Here is what I knew about Midnight Cowboy going into watching it:

  • This is the only X rated film to win an Oscar for Best Picture.
  • This was released in 1969.
  • Jon Voight is famous for starring in this.
  • So is Dustin Hoffman, who is walking here!
  • Voight plays a giggolo.

Here is what I have learned since that movie started:

  • John Schlesinger directed it, and won an Oscar for doing so.
  • The cuts between scenes are a bit jumpy and wipey.
  • Gigolo only has 2 Gs, not 3.
  • The level of sex and violence, and language, needed to earn an X was surprisingly little.
  • Voight’s Joe Buck’s life is super messed up.
  • Hoffman’s Rizzo leads a really depressing life.
  • Rizzo gets credited as Ratso in the credits, which seems mean, since he did not like that name.

I like the way I look. Makes me feel good, it does. And women like me, goddammit. Hell, the only one thing I ever been good for is lovin’. Women go crazy for me, that’s a really true fact! Ratso, hell! Crazy Annie they had to send her away!

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As the theme song, Everybody’s Talkin’ plays at the end, I felt emotionally drained and saddened by the movie as a whole. Watching Rizzo and Joe Buck struggle for that long to finally make it to Florida only for Rizzo to die like that, really sucked. Both of the performances were great, fully deserving of their Oscar nominations for Best Actor. This was an opus on friendship and suffering. It had quite a bit to say about masculinity and male vulnerability. In honor of the film’s abrupt, sad ending, I will leave it at that.

****