Review of Midnight Cowboy (1969) by David H — 19 Jan 2010

In Midnight Cowboy, Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman play two very different people, with one similar goal...money.

Jon Voight plays a country boy from Texas who comes to New York looking to use his "talents,"(male prostitution) to become rich. However, when he gets there he finds the New York life to be much different then his expectations. He then meets Hoffman a sick, low life who has to con people for money. The two's first meeting doesn't go off very well, but when they meet again later on, they form a true friendship.

Hoffman's performance in this film is one of his best as he starts as a man who cares for no one and is just tying to get by, but then turns into a man who has to depend on another for his livelihood. Voight is also very good as he plays the boy with a New York dream very well.

At times Midnight Cowboy is very hard to watch as Hoffman begins to deteriorate, but near the end we realize that these two who have both had problems in the past aren't that different. And that the fact that they met each other when they did must have been fate, because both were better for it.

Midnight Cowboy certainly isn't a perfect movie, but it is a great story about two very interesting characters.