Review of Midnight Cowboy (1969) by Virgilio L — 06 Jan 2011

I don't think i've ever had a movie change my life before, or atleast not since a long time ago but not like the way this one did. It taught me that it's ok to be an outcast and that dreams don't always turn out the way you thought it would. Jon Voight plays a Texas dishwasher named Joe Buck who moves down to New York to live the American dream of becoming a Cowboy Prostitute, don't we all. He's a menace to society and believes that he'll meet lots of women in New York because of how studly he his but only finds himself laughed at and ignored all because he dresses up like a cowboy. You really feel sorry for this guy because of how much he really wants to accomplish his dream of becoming a cowboy hustler but he is never taken seriously enough to do so. I love how this movie starts up right away without any backstory or exposition or anything like that it just starts with Joe going to New York and all of the backstory is explained through flashback and dreams that Joe keeps having constantly. There are even some scenes within scenes which may sound kinda messy and confusing but it actually works quite well and makes it so they can just cut through all the boring stuff and get straight to the point of the story.

Joe eventually meets Rico (Ratso) played by Dustin Hoffman who at first screws him over and steals from him but then ends up becoming Joe's new best friend and teaches him all about survival in New York. Rico is a cripple and is slowly falling apart mainly due to how he lives and how much he doesn't take care of himself and all he wants to do is leave that rat hole of a city he lives in and move down to Florida. I also think that Ratso is gay for Joe but i'm entirely sure, theres a scene where he day dreams about living in Florida with him and it looks to me like he has some kind of sexual obsession with him or something but it's never really made clear.

I must say for a movie that came out in 1969 it's pretty disturbing. Not disturbing like Rquiem For A Dream disturbing but more like the same way Clean, Shaven is disturbing mainly due to the direction. I thought I was gonna get annoyed and agiteated by the directing at first but this John Schlesinger guy really knows what he's doing. He knows when enough is enough, he knows exactly when the audience wants to move on or keep going and does some pretty innovative techniques overall, well worthy of his Oscar.

Oh I haven't even touched upon the acting yet. The acting especially from Jon Voight is some of the best i've ever seen. They never slip or come out of character and you really forget it's them and you don't think for a millasecond that there just actors. You really like Joe from the minute you first see him till the very end and you can never take your eyes off him when he's on screen, then again when isn't he on screen? He's kind to everybody that he meets and never really does anything bad that isn't called for, whenever something bad happens to him you start to feel sad and sorry for him and you really want it to work out for him in the end.

Dustin Hoffman I completely underestimated and I never really realized it until now. He is like the Daniel Day Lewis of his time and could pretty much play anything, even if the movie he's in sucks he still puts effort into his performance and this one has got to be one of his best. When I look at him here and then look at him in Meet The Fockers I realiized how big of an underrated actor he is now adays, lets just pray that Barney's version will be good.

Literally the first few seconds this movie started I emediately fell in love with it. I can't remember how long it's been since I called something powerful because that's what this movie is powerful and unforgettable. I found myself repeating lines spoken from the characters to myself, "Where's that Joe Buck," "I ain't a for real cowboy but I am one hell of a stud," "I'm walking here, i'm walking here.".

I love this movie more than anything i've seen in a long time, it is in a word a masterpiece.