Review of Midnight Cowboy (1969) by Brad H — 27 Feb 2009

In its favor with me personally are: Dustin Hoffman's brilliance, the unique perspective (male prostitutes), Joe Buck's honesty (no comment on his authenticity), and some beautiful compositions. But despite these elements, my overall reaction was, "WTH?" It felt as if the film outweighed the story it was telling and the viewing left me drained, annoyed at the time I lost, and with a headache that I think can be credited to straining to extract more depth and meaning from it so I could be one of the cool people who manage to like it.

Though, I must say that I loved its eye-opening portrayal of New York in the 60's/70's. It's refreshing and a dark contrast with the theme park-flavor of NYC's modern depictions (blame it on over-use, bland iconography and well-swept streets and not the city, which I'm sure still has the vitality to warrant all the attention).