Yes, the director and screenwriter are dead, but where are commentaries from Voight and Hoffman? And, if they were reluctant, or too expensive to secure, where is the cinematographer, or a film historian to put much of the film in context, historically, if not artistically? The second disk has a photo gallery, and three well made and informative documentaries on the film: After Midnight: Reflecting On The Classic 35 Years Later; Controversy And Acclaim; and a featurette called Celebrating Schlesinger. In truth, although this DVD was put out in 2004, before the Blu-ray disks came out, there still was no real reason to not cram all this stuff onto one DVD. They didn’t purely for marketing reasons, to call the two-disk version a ‘Collector’s Edition.’
Despite many odes written on this film as being influential on films that came later, I could see far more derivation (in a weak sense) from a film that came out just a year before, John Cassavetes’ 1968 film Faces, which did not look at seedy Manhattan’s sexual mores, as much as suburbia’s. There were many similar scenes, personal and public, but Cassavetes’ characters were deeper, their dilemmas a bit less contrived, and, as good as the acting in this film was, Cassavetes’ actors put on a realistic acting clinic. Cassavetes lets conversations drone on, not to show the droning, but the pathos of those unaware that they are droning, to and at each other. Schlesinger’s characters, on the other hand, simply complain and shoot off wisecracks. Yes, their shallowness has a genuine quality (at least because of the acting), but nothing the actors could do could add depth to the essentially hollow characterizations on paper. And this is why, despite its Oscar and decades of praise, Midnight Cowboy is a severely overrated film. The good news, however, is that its overrating is so high that, even back on earth, it’s still a good film, albeit one whose primary virtue is historic rather than artistic. All in all, not that bad for any hustler.
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Article comments
1 - Mike Lippert
I've always disliked this movie and found it to revolve around two amazing performances that it doesn't even quite know what to do with. I've also never considered John Slchlesinger to be a very good director outside of Sunday Bloody Sunday or Falcon and the Snowman. One of the most overrated films of all time for sure, although you are very write, it does have some good moments.
2 - Baritone
I had moved to NYC from Indy just months prior to the release of Midnight Cowboy. I was in my early 20s and quite impressionable. At that time, NYC was a muddled wonder to me that was, IMO, aptly reflected in Schlesinger's film. For a # of years, MC was my favorite movie.
I haven't seen it in years, and probably would be disappointed in it if I did. But, at the time, it had a great effect on me. I was a child of the 50s and 60s and an army vet (not Vietnam, however) having spent most of my "hitch" in central Texas at Fort Hood. Beyond that, I never saw myself as Joe Buck.
I was mainly taken with the performances. If the story was as you claim, banal, it was that quality that gave it its legitmacy and its character, as so many lives are in their own way banal - even as they spiral into dissolution.
I drove a cab back then. I remember a fare, a self pronounced gay, who proclaimed that the film totally missed the point in NOT presenting Joe as a budding homosexual - that that should have been the lesson learned, the revelation Joe was having. I thought he was full of crap. I felt that the thrust of the film had far more to do with simply maturing, truly coming of age, learning something of the wider world - some of its hard knocks and something about relationships that went beyond what I would consider the more banal sexual issues. At the end, one might actually have hope for Joe Buck, that he may well survive and perhaps flourish to some degree in his new surroundings.
But, that's just me.
BTW - While my memory of the film is not particularly clear - I, too, was taken by Cassavete's Faces.
B
3 - zingzing
baritone--you lived in new york? it's no surprise, but there are 3 or 4 new yorkers around here, at least... including a conservative or two. such a strange thing. i've only actually met one bc-er, but i knew him beforehand. meeting someone from this place might be really pleasant, no matter what their stand. or it might be shit, i dunno.
4 - Baritone
My wife and I spent a few days around christmas with my son who lives in Brooklyn and works at the Botanic Garden. Had it occured to me that you live in NYC, perhaps we could have had a beer or whatever.
I have extended an invite to Clavos to visit if the spirit moves him. He has family in Michigan. Despite our political differences, we have maintained a mutual respect, and I suspect we would get along pretty well as long as we don't mention politics.