (1969)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064665