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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 |
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| 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
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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
| Awards |
Academy Awards (1969) |  | Winner, Best Picture | | Jerome Hellman, Winner, Best Picture | | John Schlesinger, Winner, Best Director | | Waldo Salt, Winner, Best Adapted Screenplay |
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| | 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.42Los 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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