Midnight Cowboy

UPC: 883904240044

Studio: MGM

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Strong Sexual Content, Not For Children]

Summary: Based on a James Leo Herlihy novel, British director John Schlesinger's first American film dramatized the small hopes, dashed dreams, and unlikely friendship of two late '60s lost souls. Dreaming of an easy life as a fantasy cowboy stud, cheerful Texas rube Joe Buck (Jon Voight) heads to New York City to be a gigolo, but he quickly discovers that hustling isn't what he thought it would be after he winds up paying his first trick (Sylvia Miles). He gets swindled by gimpy tubercular grifter Rico "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) but, when Joe falls in the direst of straits, Ratso takes Joe into his condemned apartment so that they can help each other survive. Things start to look up when Joe finally lands his first legit female customer (Brenda Vaccaro) at a Warhol-esque party; Ratso's health, however, fails. Joe turns a final trick to get the money for one selfless goal: taking Ratso out of New York to his dream life in Miami. One of the first major studio films given the newly minted X rating for its then-frank portrayal of New York decadence, Midnight Cowboy was critically praised for Schlesinger's insight into American lives, with the intercut mosaic of Joe's memories and Ratso's dreams lending their characters and actions greater psychological complexity. While they may have been drawn by the seamy content (tame by current standards), the young late '60s audience responded to Joe's and Ratso's confusion amidst turbulent times and to the connection they make with each other despite their alienation from the surrounding culture. Midnight Cowboy became one of the major financial and artistic hits of 1969, winning Oscars for Best Picture (the first for an X-rated film), Best Director, and former blacklistee Waldo Salt's screenplay. Though the one-two punch of Midnight Cowboy and The Graduate (1967) proved Hoffman's range and Voight's Joe Buck made him a star, both lost Best Actor to classical cowboy John Wayne for True Grit. The film was later re-rated R by the MPAA. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Best Actor – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Director – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Picture – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Editing – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Screenplay – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Most Promising Newcomer – British Academy of Film and Television Arts U.S. National Film Registry – Library of Congress 100 Greatest American Movies – American Film Institute Best Picture - Drama – null Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – null Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – null Best Supporting Actress – null New Star of the Year - Male – null Best Director – null Best Screenplay – null Best Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Adapted Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Supporting Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – National Board of Review Best Actor – New York Film Critics Circle Best Screenplay – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Director – Hollywood Foreign Press Association New Star of the Year - Male – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Moti – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Picture – National Society of Film Critics Best Director – Directors Guild of America Best Actor – National Society of Film Critics

Midnight Cowboy

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 01/24/2012

Rebecca Flint Marx

After earning notoriety as one of the first major studio films to be given an X rating (it was later re-rated R), Midnight Cowboy made history as the first X-rated film to win an Oscar for Best Picture. A brutal depiction of broken dreams and lives asunder in the fetid backwash of the swinging Sixties, Cowboy shocked audiences with its squalid subject matter and signaled a trend towards films that explored lurid and personal material. Whereas the mere suggestion of a blow job in Cowboy was scandalous in 1969, the film helped pave the way for later mainstream films in which a blow job might have as much shock value as the weather forecast. For that reason, Cowboy loses a substantial part of its impact when viewed all these years after its original release. That said, as a buddy film and as an ode to the impossibility of liberation from reality, the film retains a certain timelessness. Jon Voight's handsome but stupid Joe Buck and Dustin Hoffman's desperate, verminous Ratso Rizzo remain iconic figures, symbolic of the resigned, bitter ending of a decade built on the tenets of liberation, progressive change, and the promise of collective struggle. The fate of Buck and Rizzo suggests that such liberation is illusory, and that human relations, no matter how tender they ultimately may be, are part of a quiet, desperate bid for acceptance and belonging. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Ultra Violet  Actor 
Paul Jasmin  Actor 
Joan Murphy  Actor 
Gary Owens  Actor 
M. Emmet Walsh  Actor 
Jonathan Kramer  Actor 
John Barry  Composer (Music Score) 
Jerome Hellman  Producer 
John Schlesinger  Director 
Waldo Salt  Screenwriter 
Dustin Hoffman  Actor 
Jon Voight  Actor 
Sylvia Miles  Actor 
John McGiver  Actor 
Brenda Vaccaro  Actor 
Barnard Hughes  Actor 
Ruth White  Actor 
Jennifer Salt  Actor 
Gil Rankin  Actor 
T. Tom Marlow  Actor 
George Epperson  Actor 
Al Scott  Actor 
Linda Davis  Actor 
J.T. Masters  Actor 
Arlene Reeder  Actor 
Georgann Johnson  Actor 
Anthony Holland  Actor 
Bob Balaban  Actor 
Jan Tice  Actor 
Paul Benjamin  Actor 
Peter Scalia  Actor 
Arthur Anderson  Actor 
Tina Scala  Actor 
Alma Felix  Actor 
Richard Clarke  Actor 
Ann Thomas  Actor 
Al Stetson  Actor 
Viva  Actor 
Gastone Rossilli  Actor 
Paul Jabara  Actor 
International Velvet  Actor 
Cecelia Lipson  Actor 
Taylor Mead  Actor 
Paul Morrissey  Actor 

Country: USA