Review of Midnight Cowboy (1969) by Cj W — 12 Aug 2013

Midnight Cowboy is a very interesting film considering the time period it came out in, it gives us a startling look into the darkness of the American dream, and it features one of the finest pair of acting performances ever to grace the screen.

However, the film really fails to go any further than exposing a side of life that not many people see. For example, Joe Buck is a lost soul whose past is horrifying, yet his past is given very little significance for his now weary and wandering state.

We see his past in very well edited flashbacks, and we see how it sometimes causes him to lose control, but Schlesinger fails to show us how this has affected his important decisions at all. The same goes for Ratso, we are shown how desperate he is, the filth he lives in, and how he lacks anything that would make a person happy, but why this is so is never explained to us.

Waldo Salt won an Oscar for this screenplay, and I'm not really sure how, because most of this film's shallowness can be attributed to its exploitation of the troubles and despair of people who have lost their way in this world.

Although, this film is relentlessly entertaining and should be commended for its ambition, it just lacks the visual and intellectual depth to be considered a masterpiece of American cinema. I watched it the first time, and failed to find a truly insightful message, so I rewatched it, and the shallowness is still there, but it remains very interesting.

Watch this film for the atmosphere and performances, and you'll be pleased, but if your looking for more than an exploitation of the bleakness of the American dream, then you may be a little disappointed.