Review of Midnight Cowboy (1969) by Tyler H — 08 Sep 2012

John Schlesinger finds the right tone for Midnight Cowboy. It's dramatic when it needs to be and also makes us laugh to keep the human element in tact. The story turns into a mismatched couple type film where Ratso and Joe should not be friends, but they move towards each other on a basic level.

Joe moves from Texas to New York City after a terrible thing happened to him back at home. Throughout the film we see flashbacks in black and white of the night that left him traumatized. See, Joe's a gigolo.

He calls himself a hustler in the beginning when he sleeps with the older woman. He moves to New York in hopes of making money by having sex with older women. Things don't necessarily work out too well.

The first woman he sleeps with ends up borrowing taxi fare from him, and then the guy he screws around with ends up not having any money on him. No matter what he doesn't get what he wants. It's mostly because he's too kind.

He's not ready for the tough lifestyle of a gigolo. We see what brought him to this state, though. His parents leave him to grow up with his aunt (or maybe his grandmother? I'm pretty sure it's his aunt, though).

He doesn't really have a normal relationship with the woman who raised him. And we see he runs away from Texas after he's raped by some men when they catch him having sex in a car. To say the least, Joe hasn't had the easiest life.

This is why he feels bad when someone can't pay him. He takes pity. When he meets Ratso, he tells him that there's a guy that can manage him and give him all he needs. Joe falls for the trick, gives him $20, then discovers the guy was just a religious fanatic.

Later when he finds Ratso by chance he wants to wring his neck. Instead they form a friendship. Ratso invites Joe to his place and he discovers that Ratso is actually very poor and lives under the radar.

He doesn't pay electric or rent. The place he stays in should be closed down, but he lives in a room. Since Joe has been kicked out of his hotel room he ends up staying with Ratso. They decide that one day they will move down to Florida and everything will be better.

But first they need money, so Joe continues with his prostitution and Ratso continues scamming people. I think my favorite segment was when Joe gets his picture taken from some artsy people and they give him an invitation to a party so they go.

At the party there's tons of drugs being passed around and Joe doesn't know what he's doing. But by the end of the night he's got a woman and he's going to go to her place and get laid for $20.

You think this is when they're going to turn things around and start making money, but no. Instead Joe comes home and finds Ratso falling apart. Because of his bum leg he can't even walk anymore, just like the night before how he fell down the stairs.

So they need to get to Florida quick. This is when Joe doesn't care anymore and actually beats a man to get the $57 they need for bus tickets. The end is devastating when Ratso dies and Joe holds him as the bus drives into Miami.

It's really an incredible and heartfelt film. Perhaps at the time people thought it was strange to have legitimate actors in a real film about a prostitute and a homeless scammer, but the script really cuts down to the core of humanity and connections.

That's what I loved so much about Midnight Cowboy. It doesn't matter who you are or what part of your life you're in, it's almost impossible not to feel something from this. We get this sense from the many scenes that show the city towering over Joe and Ratso.

People surround them and they are very much a part of the city, but they struggle just to get food. How can people let each other get that way? Much of this is just begging for humanity to find empathy with others and treat each other better.