Review of Midnight Cowboy (1969) by Daren F — 08 Nov 2008

The story of a naive Texan coming to New York to have sex for money and the long fall from that dream. John Voight and Dustin Hoffman give to staggering performance that make this movie more than what it is, an overly showy film that could have been more. The movie has a few scenes of little value, the "Andy Warhol" party, what was the point other than to get to the next pay? Or the flashes to the past, I do not care how are why Joe got to New York, I care about what New York does to him. The direction is very good for most of it but there are moments when he seems to be trying too hard to make a big statement. I wish they would have left it at focusing on Joe and Ratso and really dug in and shown the underbelly of society more and not bounce around to these moments of easy sixty "chic" moments. But this is not to say that there are not moments of brilliant by the director or the screenwriter, they handle the scenes with Joe and Ratso beautifully and allow for the performances to shine and that is really the most important part.

This complaining on my behalf is actually kind of mean to Hoffman and Voight who truly give some of their greatest performances, this made Voight and gave Hoffman credibility. These two make the film the 'classic' it is referred to as, they make it the film that so many people from the era look back on with shock and amazement. They are the cornerstones of the film and they deserve any and all praise that will ever be put on the film.