MIDNIGHT COWBOY
"I'm walkin' here!" Originally given an X rating in 1969 for its seamy, sex-trade setting and gritty, gutter atmospherics, John Schlesinger's daring film shocked the establishment by winning Oscars® for Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay. Naive Texas hayseed Joe Buck (Jon Voight) arrives in New York City with dreams of becoming a professional gigolo, but his clumsy attempts to cash in go from bad to worse. His luck changes after he meets (and gets fleeced by) hapless street hustler Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), who eventually becomes Joe's manager and devoted friend. John Barry's iconic score and Harry Nilsson's performance of Fred Neil's theme song "Everybody's Talkin'" both won Grammy Awards®. "MIDNIGHT COWBOY's peep-show vision of Manhattan lowlife may no longer be shocking, but what is shocking… is to see a major studio film linger this lovingly on characters who have nothing to offer the audience but their own lost souls." – Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly. DIR John Schlesinger; SCR Waldo Salt, from the novel by James Leo Herlihy; PROD Jerome Hellman. U.S., 1969, color, 113 min. RATED R
AFI Member passes accepted.
Click here for screenings of Nancy Buirski's documentary DESPERATE SOULS, DARK CITY AND THE LEGEND OF MIDNIGHT COWBOY, playing Sept. 9-14.
Run Time: 113 Minutes
Opening Date: Friday, September 08, 2023
Genre: Drama