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Movies / On DVD / Midnight Cowboy
Midnight Cowboy

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Midnight Cowboy (1969)

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Reviews Counted:48

Fresh:43

Rotten:5

Average Rating:8.3/10

Consensus: John Schlesinger's gritty, unrelentingly bleak look at the seedy underbelly of urban American life is undeniably disturbing, but Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight's performances make it difficult to turn away.

Runtime: 1 hr 56 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: Joe Buck (Jon Voight), an aspiring male prostitute from Texas, heads to Manhattan where he hopes to find plenty of wealthy women willing to pay for the services of a handsome man. When he arrives,... Joe Buck (Jon Voight), an aspiring male prostitute from Texas, heads to Manhattan where he hopes to find plenty of wealthy women willing to pay for the services of a handsome man. When he arrives, the naive country boy befriends Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), a tubercular homeless con artist who dreams of moving to Florida. As they go about trying to get the money Ratso needs, the two men confront the seediness, corruption, and cruelty that flourish in the big city. Based on the novel by James Leo Herlihy, this Oscar-winning film (Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay) features brilliant performances by Voight and Hoffman, and brings to the screen an unusually gritty realism in its portrayal of the streets of New York City. [More]

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles, Brenda Vaccaro

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles, Brenda Vaccaro, John McGiver, Ruth White, Barnard Hughes, Bob Balaban, Viva, Paul Morrissey

Director: John Schlesinger

Director: John Schlesinger
Story: James Leo Herlihy
Composer: John Barry
Producer: Jerome Hellman

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Midnight Cowboy

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

Superb performances and a compelling script have made this film a strange mix of Oscar-winner and Cult Classic.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
02/20/08
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

An impressive and enduring evocation of time and place, this is a moving low-life drama built around Oscar-winning writing and performances.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
01/30/08
Jon Fortgang
Jon Fortgang
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Outrageously overrated at the cynical end of the Swinging Sixties.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment 1 Comment
06/24/06
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

No review available.

comment Comment
12/24/03
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Newsweek | comment Comment
08/18/08
David Ansen
David Ansen
Newsweek

In this film the scenery is lovely and only the human race is vile.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
01/30/08
Robert J. Landry
Robert J. Landry
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The movie is locked into a sixties stylistic approach that can feel dated, but Hoffman’s performance can prevent one from ever tiring of the film.

Full Review Source: DVDLaser | comment Comment
01/30/08
Douglas Pratt
Douglas Pratt
DVDLaser

No review available.

comment Comment
02/27/07
Robert Roten
Robert Roten
Laramie Movie Scope

Talented Englishman Schlesinger had an unerring eye for capturing the grimy reality of New York, even if his directorial style is more jittery than is really necessary.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
12/13/06
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The acting, showy and instinctual, is most of the movie; the visual style is too forced and chicly distended to let the drama acquire much natural life of its own.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment 3 Comments
12/13/06
Dave Kehr
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader

Great performances from Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman cap this bravest Academy Awards Best Picture choice in history.

Full Review Source: Oscar Guy | comment Comment
12/02/06
Wesley Lovell
Wesley Lovell
Oscar Guy

No review available.

comment Comment
10/05/06
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

A film you won't soon forget

comment Comment
03/11/06
Clint Morris
Clint Morris
Moviehole

It only takes a movie like Midnight Cowboy to point out the limitations of a rating system: How can a measly four stars convey the magnificence of this acknowledged classic?

Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | comment Comment
03/10/06
Matt Brunson
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing

Sometimes a time capsule never dates.

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
02/19/06
Rory L. Aronsky
Rory L. Aronsky
Film Threat

Schlesinger's frenzied style and visual pyrotechnicas (New Wave influence) are less impressive than the characters, the central friendship, the awakening of conscience in Joe Buck and Ratso, and Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman's superlative acting.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
12/14/05
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

Drove its spurs into the bucking bronco of 1970s cinema.

Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | comment Comment
08/12/05
Phil Villarreal
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

No review available.

comment Comment
04/27/05
Lori Hoffman
Lori Hoffman
Atlantic City Weekly

A classic film that shows a great work has no era...

comment Comment
04/08/05
Emily Blunt
Emily Blunt
Blunt Review

What has happened to Midnight Cowboy is that we've done our own editing job on it. We've forgotten the excesses and the detours, and remembered the purity of the central characters and the Voight and Hoffman performances.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
10/23/04
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
all

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