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Just gave this a serious viewing for the first time in a long time. Still does nothing for me, can't explain why. I guess it was "ahead of its time" in shock value and innovation, but seems VERY dated to me, almost like its hard to see through all the gimmicky production. Plus, I found Hoffman's Ratso a little too over-played. I must admit that Voight nailed it, IMHO---he was the perfect Joe Buck. And what a depressing ending!
Follow Ups:
Sorry that it has taken me so long to respond to your post. School, family life, etc. You made a couple of interesting comments about "Midnight Cowboy" and I would like to offer my opinion."Midnight Cowboy" was not ahead of its time in shock value and innovation. Ever since "The Mark" movies had (openly) used homosexuality as a theme. It was only new that mainstream Hollywood was making the picture about Joe Buck and Ratso. The "innovative" direction was heavily criticized at the time of the film's release. Notice when the director really has the material how "old fashioned" his direction becomes...especially on the bus to Florida. Audiences responded NOT to the depiction of the Warhol gang, or to the muddled flashbacks that Joe has, but to the friendship and, hell, tenderness between these two men. Real friendship is depicted so rarely in Hollywood that seeing it in this film was the most shocking and innovative thing about it. Hoffman's acting may be a notch "over the top", but IMHO it is one of his best performances...he really gets into the lame New Yorker. And you are right about Voight...an incredible performance! The ending may be sad, but note how Buck throws his "cowboy" outfit away and apparently is beginning a new life in a new skin.
The music's 'pert good too.
A great film, in spite of the elements that, as you earlier noted, seriously date it.
If you think Ratso Rizzo is larger than life then y'aint never bin to Noo Yawk(!)Dated; well 1969 was a helluva long time ago and I would have to agree with you there. Bob Dylan was meant to do the theme tune but it ended up being done by Harry Nilsson (now deceased); "Everybody's Talking"
"Cowboy" broke a lot of new ground in its day and there are quite a few films since that have paid it homage in one way or another
EG; in "Forrest Gump" when he's pushing his buddy in a wheelchair across a NY street he slaps the cabs hood and shouts "I'm walking here, I'm walking here" which is one of Ratsos lines in Cowboy...
One scene that always gets me is where Ratso picks a guys pocket, strikes a match on the roof of the cab then flips the bird as it drives away; that defines Ratso's character as much as anything else in the film without saying a word
I found the end of the film uplifting where Voights character ditches his cowboy clothes in the trash it's like he's going to get a new startGrins
The opening scene - the zoom out from the silver screen with the sound of a cowboy flick - only to see an abandoned drivein theater - the cowboy sounds fade - The message: Cowboy movies are fiction and the myth of a mysterious stranger riding into town to save the day is dead. The rest of the movie is more of the same. Fake cowboy goes to New York to do wonderful things and finds failure. No saving the town, no rescuing the girl in distress. The western myth is dead.Good movie but pretty depressing.
==========(Mark B. James - a.k.a. "Brewthunda")
for the themesong. But director went with Ev's Talking.
Nilsson sang "Everbody's Talkin'" for the soundtrack, but the late-, reclusive Fred Neil wrote it and performed it simply with his voice and acoustic guitar.
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