Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Director: John Schlesinger  Starring: Dustin Hoffman  Jon Voight  
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Product Summary
Publisher: MGM
Format: DVD
UPC: 00027616603890
Buy.com Sku: 40000284
Item#: VVNG2Y
Category Keywords: Big City  Buddies  Character Study  Classic  Disturbing  Essential Cinema  Friends  Gay/Lesbian  Illness  Lowlife  Prostitution  Recommended  Scams And Cons  Theatrical Release 
Rating: 
 
 
Features: DVD, Pan and Scan (TV Format), Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, Trailers
 
Midnight Cowboy is tough, potent and shocking: an extraordinarily affecting look at the American Dream---turned into a nightmare. An Academy Award® winner for Best Picture, Best Director (John Schlesinger) and Best Screenplay (Waldo Salt), the film also boasts Oscar®-nominated performances by Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight and Sylvia Miles. As Ratso Rizzo, a scrounging, sleazy, small-time con man with big dreams, Dustin Hoffman gives one of the most unforgettable performances of his career. And Joe Buck, the good-looking, naively charming Texas "cowboy" convinced that he is the salvation of many lonely, love-starved New York women, Jon Voight is magnificent. Living on the tattered fringe of society, an unlikely bond grows between these two outcasts that is both powerful and poignant. "Neither Voight no Hoffman has ever been better on screen than they are here" hails the Chicago Tribune. And from first to last, Midnight Cowboy remains as transcendent as it was when it was first released" (Premiere Magazine).
 


Editor's Note

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.


Plot Summary

Originally rated X, this exceptional film based on James Leo Herlihy's novel centers on a naive, small-town Texan who comes to New York to become a paid stud. He forms a unique relationship with a slimy con man who becomes his closest friend, and ultimately, the key to his salvation. The film depicts New York at its absolute grittiest, and features a very memorable soundtrack. Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay. Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Actor--both Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight.

 

Features
Region 1
Keep Case
Full Frame - 1.33
Letterbox - 1.85
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
Additional Release Material:
8 Page Booklet
Trailers: Original Theatrical Trailer
Text/Photo Galleries:
Production Notes




 
Entertainment Reviews
Midnight Cowboy - DVD Review
By: Dan Schneider - Blogcritics.org Reviews
Published on: 1/13/2010 9:44 AM
Midnight Cowboy (the name was then contemporaneous slang for a male prostitute) is one of those solid, well-made films from the 1960s that’s best recalled than watched. This is not to say it’s a bad film. It’s not. It’s a good, occasionally very good film -- especially in terms of editing, cutting, and realism. But in many ways it’s an interesting short subject film of 25-30 minutes’ length, blown up to four or five times its optimum running time. The film was adapted by Waldo Salt from a 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy, and directed by veteran journeyman filmmaker John Schlesinger. I use that term to describe the director because much of the film is pedestrian, in what occurs, how it is interpreted by the actors, and in its routine banality....read the full review

 
Technical Info

Release Information
Studio: MGM
Release Date: 9/7/2004
Running Time: 113 minutes
Original Release Date: 1969
Catalog ID: 906038
UPC: 00027616603890
Number of Discs: 1

Audio & Video
Original Language: English
Available Audio Tracks: English, French Dubbed
Available Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Video: Color

 
Cast & Crew
Dustin Hoffman
Viva
Paul Morrissey
Barnard Hughes
Sylvia Miles
John McGiver
Ruth White
Bob Balaban
Brenda Vaccaro
Jon Voight
Hugh A. Robertson - Editor
Jerome Hellman - Producer
Dick Smith - Special Effects
John Barry - Composer
John Robert Lloyd - Production Designer
James Leo Herlihy - Story
John Schlesinger - Director

 
Awards

Academy Awards (1969)
Winner, Best Picture
Jerome Hellman, Winner, Best Picture
John Schlesinger, Winner, Best Director
Waldo Salt, Winner, Best Adapted Screenplay

 
Professional Reviews
Entertainment Weekly
"...[The performances] have lost none of their magic....[They show us] characters who have nothing to offer the audience but their own lost souls." -- Rating: A- 03/11/1994 p.42

Los Angeles Times
"...What knocked people out 25 years ago, the parallel performances of Voight and Hoffman, still have the power today..." 02/20/1994 p.F3

USA Today
"...The '69 Oscar-winner seems fresher than ever..." 03/06/1992 p.3D

Premiere
"[T]his is a story of dreams unfulfilled, and Hoffman' pathetic street rat, both hilarious and heartbreakingly sad, becomes a kind of tragic hero." 04/01/2004 p.66

Rolling Stone
"[A] haunting 1969 classic about a conflicted connection between a naïve Texan hustler and a sickly Bronx-born scammer." 02/23/2006 p.74

  
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Midnight Cowboy 
Soundtrack 


Customer Reviews
Cinematography 4
Plot 5
Acting 5
Overall Satisfaction 5
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1 of 1 customers found this review helpful.
 
5 of 5 G.A.M. = Great American Movie... Thursday, October 07, 1999
Petronius Arbiter II (Petronius_II from Albuquerque, NM  

... and in my book, this is one of the greatest ever. So much has been written about this film that it's pretty superfluous to try to say anything new. This is the only X-rated film ever to win the Best Picture Oscar. (Since revised to R-rated; much now seems tame by today's standards.) Either Hoffman or Voight could easily have won Best Actor if they hadn't been competing with each other; both delivered extremely powerful performances. About the worst thing I can think of to say about this movie, aside from the fact that its vividly sordid atmosphere makes it clearly not a movie for everyone, is that some of the innovative camerawork seems a bit dated nowadays. 'Midnight Cowboy' rewards repeat viewings much better than most.
 
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