MIDNIGHT COWBOY
Waldo Salt (writer)
The film had no studio involvement in it so the film is very much the result of the creative efforts the people involved directly in the film - writers, directors, producers, performers.
The film is also made pre-political correctness, which meant that there was little tension about having to deal with activist groups picketing production and showing of the film.
Like many films with sexual themes, there was a lot of controversy about the film, but it was like many others nominated for major awards and won some
The controversy was over the nudity in the film, which by today's standards is rather mild although they were rather shocking at the time. Breast and buttocks appear and there is some rapid flashback sequences of sexual attack. The film was to have gotten an "R" rating, but on the advice of a psychiatrist, the co-chair of United Artists requested and got an "X" and as a result is the first "X" rated film to have won an Academy Award. Later the studio asked for the "R" rating because many theaters would not show "x" rated films and some newspapers would not accept advertising for them.
The film won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay
It is the only X-rated film to win an Oscar in any category
Both Hoffman and Voight were nominated for Best Actor awards but lost to John Wayne in Rooster Cogburn.
Sylvia Miles (with her extraordinarily brief appearance) was nominated for Best Supporting Actress but lost to Goldie HAwn in Cactus Flower
The film won six BAFTA Awards.
John Barry, who supervised the music for the film, won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Theme.
"Everybody's Talkin'" also won a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, for Harry Nilsson.
In 1994, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
Like some other films with strong sexual overtones, John McGiver Towny), bernard Hughes (Mr. O'Daniel) (well known character actors) and new comer to films Bob Balaban (the young student) were leary of taking the parts.
Schlesinger says best realized film. Typical NY crew Schlesinger not used to it so it as disrespectful. John Schlesinger had just come out as gay. He thought NY types saw him as less than man, but may have influenced his relations
Use of locals for color. Often in one or two liners – people on bus
Flashbabacks play an important role in the film and they are interspersed throughout. The first comes up early as we see young Joe Buck's involvement with an older woman massaging her neck. These flashbacks will continue through out the film. Most in color show the young Joe growing up with his mother, grandmaother, and being left alone much of the time.
there are other black and white flashabcks which have more sinister tones to them and often appear in situations where past and present merge.
There are fantasy moments and flashbacks in montage shots as Joe tries to find Rizzo after the episode with the religious fanatic.
The dream sequence involved flashbacks to rape by gang which goes to her breakdown and fuses with current situation as Joe’s whole structure crumbles.
Fantasy, dreams and reality all slide in and out in these sequences linking Joe's past and present situations
The journey driving to NY is significant in that there is a long period showing Joe in bus attempting to communicate with people and generally failing. His isolation and loneliness are evidenced by his attempts at conversations which fail. He tried talking to passangers and bus driver but gets little or no response.
Again the journey fuses images from the present and past with fantasies on the bus. The interview with women on the radio in which all they talk about is men who "are" Joe indicates some push into Joe's interpretation of the broadcast rather than what is actually being said (i.e. readin in rather than out of the text)
Among the images are the Water tower=crazy Annie loves Joe
Buck's on;y real sucess seems to be sexual and hence he is off to NY leaving behind his dishwashing job to become a hustler.
The mood shift as New York is approached and Buck hears the radio announcement about women’s idea about men. His trip will be successful (exaggerated in fantasy of SEX AND MONEY.
Once in NY he is lonely and has postcards which he can not write to anyone. The one person he thinks of in the diner probably can't read, so Joe tears up the card.
The shots of Joe walking in the crowd on 5th Ave. are shot with a long telephoto lens (notice forshortening. The shots from this film of him walking in his cowboy gear are hallmark image of the film.
Some stereotypic ideas of New Yorkers as blase are shown with people walking past a body lying on the ground at 57th Street and 5th Ave. (This was shot as a candid shot, and had to be shot many times because NYer's kept stopping to help!)
Another technique which is used is that fantasy scenes lose sound.
Joe is terribly naive and incompetent as a hustler. He is vulnerable, sentimental and foolish. His first "client" talks on the phone and lets her dog talk as well. Finally she cries when she feels that Joe must have approached her because she couldn't get anyone anymore and winds up getting $20.00 from him and he doesn't get paid.
A high angle shot of him leaving teh apartment house to indicates his loneliness
Rico "Ratso" Rizzo is introduced in bar scene where his knowledge of NY is indicated by him pointing out to Joe that the person he is making a pass at is in fact a "faggot" - a word much bandied about in the film. It is a man, not a woman Joe is making moves on.
Rizzo is a con man and thief, who is physically ill. He strikes up a relationship with Joe to bilk him out of money which he does by pretending to introduce him to "management" but in actually sends him to a client. One the way Side note: On the way to the apartment there is a famous scene with a short altercaton between Rizzo and a cab driver which Hoffman claims was ad libbed, but the producer says was not. The driver of the cab was an actor hired for the part, the taxi was rented and the line was scripted. / and Rizzo collects a "percentage" and then runs.
The man he sends Joe to is a religious fanatic (sex gets mixed with religion in addition to other things like food and death) with a lit up Jesus on his bathroom door. When Buck rishes out, there is another set of flashbacks with some religious images as well as fanatsy of seeing Rizzo around the city and shots of him actually looking for him. Interspersed with this are the scenes of the gang rape in which Crazy Annie and Joe a raped by a gang.
The peculiar interview with people with the toupee for dog (for lonely people) Crosses with memories of abandonment
The images of 42nd Street in 60’s are like the street today – could get anything there. It is a kind of time capsule of the period.
Joe wanders and see a restaurant with a man cooking eggs. there is a sign saying "Dishwasher wanted" Joe sees the young man washing dishes and reflects on his own previous job in Texas and decides not to go back to that, although there is a certain desparation appearing.
The druggies in cafeteria sit across from a hungry, broke, dejected and desparate desperate Joe whose eelf image is gone.
He reaches the level where he goes to 42ne Street to try hustling gays.
Juxtaposition of balcony, lost in space films and memories of earlier better memories of sex fantasy in mind
Returns watch because it is significant to kid.
How fast shell of violence and arrogance evaporates is important
Happy to see someone he recognizes then remembers its Rizzo
RATSO’s Fantasies also appear – not lame running on beach with Voight, he is maitreD' in a large FLorida hotel
Scene at bottom of stairs before going to the party is the first time they touch
The party scene is made up of people from the Andy Warhol gang - Warhol was friend of Schlesinger and a number of people like Ultra Violet and Paul Morrissey appear.
The party scene does many things:
Buck’s first experience with drugs
Joe meets the woman who will be the only successful hustle for Buck, although he fails at his first attempt, and is not able to have sex with Shirley (Brenda Vaccaro) until she taunts him about his sexuality and becomes aggressive.
This aggressiveness seems to trigger a more vilent side to Joe. Now just as his career seems to start Rizzo becomes ill. Buck angry because it the start of his career.
Joe's attachment to Rizzo makes him decide he has to get the money anyway he can to get Rizzo to Florida. He returns to 42nd Street and links up with Towney who is a masochistic man suffering with remorse. He offers Joe some money but it isn't enough and Joe finally beats him up, shoving the telephone into his mouth.
The scenes of the attack are dramatically intercut with him carrying Rizzo to the bus.
In this second bus sequence (the first one comiong to NYC) Rizzo deteriorates – Buck changes both his his clothes, and RIzzo's.
Conversation with waitress is very normal not lots of bravado. It appears Joe is going to get on with his life in a much more normal manner.
Sartorial code: cowboy outfit, fringes, cowboy shirts, Rizzo’s purple suit. Dumps cowboy clothes in Florida
Some interesting matching of color in that Rizzo has a purple suit and when Joe goes to Towny's apartment he wears a purple shirt for the first time in the film, linking him with Rizzo.
Some people have felt that the fact that Joe fails sexually (fi the first time) after tuoching Rizzo for the first time, implies some homoerotic situation which is mirrored in Rizzo's fantasy of him running along the beach with Joe in FLorida.
Is this just the development of a friendship between two lonely men in NY or is it something else?
John Schlesinger
1969
It reveal some of Rizzo's rather conservative attitudes in his approach t the "weirdoes" at the party