Review of Midnight Cowboy (1969) by Nick L — 08 Aug 2008

Few films have moved me in the way that "Midnight Cowboy" did. This tale of two people at the fringes of society trying to find an out, is a subtle yet searing critique of how permissiveness can be abused to coarsen and commidify human relations.

Poetic in its editing and its cinematography, John Barry's haunting score (which also features the bittersweet "Everybody's Talking") underpins the sense of melancholy and loneliness that pervades this beautiful film.

There are too many great scenes to go into detail here (and nor would I want to ruin your discovery of them). "Midnight Cowboy" is compulsory viewing for anyone who considers cinema an art form rather than a purveyor of the type of mass market fantasies that this film so savagely yet elegantly explodes.