The best American film EVER, bar none!! No car chases, no gratuitous killing, barely any bad language. It was a great story about society, friendship and loyalty. Superbly acted, written and produced. Even the theme and incidental music was so haunting and perfect. Truly an all round masterpiece!!😁🇬🇧🇬🇧
@@Joseph-wp7ru When Ratso said to Joe on the bus “You didn’t kill him, did you?” Because Joe had blood on his shirt. And Joe said he didn’t want to talk about it, I took that as meaning he had killed him. Would Joe escape the law in Florida? Who knows.
I love the scene where Joe lays down on a cot the moment he gets inside Rico's place (almost collapses), because he's been homeless and has had nowhere to sleep. Rico then reaches up to close the blinds of a window to make the room darker and more comfortable for Joe to sleep. That small gesture of kindness is so indicative of the building bond between the two men.
Yes. Many do not grasp that, at the core of "Midnight Cowboy" is a friendship, then familial love. It was a given that Hoffman is superb, but Voight, largely unknown, blew me away. There is a pivotal scene when Hoffman cooks a meal for a comic book-reading Voight. That scene essentially has a fussy, married vibe. But as to Voight, All my life I have been around Big Spring (opening scenes) and I've seen the brash, strutting yahoos who, inside, are damaged or insecure. "Where is that Joe Buck!?!"
Let's face it: this movie was so ahead it's time. In both it's devastating emotional velocity but also in the way it transformed the "buddy" movie. And the way it was shot! The contrast of the desolate Texas landscapes to the intensely populated pulse of the city gave the movie so much tension that you simply never forget it. And still plays well today!
John Schlesinger made several breakthrough movies in the 1960's and '70's that left me feeling and thinking differently after watching them Sunday Bloody Sunday and Darling are two of my other favorites.
You say desolate, but perhaps based upon your expectations. My ancestors have roamed the west of Texas to exist. But if you are from the city you would not know the bounties of the "desolate landscape." There you will find oases, desert turtles, rabbit, berries, mesquite beans, edible cactus, deer and quail.
@@gilmangus83 Oh, absolutely. Desolate in terms of "mood". The scenes in Texas have sweeping landscapes with little people. You get the feeling that, even in the downtown areas--like where the Salon was--it was night and day compared to NYC. This played well into his feelings of disconnection.
@@honkyjesuseternal That does not in any affect his performance in the movie and does not deserve to mentioned. I do not support him politically but do appreciate his acting skills. Your comment is misplaced and does not belong here! Enough said!
Same here. The protective arm around his pal protecting from the impersonal stares of the other passengers and knowing that he is once again all alone is truly heart wrenching.
I was about 15 when I first saw it. We snuck into the theater thru the rear exit after the lights went dark. I certainly did cry when Ratso died on the bus. It has left a mark on me for over 50 years.
I was 14 when I first saw this movie, and I don't think I really understood it at that age, but...I remember I cried and cried at the end. So I guess I understood it well enough. This movie would never get released by a major studio today, which tells you everything you need to know about how far Hollywood has fallen.
@@chicovoylez3216 : The print they showed on commercial TV was an abomination that, if they were honest, they should have had to call something ELSE, because it was hardly the same movie. The censors had hacked out so much of the film that Judith Crist (I think it was her) said they should have called it the "11:25 Cowboy".
At age 14 when this movie was released, the "Midnight Cowboy" theme got my attention right away. I used to love listening to it on my radio late in the night.The tune still moves me.
When I was in high school in 1973. I cut school every day that week to go to the Brooklyn movie theater and watch Midnight Cowboy twice every day. I had never seen anything like it. I knew I was seeing art. That film was art. With this incredible real story. It just was Unforgettable moment in my life to experience such an extraordinary film such extraordinary acting such extraordinary cinematography. The Warhol party everything I know all the lines. I loved Sarah miles. I loved loved loved Dustin Hoffman. Love John Feit loved every every character. Thank you so much for This brilliant piece of work. PS I never cut School five days a week to see a movie twice a day ever again.
this is one of those movies that you think will just be overly melodramatic, boring and drawn out. you think - how can they make a good film from this subject matter? every time i watch it i do so reluctantly only to be mesmerized again and again. night of the living dead and taxi driver were both rated X. the former chose to reject the rating and the latter had to de-saturate the blood scenes and eventually was re-rated as R. today, ALL these movies can be played on tv and the "f" word and other expletives are ridiculously allowed in PG movies. i saw an ad for a kids feature length cartoon that had a testicle joke in it. things have gone to the gutter BIG TIME in the last 50 years, that's for sure. people don't understand what an X-rating means. porn movies AREN'T X-rated. they're unrated. the XXX-rating was invented by the porn industry to distinguish their films from the mainstream X-rating. the way i remember it, the original rating system had 3 ratings - G, R and M. anyone could see a G. with an R rating a minor had to be accompanied by a parent or guardian. and a M rating stood for mature (adult) audiences only. M was later changed to X. and later a GP rating was added between G and R and later changed to PG. many state and local ordinances prevented M and X rated movies from being shown so a lot of movies in the late sixties and early 70's were recut to attain the more widely distributed R rating. or they showed different versions in different markets. or they chose to reject any rating and went "unrated" which was just a much a death sentence for a film as a X rating.
A key thing to appreciate about this film is that it was made in 1969 - the same year Midnight Cowboy won Best Picture John Wayne won Best Actor for True Grit. Hollywood hyperbole talks about breakthrough movies but in this case it is not hyperbole - MC was too brilliant for Hollywood to ignore and remains a watershed moment for American movie making.
I was fresh from the Army when I saw this film in 1969. I have never been able to watch it again but I still remember almost every seen. It is probably the most moving film I have ever seen. Not in a cheap, manipulated way that is so common today, but in an honest, emotionally powerful way.
I was born in 1979 and just watched this movie for the first time in 2024. It was so good that I watched it again the next day. I think Sylvia Miles is absolutely right in her comment that this is a truly meaningful film that shakes you up a bit. This is life, and here’s a story of two people getting through it… Great film. Thank you for posting this. From my generation, I first watched Jon Voight in the movie 'The Champ' and later in the first 90's, 'Mission: Impossible'. I remember Dustin Hoffman in 'Rain Man', and then in 'Outbreak', about a monkey with Ebola or something. Man, how fast time goes.
A woman I used to work with with told me she had laughed at the ending. Appalled, I said, "You LAUGHED??" She looked awkward and embarrassed and admitted, "Well -- I didn't want to CRY!" I wonder how many other people had that reaction.
I saw this picture when i was in my 20s and did not understand anything at all coming from a different culture. Now that I am older I realize this moves as a slice of humanity. Great cast, great acting and direction all around. One of my all time favorite movies.
"The grace of the film was in the vision of human compassion." No other film better represents the human condition in our lifetime. No man is an island, yet here we are.
I was 19 when I saw this beautiful moving film on it's release London, England. I cried my eyes out at the end. Uncontrollable weeping. Best film of the past 50 years by a country mile.
when i saw this movie in the 70's i felt very lonely. Now I have been happily married for a very long time, have children and grandchildren, dogs, cats, even a magpie living in France, beautiful garden, I really have everything. I have saved this movie on my hard disk and am afraid to watch it. I do it sometimes, maybe once every few years, it always makes me very sad like it did then.
The Ratso 'I'm walking here' scene was completely unintended as John Voight and Dustin Hoffman were crossing the street. Hoffman's now iconic dialogue was totally improvised on the spot.
And yet for everyone at that time it perfectly encapsulated Ritzo's "I refuse to be invisible!" character. We teens, even if we hadn't seen the movie (!), repeated that line ad nauseam. Fascinating how a well-timed improvisation is so often that tiny detail that communicates the whole better than the whole.
Frankel's "Shooting Midnight Cowboy" debunks this a little. The cab scene was in Salt's screenplay six months before shooting began and Schlesinger and Hellman say the cab driver was crew, but the line was improvised by Hoffman.
Agreed. James Leo Herlihy, the writer of the book, seems to have got barely any lasting recognition. I have read everything he ever wrote, and admire him a lot, but I think he wrote the saddest stories ever. Do not read him if you are feeling low.
The greatest American film in terms of it's overall & complete production. I think the best double lead performances of all-time by Hoffman & Voight, great direction from Schlesinger, brilliant screenplay by Salt, superb supporting cast, the best editing I've ever seen, excellent cinematography, the music by Barry & Nilsson is simply perfect & Hellman deserves a lot of credit for putting the whole thing together. I still feel the fact that it was rated X has much to do with it not being universally renowned as one of the handful of best American films ever made. It's still my number 2 after "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre".
If ever two men deserved the oscar it was Hoffman and Voight; I would have been pleased with either of them winning.....and they gave it to John Wayne. The category is BEST performance by an actor. "John Wayne for True Grit... gimme a break"
Please give some credit to the writer, James Leo Herlihy. There would be no movie without Herlihy's novel, yet he's never mentioned. I don't even know if the book's still in print.
I'm still walking in New York City at midnight, with the radio on my hand and boots on but Ratso saddly is gone. PS : Jennifer Salt cutest girl on earth.
@@thememo9941 She is Crazy Annie, the girl in the flashbacks, the only true love of Joe Buck. It's hard to remember how cute she was because she does not appear in extensive sequences, try to watch Sisters by Brian de Palma, she is the protagonist of the movie and absolutely gorgeous, really my kind of woman, great actress too. She acted also along with John Voight in another movie called The Revolutionary but I've never seen it because here in Italy it's not so easy to find but I'd like to watch it one day.
When that came out I was 24 and madly in love. I live in San Antonio and had just seen the movie. I had to travel up to Big Spring in April of 69. I kept waiting to hear the songs of the Midnight Cowboy as I rode the streets on my Harley. Man, where did the time go. I tried to watch that movie just last week. Couldn't make it past twenty minutes.
Saw it too young (under 10). I remember the radio played the Nilsson song all the time. The movie scared me a little, and the end shocked me when I realized what had happened on the bus ride.
This was a pleasant surprise: I saw the movie when it came out, 1969 or '70. In Scotland we were shocked to see people in New York walking past a man lying drunk in the street. Now it happens here. All the time.
You can say what you want about this film: its confusion and disjointed nature (and certainly not a perfect film or some would say not even a great one), but once you see it, you never forget it. It stays with you somewhere in your psyche.
i first saw midnight cowboy, quite a while ago in the seventies. i was so moved with the film, and at the end..it was tremendous. as somehow, sinful , if you will of some of the topic matter, it was a human story. i felt so sorry for both characters, ie ratso rizzo and also of course, john voights character....it wasn t really a hollywood film. yet it was profound, and well done, and special...for it to do well, by hollywood standards, was remarkable. it was a remarkable and heartfelt film. it was like it was real...ie real street life, somewhwere in new york...seedy, but real people w emotions. that is a feat to pull that off, it really is...and of course , great performances...a lot of guts to pull that off.]... the ending always puts me in tears, and prob most people.]
If you know some young person that has never seen this film, it's your cinematic duty to introduce them to it. The two of you will always have a bond and something in common for the rest of your time together. After all, isn't that what buddies are for?
My mom, who knew nothing about the content and thought it was a cowboy & Indians movie, took me to see it when it came out. I was 12 years old......very awkward when it wasn't a Western!
Siskel & Ebert did a retrospective on it, and they said that it was time for everyone to acknowledge that it was a gay love story. Joe and Ratso were in love.
@@thesecondRUclips : It's possible -- in the same way a man and a woman can have a "platonic" relationship. (I saw an interview with a woman who said, "If it's your third date, and he has not seen the interior of your boudoir yet, ONE OF YOU is gay!") It's just not common -- or some would say, likely. What Siskel & Ebert were saying was that, if you watch the development of their relationship, it grew into a kind of mutual dependence, respect, and LOVE. They mentioned specifically when Joe used his shirt tail to wipe the sweat off Ratzo's face after the party, and Ratso presses his face against Joe's bare stomach while he does it. And on the bus, when Joe changes Ratso's pants into the pair he had bought for him, they were like a loving and CARING couple. Ratso murmurs softly, "Thanks, Joe" -- his last words. And in the final shot, when he sits with his arm so protectively around his dead buddy's body, he looks like a devastated lover.
Still one of the best films ever. Have it on pause as I type this. First saw it in the 70s when I was in junior high(was only seven in 1969). It hasn't lost any of its power. I remember Jennifer Salt more from SOAP. Still beautiful. Is she still acting?
A 60s masterpiece that I must have seen 10x and still moves me today. I first saw it in the UK as a teenager. Not sure it was X-rated in the UK then as it was also possible for youngsters to see Clockwork Orange, which was later banned. In 1970 our family travelled to Sweden and my sisters and I, with a cousin, visited Skansen in Stockholm. While there together we saw Midnight Cowboy. I was 17 and my sisters were 15 & 11. No adults present yet we had no problem getting in. Like Easy Rider another classic it did much to sum up the 60s.
Stories of marginalized people are fascinating as long as you can go home to a decent meal, a warm bed, a bit of cash, and a family who loves you. These stories are entertaining if you don't have to survive on the streets, or battle an addiction. John Steinbeck wrote many humorous stories of people who struggle to survive. Cannery Row comes to mind at this minute. Oxycontin, like heroine are not fun drugs to battle, and after watching the destruction of families and towns across the US, I've found that I don't enjoy watching Midnight Cowboy like I used to. I just feel so sorry for those two guys, and the struggle that they both lose. One his life, the other his closest friend.
Wow, I’m just now finding out that Bob Balaban was the actor from the infamous movie theater scene! I’ve been seeing him for the longest in the zany Christopher Guest movies he’s famous for making. He also played the main character Enid’s (Thora Birch) dad in “Ghost World,” one of my favorite films.
I saw the film on its first run during a personal crisis. I wanted to change my life somehow, like Joe Buck thought there was somethig better "out there." I don't care to see the film again, but it was dazzling at the time, an escape. "Everybody's Talkin" has stayed with me, though.
I have seen the movie many times (probably watched it straight through 20 times) and it is a blue-chip masterpiece. I am finally reading the book it was based on, "Midnight Cowboy" (by James Herlihy) now, and it is surprisingly good. Ironically, I think the book may have stood out better as literature if it had NOT been made into a movie, because the movie is so good, it kinda dwarfs the book. it's rare case of the movie being 'better' than the book. To put it another way, the movie is in the top 10 (IMO) of movies in the 20th century but I would not put the book in the top ten. But it is still a very good book, and the movie is very true to it, so anyone who loves the movie will love the book also. Waldo Salt did a great job turning it into the screenplay. A lot of the dialogue is verbatim from the book, and in other cases, Salt took an expression that Joe Buck or Ratso uses in the book, and 're-purposed' it to another conversation in the movie, to retain the authenticity of the character. The book has more of Joe Buck's 'back-story" which appears in the movie as flashbacks. Ricco Rizzo doesn't appear in the book until half-way through. So...please read the book! It will enrich your appreciation for the movie, because more of the theme of Joe's 'lonely seeking' is articulated.
3:58 This really is an amazing piece of ad lib. I guess the cab driver rode through the barricade and was unaware that they were filming. So that's real, and Hoffman really rolls with it. I have one complaint: A real hobo would have gone back and picked his cigarette off the road.
Esta cinta es increíble. Cómo transmite el frío de NY, la gente va a la suya. Ese sombrero de cowboy que se se ve caminando por encima del río de gente. Voight y su radio, esa sonrisa casi perpetua. Dustin haciendo el papel de un desgraciado con esperanzas vacías. Una maravilla.
There is ALWAYS those who want to eradicate other people and their existence... we just have an Internet now to demonstrate how little we care about the concept (let alone the reality) of FREEDOM of EXPRESSION!
@@TheGeoDaddy the internet IS freedom of expression. no one is stopping you from doing whatever the hell you want. your rights to express yourself are fully intact.
The edited for TV version was a staple for YEARS on KTVU 2's 8'Oclock Movie in the 1970's. I watched it many, many times, almost every time it came on because I had a crush on Brenda Vaccaro in my teens, and I loved hearing Toots Thielemans' harmonica playing... always will. R.I.P. So, the front story of same sex prostitution wasn't out front, it was sort of "implied" due to the editing. I have only seen the theatrical release once or twice.
'Midnight Cowboy' and 'East Rider' debuted in '69. I saw them both upon release. The former still holds up marvelously today, while the latter is unwatchable, and has been for quite some time. It is both incredibly dated and cinematically self-conscious.
Ratso: " Hey!!....I'm walkin' here!."..(.Dustin improv.)... contrasted later with, " I'm falling apart here". Vought was sublime.......but even better in Runaway Train. If you shed a tear at the end of Midnight', you'll weep again at the end of Runaway; a Vought masterpiece; but that years Oscar went to William Hurt for Kiss of the Spider Women.
The best American film EVER, bar none!! No car chases, no gratuitous killing, barely any bad language. It was a great story about society, friendship and loyalty. Superbly acted, written and produced. Even the theme and incidental music was so haunting and perfect. Truly an all round masterpiece!!😁🇬🇧🇬🇧
"Best American film ever made" ....High praise indeed for a film made by John Schlesinger, an Englishman another of our great exports!❤
I agree that, it is a brilliant film, but Joe did kill that guy in the Hotel room for money so he and Ratso could go to Florida.
It wasn't ever clear to me , that Joe actually killed him or just badly beat him.
@@Joseph-wp7ru When Ratso said to Joe on the bus “You didn’t kill him, did you?” Because Joe had blood on his shirt. And Joe said he didn’t want to talk about it, I took that as meaning he had killed him. Would Joe escape the law in Florida? Who knows.
@@windyhorses971 He didn't kill him.
For me, it’s always been a love story between two tragic characters. It’s my favorite film forever.
That's what I think too.
yes thats the core of it
A buddy film.
I love the scene where Joe lays down on a cot the moment he gets inside Rico's place (almost collapses), because he's been homeless and has had nowhere to sleep. Rico then reaches up to close the blinds of a window to make the room darker and more comfortable for Joe to sleep. That small gesture of kindness is so indicative of the building bond between the two men.
Yes. Many do not grasp that, at the core of "Midnight Cowboy" is a friendship, then familial love. It was a given that Hoffman is superb, but Voight, largely unknown, blew me away. There is a pivotal scene when Hoffman cooks a meal for a comic book-reading Voight. That scene essentially has a fussy, married vibe. But as to Voight, All my life I have been around Big Spring (opening scenes) and I've seen the brash, strutting yahoos who, inside, are damaged or insecure. "Where is that Joe Buck!?!"
Saw it first time while in Vietnam. 16mm, big tent, raining like hell, tent leaking onto projector, etc. no one left.
Loved this movie!
I am virtually shaking your hand right now, sir. Happy I stumbled onto your comment. 👊
During the war?
@@kenshiroFNS sure was. About thirty guys, movie provided by the USO. A rare moment indeed.
@@robertmills2375 wow, that's an experience. Thank you for your service
Let's face it: this movie was so ahead it's time. In both it's devastating emotional velocity but also in the way it transformed the "buddy" movie. And the way it was shot! The contrast of the desolate Texas landscapes to the intensely populated pulse of the city gave the movie so much tension that you simply never forget it. And still plays well today!
John Schlesinger made several breakthrough movies in the 1960's and '70's that left me feeling and thinking differently after watching them Sunday Bloody Sunday and Darling are two of my other favorites.
You say desolate, but perhaps based upon your expectations. My ancestors have roamed the west of Texas to exist. But if you are from the city you would not know the bounties of the "desolate landscape." There you will find oases, desert turtles, rabbit, berries, mesquite beans, edible cactus, deer and quail.
@@gilmangus83 Oh, absolutely. Desolate in terms of "mood". The scenes in Texas have sweeping landscapes with little people. You get the feeling that, even in the downtown areas--like where the Salon was--it was night and day compared to NYC. This played well into his feelings of disconnection.
A masterpiece of American cinema. It still leaves it mark more than 50 years later!
The main controversy is Jon went full MAGA and full White Nationalist. His family disowned him and he is still kicking that can.
@@honkyjesuseternal That does not in any affect his performance in the movie and does not deserve to mentioned. I do not support him politically but do appreciate his acting skills. Your comment is misplaced and does not belong here! Enough said!
@Richard B That's your opinion and you know what they say about opinions!
@@jimbo33 First Rule of White Power Club? Never talk about white power, only acting "skills". I am sure you also like the acting of Marky Mark?
A masterpiece created by a BRITISH (and gay) director.
Incredible masterpiece of movie making! Over 50 years later it still packs a massive punch. That ending, so moving, so perfectly handled! 10/10.
I have seen this movie at least 10 times. I still cry at the end. A masterpiece.
Same here. The protective arm around his pal protecting from the impersonal stares of the other passengers and knowing that he is once again all alone is truly heart wrenching.
Truly one of the best films ever made, breaks my heart everytime, very funny too, love Rizzo and Joe xxxx
were you really that lonely? it was the foundation for mind set change and it came!
I was about 15 when I first saw it. We snuck into the theater thru the rear exit after the lights went dark. I certainly did cry when Ratso died on the bus. It has left a mark on me for over 50 years.
I can watch this movie over and over movies ment something back then....👍👍👍👍👍👍😁
I was 14 when I first saw this movie, and I don't think I really understood it at that age, but...I remember I cried and cried at the end. So I guess I understood it well enough. This movie would never get released by a major studio today, which tells you everything you need to know about how far Hollywood has fallen.
I saw it too at 14 on commercial tv. I kinda understood it.
@@chicovoylez3216 : The print they showed on commercial TV was an abomination that, if they were honest, they should have had to call something ELSE, because it was hardly the same movie. The censors had hacked out so much of the film that Judith Crist (I think it was her) said they should have called it the "11:25 Cowboy".
I think you understood it perfectly.
crazy. i think i was 14 also. born in '54.
Only X rated or now NC-17 film to win best picture it also won best director and best adapted screenplay
The planets aligned with this film..story, actors, locations, music..especially that harmonica solo...chills..
At age 14 when this movie was released, the "Midnight Cowboy" theme got my attention right away. I used to love listening to it on my radio late in the night.The tune still moves me.
When I was in high school in 1973. I cut school every day that week to go to the Brooklyn movie theater and watch Midnight Cowboy twice every day. I had never seen anything like it. I knew I was seeing art. That film was art. With this incredible real story. It just was Unforgettable moment in my life to experience such an extraordinary film such extraordinary acting such extraordinary cinematography. The Warhol party everything I know all the lines. I loved Sarah miles. I loved loved loved Dustin Hoffman. Love John Feit loved every every character. Thank you so much for This brilliant piece of work. PS I never cut School five days a week to see a movie twice a day ever again.
Thanks for sharing your story!
jj sounds like it touches u as deep as me
You're easy to please.
Yeah it blew me away at that age too.
this is one of those movies that you think will just be overly melodramatic, boring and drawn out. you think - how can they make a good film from this subject matter? every time i watch it i do so reluctantly only to be mesmerized again and again.
night of the living dead and taxi driver were both rated X. the former chose to reject the rating and the latter had to de-saturate the blood scenes and eventually was re-rated as R. today, ALL these movies can be played on tv and the "f" word and other expletives are ridiculously allowed in PG movies. i saw an ad for a kids feature length cartoon that had a testicle joke in it. things have gone to the gutter BIG TIME in the last 50 years, that's for sure.
people don't understand what an X-rating means. porn movies AREN'T X-rated. they're unrated. the XXX-rating was invented by the porn industry to distinguish their films from the mainstream X-rating.
the way i remember it, the original rating system had 3 ratings - G, R and M. anyone could see a G. with an R rating a minor had to be accompanied by a parent or guardian. and a M rating stood for mature (adult) audiences only. M was later changed to X. and later a GP rating was added between G and R and later changed to PG.
many state and local ordinances prevented M and X rated movies from being shown so a lot of movies in the late sixties and early 70's were recut to attain the more widely distributed R rating. or they showed different versions in different markets. or they chose to reject any rating and went "unrated" which was just a much a death sentence for a film as a X rating.
This movie has aged really well. IMO because it addresses timeless issues and feelings.
A key thing to appreciate about this film is that it was made in 1969 - the same year Midnight Cowboy won Best Picture John Wayne won Best Actor for True Grit. Hollywood hyperbole talks about breakthrough movies but in this case it is not hyperbole - MC was too brilliant for Hollywood to ignore and remains a watershed moment for American movie making.
Mmm... the Duke was a brilliant name and True Grit was brilliant... These were impossible choices on too many levels.
John Wayne should have won an Oscar in the 40s or 50s like in The Searchers…..True Grit was a joke
Brilliant movie! So many layers of emotion. Impeccable performances, superlative directing and a gritty screenplay.
I was fresh from the Army when I saw this film in 1969. I have never been able to watch it again but I still remember almost every seen. It is probably the most moving film I have ever seen. Not in a cheap, manipulated way that is so common today, but in an honest, emotionally powerful way.
My dad was also in the Army when he saw it for the first time. Then he showed it to me just before I left for basic in 1993. Welcome home brother
scene
I was born in 1979 and just watched this movie for the first time in 2024. It was so good that I watched it again the next day. I think Sylvia Miles is absolutely right in her comment that this is a truly meaningful film that shakes you up a bit. This is life, and here’s a story of two people getting through it… Great film. Thank you for posting this. From my generation, I first watched Jon Voight in the movie 'The Champ' and later in the first 90's, 'Mission: Impossible'. I remember Dustin Hoffman in 'Rain Man', and then in 'Outbreak', about a monkey with Ebola or something. Man, how fast time goes.
Ground breaking film. Truthful, honest, stark. Still a masterpiece. Most great films never get deserved recognition.
Such a beautiful and heartbreaking movie.
1969 was certainly the year of movie magic. So many movies came out that year and to me, all were great, but this one was the gem of all of them.
How can you not know that you are not making one of the finest pieces of cinematic story-telling in the industry's
history ?
A woman I used to work with with told me she had laughed at the ending. Appalled, I said, "You LAUGHED??" She looked awkward and embarrassed and admitted, "Well -- I didn't want to CRY!" I wonder how many other people had that reaction.
I saw this picture when i was in my 20s and did not understand anything at all coming from a different culture. Now that I am older I realize this moves as a slice of humanity. Great cast, great acting and direction all around. One of my all time favorite movies.
"The grace of the film was in the vision of human compassion."
No other film better represents the human condition in our lifetime. No man is an island, yet here we are.
I was 19 when I saw this beautiful moving film on it's release London, England. I cried my eyes out at the end. Uncontrollable weeping. Best film of the past 50 years by a country mile.
Film showed the real world most people would never know about let alone see it
A ground breaking movie, which is undoubtedly in my top ten. The ending always brings a year to my eye
when i saw this movie in the 70's i felt very lonely. Now I have been happily married for a very long time, have children and grandchildren, dogs, cats, even a magpie living in France, beautiful garden, I really have everything. I have saved this movie on my hard disk and am afraid to watch it. I do it sometimes, maybe once every few years, it always makes me very sad like it did then.
It's that good - that I haven't watched it again since the 80s . Because it's just too sad and too beautiful .
Aww bless y', know just what you mean, breaks y' heart and so achingly beautiful and sad, just a perfect film
I loved it when it first came out and am delighted it has stood the test of time so solidly. A wonderful film. I hope you watch it.
The Ratso 'I'm walking here' scene was completely unintended as John Voight and Dustin Hoffman were crossing the street. Hoffman's now iconic dialogue was totally improvised on the spot.
And yet for everyone at that time it perfectly encapsulated Ritzo's "I refuse to be invisible!" character. We teens, even if we hadn't seen the movie (!), repeated that line ad nauseam. Fascinating how a well-timed improvisation is so often that tiny detail that communicates the whole better than the whole.
It's no accident that Hoffman did something noteworthy in every one of his films that I've seen.
Through the 1970s in New York City the directors would film from office windows or trucks or Van's, you can see passersby staring at actors.
Frankel's "Shooting Midnight Cowboy" debunks this a little. The cab scene was in Salt's screenplay six months before shooting began and Schlesinger and Hellman say the cab driver was crew, but the line was improvised by Hoffman.
@@nihilistmarmot Good info, thanks. Love to hear stories how all the scenic layers, improvised and scripted, came together.
This and Taxi Driver are my two favorite films.
Great choices: both NYC and both gritty with reality.
A film that screams originality and timeless.
It's a great movie because it has heart and compassion. As usual, the writer is the last to get credit. Great book, great screenplay.
Agreed. James Leo Herlihy, the writer of the book, seems to have got barely any lasting recognition. I have read everything he ever wrote, and admire him a lot, but I think he wrote the saddest stories ever. Do not read him if you are feeling low.
The greatest American film in terms of it's overall & complete production. I think the best double lead performances of all-time by Hoffman & Voight, great direction from Schlesinger, brilliant screenplay by Salt, superb supporting cast, the best editing I've ever seen, excellent cinematography, the music by Barry & Nilsson is simply perfect & Hellman deserves a lot of credit for putting the whole thing together. I still feel the fact that it was rated X has much to do with it not being universally renowned as one of the handful of best American films ever made. It's still my number 2 after "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre".
If ever two men deserved the oscar it was Hoffman and Voight; I would have been pleased with either of them winning.....and they gave it to John Wayne. The category is BEST performance by an actor. "John Wayne for True Grit... gimme a break"
Please give some credit to the writer, James Leo Herlihy. There would be no movie without Herlihy's novel, yet he's never mentioned. I don't even know if the book's still in print.
I'm still walking in New York City at midnight, with the radio on my hand and boots on but Ratso saddly is gone.
PS : Jennifer Salt cutest girl on earth.
I don't remember her role
@@thememo9941 She is Crazy Annie, the girl in the flashbacks, the only true love of Joe Buck. It's hard to remember how cute she was because she does not appear in extensive sequences, try to watch Sisters by Brian de Palma, she is the protagonist of the movie and absolutely gorgeous, really my kind of woman, great actress too. She acted also along with John Voight in another movie called The Revolutionary but I've never seen it because here in Italy it's not so easy to find but I'd like to watch it one day.
Get vaccinated Joe.
@@tracy2648 You know what.....I did it today, not kidding, second injection 15 of May ......I can keep walking
@@MrJoebuck74 LOL - nice.
I rank this film on my all time list highly. It is a terrific film that has stood the test of time.
extraordinary film, Hoffman by far the most talented and diverse actor of his generation and Voight was no slouch either
Explain how he (Voight) goes from understanding the characters in this movie to supporting Trump? I know
apples and oranges but still
@@jl3322 i would ask what those two things have to do with each other, but it would be a rhetorical question.
When that came out I was 24 and madly in love. I live in San Antonio and had just seen the movie.
I had to travel up to Big Spring in April of 69. I kept waiting to hear the songs of the Midnight Cowboy
as I rode the streets on my Harley. Man, where did the time go.
I tried to watch that movie just last week. Couldn't make it past twenty minutes.
Saw it too young (under 10). I remember the radio played the Nilsson song all the time. The movie scared me a little, and the end shocked me when I realized what had happened on the bus ride.
This was a pleasant surprise: I saw the movie when it came out, 1969 or '70.
In Scotland we were shocked to see people in New York walking past a man lying drunk in the street. Now it happens here. All the time.
This must be put out as uncut extended release. Must!
one of my all time favorite movies. it truly is brilliant
You can say what you want about this film: its confusion and disjointed nature (and certainly not a perfect film or some would say not even a great one), but once you see it, you never forget it. It stays with you somewhere in your psyche.
i first saw midnight cowboy, quite a while ago in the seventies. i was so moved with the film, and at the end..it was tremendous. as somehow, sinful , if you will of some of the topic matter, it was a human story. i felt so sorry for both characters, ie ratso rizzo and also of course, john voights character....it wasn t really a hollywood film. yet it was profound, and well done, and special...for it to do well, by hollywood standards, was remarkable. it was a remarkable and heartfelt film. it was like it was real...ie real street life, somewhwere in new york...seedy, but real people w emotions. that is a feat to pull that off, it really is...and of course , great performances...a lot of guts to pull that off.]... the ending always puts me in tears, and prob most people.]
If you know some young person that has never seen this film, it's your cinematic duty to introduce them to it. The two of you will always have a bond and something in common for the rest of your time together. After all, isn't that what buddies are for?
My mom, who knew nothing about the content and thought it was a cowboy & Indians movie, took me to see it when it came out. I was 12 years old......very awkward when it wasn't a Western!
Haha! My parents took me to a movie once and something similar happened. My mother made me go sit in the lobby until the movie was over.
The Movie shows that the flesh cannot be satisfied and its futile to try, but the heart is long suffering and should always be held in high esteem
Siskel & Ebert did a retrospective on it, and they said that it was time for everyone to acknowledge that it was a gay love story. Joe and Ratso were in love.
It's possible for two men to have a platonic relationship.
@@thesecondRUclips : It's possible -- in the same way a man and a woman can have a "platonic" relationship. (I saw an interview with a woman who said, "If it's your third date, and he has not seen the interior of your boudoir yet, ONE OF YOU is gay!") It's just not common -- or some would say, likely.
What Siskel & Ebert were saying was that, if you watch the development of their relationship, it grew into a kind of mutual dependence, respect, and LOVE. They mentioned specifically when Joe used his shirt tail to wipe the sweat off Ratzo's face after the party, and Ratso presses his face against Joe's bare stomach while he does it.
And on the bus, when Joe changes Ratso's pants into the pair he had bought for him, they were like a loving and CARING couple. Ratso murmurs softly, "Thanks, Joe" -- his last words.
And in the final shot, when he sits with his arm so protectively around his dead buddy's body, he looks like a devastated lover.
Jon Voight's classiness always blows me away.......
our alltime fave movie !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a movie.. I saw it in 1969 n just now on cable tv.. beautiful ..
It's a great movie, but the novel is much gritter and way sadder.
Still one of the best films ever. Have it on pause as I type this. First saw it in the 70s when I was in junior high(was only seven in 1969). It hasn't lost any of its power. I remember Jennifer Salt more from SOAP. Still beautiful. Is she still acting?
A 60s masterpiece that I must have seen 10x and still moves me today. I first saw it in the UK as a teenager. Not sure it was X-rated in the UK then as it was also possible for youngsters to see Clockwork Orange, which was later banned. In 1970 our family travelled to Sweden and my sisters and I, with a cousin, visited Skansen in Stockholm. While there together we saw Midnight Cowboy. I was 17 and my sisters were 15 & 11. No adults present yet we had no problem getting in. Like Easy Rider another classic it did much to sum up the 60s.
One of the Greats !
I sneaked into the theater at 16 to see this astonishing film. Nothing i have seen since has come close to it.
As close to a perfect movie you can get!
Amen to that, perfection
Heavily influenced by warhol's esthetic and movies like "My hustler". Infact Schlesinger did pay homage to Andy in the psych party sequence.
Favorite movie...the music really sent it over the top. It was perfect
I got to work with Jon Voight on Ray Donovan and he was a prince!
Any idea if Jon Void lost his soul before or after that movie was made?
Wonderful movie, I still cry !!😢
I cried for them both. Fantastic film
Great video - I wish it was 10x longer.
Dustin Hoffman did the performance of a lifetime. Both of them were great.
Greatest film ever 🇬🇧🇬🇧
Love this film, watch it every couple of years.
yes it is beautiful when joe holds ratso,stirring like the whole glorious story
Sorry for being corny, but Midnight Cowboy is a masterpiece.
Not corny at all
Courtesy of Studio Distribution Services, LLC. (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment joint venture, under licensed from MGM Home Entertainment).
©2004, 2011, 2021 MGM Studios, Inc. (MGM Home Entertainment) and Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. (Studio Distribution Services, LLC.).
Sylvia Miles a class act. Loved her.
She was amazing ,a really special sexual chemistry .......wow,,,
I think people have a wrong idea about her cause she played "bitchy" character here and in Paul morrissey's Heat.
I never realized that she was the "Tootsa" from Midnight Cowboy.
Ein großartiger Film, mit genau so großartiger Musik.❗❗❗
Mein recht herzlichen Dank an alle Beteiligten.❗👍 👏 🤝
Freundlichst Willi . . . 🙋♂️
I've probably watched this movie one hundred times.
Stories of marginalized people are fascinating as long as you can go home to a decent meal, a warm bed, a bit of cash, and a family who loves you. These stories are entertaining if you don't have to survive on the streets, or battle an addiction. John Steinbeck wrote many humorous stories of people who struggle to survive. Cannery Row comes to mind at this minute. Oxycontin, like heroine are not fun drugs to battle, and after watching the destruction of families and towns across the US, I've found that I don't enjoy watching Midnight Cowboy like I used to. I just feel so sorry for those two guys, and the struggle that they both lose. One his life, the other his closest friend.
great movie, it's a movie that stays with you.
Wow, I’m just now finding out that Bob Balaban was the actor from the infamous movie theater scene! I’ve been seeing him for the longest in the zany Christopher Guest movies he’s famous for making. He also played the main character Enid’s (Thora Birch) dad in “Ghost World,” one of my favorite films.
And he was in Seinfeld as the boss of NBC
I saw the film on its first run during a personal crisis. I wanted to change my life somehow, like Joe Buck thought there was somethig better "out there." I don't care to see the film again, but it was dazzling at the time, an escape. "Everybody's Talkin" has stayed with me, though.
When a movie is so strong that you can smell it.
I have seen the movie many times (probably watched it straight through 20 times) and it is a blue-chip masterpiece. I am finally reading the book it was based on, "Midnight Cowboy" (by James Herlihy) now, and it is surprisingly good. Ironically, I think the book may have stood out better as literature if it had NOT been made into a movie, because the movie is so good, it kinda dwarfs the book. it's rare case of the movie being 'better' than the book. To put it another way, the movie is in the top 10 (IMO) of movies in the 20th century but I would not put the book in the top ten. But it is still a very good book, and the movie is very true to it, so anyone who loves the movie will love the book also. Waldo Salt did a great job turning it into the screenplay. A lot of the dialogue is verbatim from the book, and in other cases, Salt took an expression that Joe Buck or Ratso uses in the book, and 're-purposed' it to another conversation in the movie, to retain the authenticity of the character. The book has more of Joe Buck's 'back-story" which appears in the movie as flashbacks. Ricco Rizzo doesn't appear in the book until half-way through. So...please read the book! It will enrich your appreciation for the movie, because more of the theme of Joe's 'lonely seeking' is articulated.
Brilliant performances brilliant movie
Among my top 10 movies of all time. We were 17 at the time, Manuel and I, and we pals talked our way into the X rated movie.
3:58 This really is an amazing piece of ad lib. I guess the cab driver rode through the barricade and was unaware that they were filming. So that's real, and Hoffman really rolls with it. I have one complaint: A real hobo would have gone back and picked his cigarette off the road.
Esta cinta es increíble. Cómo transmite el frío de NY, la gente va a la suya. Ese sombrero de cowboy que se se ve caminando por encima del río de gente. Voight y su radio, esa sonrisa casi perpetua. Dustin haciendo el papel de un desgraciado con esperanzas vacías. Una maravilla.
They stood their ground against cancel culture!
cancel culture? this was 52 years ago.
There is ALWAYS those who want to eradicate other people and their existence... we just have an Internet now to demonstrate how little we care about the concept (let alone the reality) of FREEDOM of EXPRESSION!
@@TheGeoDaddy the internet IS freedom of expression. no one is stopping you from doing whatever the hell you want. your rights to express yourself are fully intact.
😂🤣😅😂🤣😅😂🤣😅😂🤣😅😂🤣😅
Anybody else notice the copying of the ending in the movie Requiem for a Dream
I loved this film...looking at it with English eyes ...it was amazing..
GOAT. Greatest Movie of all time. Dustin and Jon should also have won.
Did James Leo Herlihy get a cut?
According to Glenn Frankel, Schlesinger and Hellman gave Salt and Herlihy 5% of their profit, which came out to around $1 million.
Can't Top this !
The edited for TV version was a staple for YEARS on KTVU 2's 8'Oclock Movie in the 1970's.
I watched it many, many times, almost every time it came on because I had a crush on Brenda Vaccaro in my teens, and I loved hearing Toots Thielemans' harmonica playing... always will. R.I.P.
So, the front story of same sex prostitution wasn't out front, it was sort of "implied" due to the editing.
I have only seen the theatrical release once or twice.
100% ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE !!!
an incredible movie ....if you've had to ...live that life..it means so much more
In the top 10 movies of all time without doubt
The Broke Back Mountain of its time .
if not my favorite movie ever, at least my second favorite. i love movies about friendship.
A GREAT GREAT movie, also love the soundtrack, “Everybody’s Talking” Harry Nilson and the rest of the music. ☮️ 🎥 ☮️
Just drivin' around in Jon Voight's car....
John Barry. John Barry. Great film.
'Midnight Cowboy' and 'East Rider' debuted in '69. I saw them both upon release. The former still holds up marvelously today, while the latter is unwatchable, and has been for quite some time. It is both incredibly dated and cinematically self-conscious.
Ratso: " Hey!!....I'm walkin' here!."..(.Dustin improv.)... contrasted later with, " I'm falling apart here". Vought was sublime.......but even better in Runaway Train. If you shed a tear at the end of Midnight', you'll weep again at the end of Runaway; a Vought masterpiece; but that years Oscar went to William Hurt for Kiss of the Spider Women.