Midnight Cowboy has the distinction of being the only X-Rated movie to ever win the Best Picture Oscar. I guess that’s something to be proud of even though, shortly after release, the MPAA broadened what qualified for an R rating and it got re-certified as an R. The version readily available on disc and streaming services has not been altered from the original release but bears the R rating, softening any bragging rights over that X rating. And just why did Midnight Cowboy get its X rating in the first place? Not for excessive nudity or explicit scenes. When I first saw this film in the late 1990’s I was surprised to find it to be a rather tame film compared to what was being released under the R rating in more modern films. I supposed that it had been re-edited at some point but didn’t have the wealth of online information to consult to verify that supposition. Twenty-five years later I have a lot more resources to fall back on including an interesting disc commentary that covers much of what I didn’t know initially.
James Leo Herlihy wrote the original novel that Midnight Cowboy is based on back in 1965. Hollywood was just coming out from under the umbrella of the Hays Code and had recently adopted the MPAA rating system instead to govern film content, shifting the responsibility of viewership to the consumer who could use the ratings to determine what they were willing to watch. The ratings and what they represented would shift over the years but when they were first introduced in 1968 they were G, M, R, and X with the latter being restricted to 16 and older no matter if parental approval was granted. The original novel had many elements that, just a few years previous, would have never made it into the movies, yet by the late 1960’s there was a growing shift in the social consciousness and young, counter-culture directors were starting to enter the scene. This was reflected in a growing shift in the Academy where younger, hip, directors and writers were being actively sought out for membership in order to appeal to an audience that was no longer interested in the Academy. In more recent years a similar thing was done again to introduce diversity into the Academy and increase representation of minorities, an effort that has so far been marginally successful.
The Academy Awards for 1969 included such counter-culture films as Easy Rider and Midnight Cowboy, both films by young new directors who better represented the growing change in America’s world view and the rise of drug and gay culture. John Schlesinger, director of Midnight Cowboy, was himself openly homosexual, a rare thing in the late 60’s in Hollywood. He was a part of the British New Wave of actors and directors before he embarked on a successful career in Hollywood. He would officially out himself during the production of Midnight Cowboy. That film would be one of the first mainstream American films to deal explicitly with homosexual relationships and would pioneer the art of queer cinema. It goes without saying that Midnight Cowboy is considered an important film is presenting to mainstream consumers a realistic look at a culture that was largely misunderstood and underrepresented in mainstream media.
Young man Joe Buck (Jon Voight) has a dream, one that he’s willing to throw away his life in Texas to pursue. He wants to travel to New York City in full cowboy attire and become a male prostitute. Upon arrival in the city, though, he finds that hustling isn’t as easy as he had originally supposed and it doesn’t take long before he is broke and loses his apartment and valuables. He gets conned out of his last cash by Rico “Ratso” Rizzo, an indigent with a limp, who convinces him he is being introduced to a pimp who will manage his career. Instead, Rizzo leaves him with an unhinged religious fanatic. It takes a while but Joe manages to track Rizzo down again but by then all of his money is spent and Rizzo has nothing of value to give him back. Instead, Rizzo invites Joe to stay at a place he is squatting at and the two begin a “business relationship” as hustlers. Rizzo fantasizes about relocating to Florida before the weather turns cold, even as his health deteriorates through a combination of extreme poverty and exposure to the increasingly colder temperatures. Joe, for his part, keeps trying to make prostitution work for him but it becomes more and more obvious that things are just not as simple as he initially thought they would be.
Jon Voight got his start in film in 1967 in the oddball superhero film Fearless Frank. Voight had previously been strictly a stage performer in off-Broadway productions that got his face out there but did little to put food on the table. He was struggling and things got worse for him when he transitioned to the movies. For two years he struggled to get roles and the situation was getting desperate. Then a script came his way, one that would change his life forever. Midnight Cowboy was a juicy role and one that Voight felt was perfect for him. He also recognized in it a role that would not only be controversial but could potentially make him famous virtually overnight. He offered to do the role for free, knowing that that would sweeten the deal and pay off in other ways. He ultimately was cast and paid scale, the actor’s version of minimum wage. The gamble paid off and his career took off once Midnight Cowboy hit the screens. He would also secure an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Joe Buck.
It was the right decision to cast a relatively unknown actor in the lead role, too. Jon Voight brings no baggage to the part. There is no dissociation seeing a familiar actor in it. Of course, seeing it through modern eyes that has changed but I’m speaking from the perspective of audiences in 1969. The same thing can be said about Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider or any other number of films featuring actors in the early stages of their careers. Jon brings a level of innocence to the role because of that callowness we get with a fresh face on screen. It helps hide the mechanisms of acting to a degree, especially when the actor is doing a great job in the first place.
The same can be said about Dustin Hoffman who was just as new to the business as Voight was. Unlike Voight, though, Hoffman had a genuine hit under his belt in 1967 with his character Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate. That film didn’t immediately launch him into fame, though, and he spent the next two years appearing only in a single film, the Italian-Spanish comedy crime film Madigan’s Millions, a dud that he filmed in 1966, well before The Graduate, but left on the shelf until after his rise to fame. The release capitalized heavily on his rising star and he probably wishes it had stayed buried. Midnight Cowboy helped him recover from that debacle and got him on his way to being a consistently bankable star for decades to come.
Both Hoffman and Voight shared the Best Actor nomination and whenever that happens it usually means they split the vote and neither wins. That’s what happened to Bette Davis and Anne Baxter in All About Eve and the same thing happened here. Instead, John Wayne would get the win for a film that most film scholars would agree was not his best and the award was given more for lifetime achievement than for the actual film. True Grit was not the actor’s finest hour although it would end up being one of his most iconic roles. It would also be the only role he came back to reprise. Realistically, Hoffman’s part as Rizzo is a supporting one and should have been nominated in that category instead.
Midnight Cowboy is a fascinating look at how queer culture was viewed in the late 60’s. This is not just in the actions of Joe Buck as he hustles in the city, indiscriminate of who is willing to pay for his services; we also get numerous flashbacks that tell the story of his youth as well as a traumatic incident when he and a girl were sexually assaulted by some cowboys one evening. The unnamed girl ended up emotionally destroyed and he is forever haunted by images of the assault. While most of Joe’s encounters in New York City are with women there are two notable cases where it is not. The first is from a young man he meets in the streets who timidly invites him to a movie theater to fool around in the dark. This ends badly when it is revealed that the young man is unable to pay for the services provided. The second incident comes towards the end of the film when Joe is desperate to raise money to get himself and Rizzo on a bus to Florida. When the man refuses to pay more than $10, Joe beats and robs him, apparently smothering him. Joe has gone from the innocent young man thinking he can make it big by hustling rich women in the city to a man driven to desperation by poverty and self-preservation.
The end of the film is infamous. Hoffman secured his Oscar nomination in the scenes on the bus as it heads south to Florida. As his illness worsens and he loses control of his bodily functions you can see the desperation on his face. He knows the end is coming and that it is too late to save himself yet he clings to that hope that he will make it to Miami and live amongst the palm trees and tropical beaches. This is heartbreaking and seeing Voight holding his only friend as the bus continues its journey into the tropical city is just gut wrenching. This scene will stick with you for a very long time.
Midnight Cowboy is not going to be to everyone’s taste. It is a frank examination of a culture that is still controversial to some and a source of politics and activisms. While homosexuality is becoming more and more mainstream with each coming year it is still something that faces hatred and opposition from multiple sources and seeing it portrayed the way that it is here will be hard for many people. If you can handle that kind of honesty in cinema there is something to be gleaned from this film that may just move you to tears. It’s powerful and raw but you have to be open to the experience or it will just leave you cold and unfeeling. Watch it with an open mind and realize that these characters are as human as anyone else and you will see a story that is still as powerful today as it was back in 1969.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Jerome Hellman (won)
Best Director: John Schlesinger (won)
Best Actor: Dustin Hoffman
Best Actor: Jon Voight
Best Supporting Actress: Sylvia Miles
Best Screenplay - Based on Material from Another Medium: Waldo Salt (won)
Best Film Editing: Hugh A. Robertson
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Release Date: May 25, 1969
Running Time: 113 Minutes
Rated R (Originally Rated X)
Starring: Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman, Brenda Vaccaro, John McGiver, Ruth White, Sylvia Miles and Barnard Hughes
Directed By: John Schlesinger
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