Superb performances and a compelling script have made this film a strange mix of Oscar-winner and Cult Classic.
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Tomatometer
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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
Reviews for Midnight Cowboy
An impressive and enduring evocation of time and place, this is a moving low-life drama built around Oscar-winning writing and performances.
Midnight Cowboy is quite a film and one that looms as an adult attraction of truly blockbuster proportions.
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.
I appreciate the performances by Jon Voight, as Joe Buck, and Dustin Hoffman, as Enrico 'Ratso' Rizzo, as well as their relationship.
Hoffman gives a performance as 'Ratzo' Rizzo that stands as the finest in an extraordinary career.
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.
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.
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