Wednesday, July 4, 2012

I'm a hustler - "Midnight Cowboy" (1969)

Mat here. We got together with friend of the blog Jason and settled in for the movie – we all knew of the film but had no idea what to expect from it.

Jon Voight plays Joe Buck, who’s set on escaping his small-town life by moving to New York and becoming a ‘hustler’ – male prostitute. Trouble is, he’s just to nice for this line of work and everyone he meets takes advantage of this poor hustler. Life in the Big Apple is one hard lesson after another for him.

Joe finds an unlikely companion, and occasional pimp, in Dustin Hoffman. The review could also be titled 'Hey, I'm WALKIN' here!' as this is the film where Dustin Hoffman, as the delightfully grotesque Ratso Rizzo utters the immortal New Yorker phrase. According to IMdB, this was an ad-lib from Hoffman as they were filming on a closed street and one cab got sick of waiting, accelerated across the intersection and almost wiped out the two stars. Hoffman doesn’t break character and slaps the cab in anger as well.

Joe and Rizzo stumble from one mediocre sexcapade to another, barely getting enough to live on and calling a condemed building home. New York’s winter threatens the pair and they set thier sights on the golden glow of Florida. Unfortunately the more they reach for a shortcut to the good life, the further away it gets.

The partnership between the two leads is the core of the film, and despite the griminess it is a surprisingly touching and affecting relationship.

The film also puts the excellent song ‘Everybody’s Talkin’ by Harry Nilsson to good use, softening the harsh moments and making the light ones more poignant.

In addition to Best Picture, it always won Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. Although it seems fairly tame by today’s standards this film was rated ‘X’ back in the day (due to it’s “homosexual frame of reference”) and remains the only X-rated film to win Best Picture.

This movie has a lot of scruffy charm and real heart. A deserving winner.

Danielle gave this 81/100, I gave it 88.5/100 and Jason awarded it 81/100.

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