My mom is an extra in this film. She was a waitress in the donut shop scene. She’s 85 now and I am very proud that she played even a small part in such an iconic film.
“Has it ever struck you that life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going?”― Tennessee Williams..
It's all memory if you are alone. Otherwise you are constantly making new memories with friends and acquaintances and have no actual reason to remember the past.
My parent's preacher got up in church and declared "It is a sin to see this movie" So, my parents went on a Tuesday night late show because they didn't want anyone from church to see them. They said half the church was there and NOBODY SPOKE TO EACH OTHER WHEN IT ENDED! EVERYONE JUST PUT THEIR HEADS DOWN IN SHAME! HILARIOUS!
@@javiero1711 lol That's humanity in a nutshell, nothing particularly Christian about it. It's just the same as an enviro eating a burger on an airplane.
I first discovered Midnight Cowboy in 1994 when I was 18. My stepdad rented it and I was blown away by it. At that time in ways I somewhat identified with Joe Buck because I was from a small town in Texas and had just moved to the city of Austin. While Austin is no New York city, it definitely has it's downtown weirdo characters and a urban culture that's contrast to small Texas towns. Anyway, there is so much about this movie that is so emotional/touching. Joe's flashbacks of crazy Annie and his grandma while on the bus leaving his life in Texas behind are some of the most cinematic, poignant and moving scenes I've ever experienced in films. And even though I wasn't alive in the late 60s it gives a real sense of nostalgia of the old America. It's a very sad, yet beautiful movie masterpiece and in my top 5 all time favorite movies.
I saw it around that time as a teen, and said, "This is the movie that got banned?!?" Then I saw it again in a special theater screening, and I loved it. I think VHS ruined the experience.
You pretty much summed up my experience. Also I thought it was my favorite movie. It's editing, and cinematic scenes are beyond comparison. I also identified with Joe Buck, so beautify played, by Jon Voight. Sometimes I used to say his line, Joe are you a real cowboy, Well I ain't a for real cowboy but I sure am one hell of a stud! When I had gone out, feeling tipsy though it didn't make sense for me, just loved the line.
As I grow older, one one of my favorite things to do is to take a Saturday to etch out 2 hours to watch classic movies that came out a few years before (in the case of this) or after I was born. Miss the days when there were no cell phone; the grimy nature of some restaurants, the day we engaged each other. This movie was so good - Jon and Dustin both killed the movie. Their chemistry was through the roof.
A film I’ve seen over 20 times since the early ‘80s. A superlative film on every possible level. Humour, pathos, protective camaraderie, tenderness, gritty realism, unfulfilled nirvana
It was a bitterly cold, snowy night in late 1969/early 1970 that a good friend and I went to the old Uptown theatre in Calgary, Alberta, Canada to watch this great movie . I had a 1961 black Ford Fairlane 500 car that my mother allowed me to drive ( I was only 19-years-old). We watched the movie, and I drove Brian home that night. I was so depressed that I couldn't get over that feeling for years after. The movie helped me grow up and fast. Finally met a great guy who treated me right. We had 30 years together.
The way that John Voight captured Joe Buck's naïveté is stunning. The dialog in this film, the story, the acting, the music, the cinematography, the wardrobe, sets... I have seen this film probably a dozen times or even more. I never get tired of watching this movie. BRILLIANT
I was born in 1966. I grew up watching many movies because that is what my parents watched - and there was ONE tv. When iI was younger, wasnt much of a Hoffman or Voight fan until I saw The Graduate, and Midnight Cowboy and of course Deliverance. The great actors who create this artistic films are almost days gone by.
Top 5 american movie of all time , it captured humanity at it's worst and at it's best , Living in Miami in 1969, looking back at the Florida scenes , recognizing the streets and buildings that I had walked myself , from Hollywood to Haulover Beach , to Miami's Broad causeway leading to Miami Beach , passing by the great hotels , I feel like I witnessed it myself
Best movie ever IMO. It's been my favorite since I was a teenager in the 1980s and the older I get and live life the better it gets. Great characters and acting to go with the directing.
you and me both bro. lived in the N. Miami area from 1957 til 1984. even worked as a male escort for a while out of some sleazy office on Biscayne Blvd and 74th street. i know what you mean. once got bitched out by Muhammad Ali at the 5th street gym, chased through a parking garage by Joe Namath after stealing his cigarettes from the dashboard of his Cadillac convertible, definitely the best and most exciting times of my life.
Hoffman correctly sums it up at the end. Films and the audience are not sophisticated today. Art is no longer being produced. Midnight Cowboy was a brilliant work of art and the sort of people who made it do not exist today. We only have the past if we want to see art in film. Thank God for TCM and UA-cam. Without them, we would be living in a cultural desert devoid of film art.
Pretty short-sighted of Hoffman considering he starred in one of the biggest flops (Ishtar) in the history of Hollywood not to mention some goofy parts like Mumbles in Dick Tracy. Sure it's fair to say that Hollywood is more commercialized than it was in the 1960s, but even in the 1960s there were commercialized "safe" pictures usually with cowboys or gangsters or pretty debutantes meant to sell tickets. Movies like Midnight Cowboy are generational and are rare but there are many good films that exist today (and at the time this documentary was filmed) that are just as brilliant in their own way. I want to believe Hoffman isn't so parochial in his views; instead I'm choosing to believe what he meant is that Schlesinger's style of visual storytelling is relatively unique and not broadly adopted by other filmmakers. That's both factual and not some broad generalization that falls apart on further scrutiny.
@@therexbellator You're right. Dustin Hoffman is an actor. If the check is really big, he will take the job. Marlon Brando and Richard Burton were professional actors - they worked for money and some of the movies they appeared in sucked.
You're right! He is one of the few significant filmmakers in Hollywood. There were a lot of them in past decades. Now, he is one of the few.@@Deadsies556
One of my favourites. Coming from a small town and going into the Navy, I had my Joe Buck moments when I walked around downtown Chicago for the first time.
Enjoying all the comments immensely. I saw the film when I was very young, when it was first released in the UK (just a short time after it's premiere). What astounds me now, so many years later, is that I understood the entire film at 12 or 13 years old. Of course I was blown away by the acting and cinematography, and moved to tears by the storyline. I think the Joe Buck character made it more accessible to me, as though he invited me to see the events through his naive eyes. I saw some truly epoch-making films within a short space of time then (Easy Rider, 2001 A space Odyssey...) it coloured my whole world-view. Nothing since has had such a profound impact on me. Jon Voight's and Dustin Hoffman's performance together was simply outstanding.
I was born the year before release. All my life I heard about the brilliance of this movie. 12 years ago I rented the DVD and was blown away. Couldn't stop listening to the sound track, even today.
"The grace of the film was in the vision of human compassion." No other film better represents the human condition in our lifetime. No man is an island, yet here we are.
An X-rated film about the trials and tribulations about a couple of sordid, sleazy down and outs getting out fought in the big bad world. Pure genius film-making all round to make it compelling, engaging, respectful and beautiful. One of a kind and of my favourites.
If they did make them like this fucking Iron Man would play Joe Buck and Dustin Hoffman character would be played by Spider-Man, or some shit like that.
All of a sudden its 50 years later. I remember seeing the film in a theater in NYC where I grew up around 1971. It was one of those few films that left me unable to move throughout the ending credits. Genius at work on every level.
It must be surreal for you if you lived in NYC in the 70s, seeing it on film like this, and seeing how NYC is today. The urban decay of the 1960s/70s is startling. I hope such a phenomenon never plagues our metropolises.
I just loved that movie. I remember the year 1969 quite clearly. The movie perfectly captured that year with its street scenes and the whole energy of that time being in New York city. Dustin Hoffman did such an incredible acting job portraying a disabled, sickly man who never had a chance at living even close to a normal life. The way he showed his character slowly getting sicker and sicker and finally dying was incredible to watch. What a great actor and what a fantastic movie! Like the people in the comments section, they certainly don't make great movies like this anymore. An incredible movie about real people with real problems, just struggling to survive. It well deserved the Academy award it won for Best Picture!
One of the greatest films ever made and one that still Sears the soul. When everything gelled, the screenplay, the acting, the direction, the music all coming together and creating a truely magical piece of cinema. I was sixteen when this first was released and it made a huge impact on my then younger self and through the years I’ve revisited and always find something new and still delights and moves me. Somehow in a perfect world always imagined that Ritzo never died and Joe Buck only discovers this years later on and it’s then it’s them in their eighties seeing and experiencing life again together in the new millennium. This marvellous documentary which I just didn’t want to end reflects to me that Hoffman & Voight are still connected to these characters and would happily return to these characters given the right script.
I'm 62 and i always knew of this film but never gave it a chance until for some reason i watched it for the first time a year ago and i really enjoyed it and i will watch it again.
What a wonderful thought provoking doc here. I am floored by all i learned from it. Thank you to all who shared their thoughts and memories in the making of this great work Midnight Cowboy.
This movie so touched my soul at the time that I remember truly weeping at its opening moments when it first came on tv, feeling it a sacrilege with the upcoming commercials and edits. Edit: And when John Wayne won Best Actor for True Grit rather than Dustin Hoffman (or Jon Voight - they were both nominated and thus many felt split the vote) at that moment I experienced it as a lesson about the injustices of the world.
@@anthonyhauser3063 Correct. I wasn't born until 1970 but this has been my favorite film since I was a teenager in the 80s. John Wayne basically winning an award for his career that night, was no doubt and insult to the great acting by Hoffman and Voight. Given Midnight Cowboy did win best picture, adapted screenplay and director though. It's a possibility that Voight and Hoffman split the votes giving Wayne a victory by default. Regardless, award shows are lame and subjective.
My feeling is that "Midnight Cowboy" exemplified the sixties "counter culture" of the time. John Wayne was a representative of the "straight culture" or "America: Love It or Leave It" mentality that was so strong at the time--a true cultural civil war going on between "straights" (Wayne) and "heads"--those who smoked marijuana & experimented with LSD and other "mind-expanding" drugs of the times. I think "True Grit" had to win over "Midnight Cowboy" as a message from the Academy to marginalize sixties emerging values that conflicted with middle America.
@@cate1657 What are you talking about? True Grit didn't win over MC. Wayne won Best Actor, but MC won Best Picture of the Year and Schlesinger won Best Director.
Everytime i watch midnight cowboy (seen it at least 20 times) i think about it for almost a week afterward, & pick up new things each time. that`s the mark of a great film!
A Great Movie, Soundtrack and Two Young Actors playing Characters of lifetime! Fantastic writing, editing and casting! I was 13 when Midnight Cowboy hit the theaters rated X! But my Mom saw it and there was nothing dirty about it! But it was a great movie with a sad tragic ending! Saw it much later and thought it was a Great Movie but also the sad ending! Like my Mom, hers had a sad ending too! Have on DVD but my favorite way! Is on VHS like watching it again on film at the theater! Really enjoyed the interview and listening to Dustin & John and the whole crew!
When I saw Midnight Cowboy in the 70s ,Loved it! Showed it to a girlfriend in the early 80s she was blown away, One of the best movies and deserved the academy award.
I had seen this movie when I was about 19. Years later I come across it on television. It's about halfway through the film. My husband comes in and starts watching it. He has no clue what's going on, but he was captivated. They just don't make movies like this anymore.
An interesting fact about this film is that it's The first use of Karo corn syrup based blood in a motion picture. It was used for the scene where he hits the guy and his dentures fall out. It was then used for EVERY movie from then on, until today because the blood made for technicolor looked like red paint. This stuff tastes great, is non-toxic and looked exactly like real blood.
You've touched on something I've long wondered about. I've noticed in films pre-1970 that blood had this bright redness to it that looked like paint (Charlton Heston's Omega Man and Soylent Green comes to mind as well as Hammer films). Was it because of technicolor that this grade of blood was used so ubiquitously? It always struck me as weird that makeup artists never experimented with different tints to make it look more realistic. If you can point me to any good sources of info on this topic online. I'd appreciate it!
There are certain movies that are just iconic in that you can never tire of watching them just like certain songs you cant get sick of. Movies like MC and jaws or exorcist or Forrest gump pulp fiction full metal jacket ect ect. There really arent many movies that can be labeled iconic and this is one of the few.
I saw Midnight Cowboy when it first came out in 1969. I was 19 years old. Being a white bread, suburban kid I was stunned by what I had just seen. The superb acting by Hoffman and Voight. The under belly of New York. The great friendship that developed between two of the most disparate personalities you could ever run across. The intensely sad ending that hits you right at your core. All shot in a semi-documentary look that made it seem real. That was over 50 years ago but it doesn't matter: Midnight Cowboy is a classic and the classics are timeless. It will always be my favorite movie.
One of the few movies that has stuck in my mind for decades and always appreciate rewatching at least in part or in small clips. A testimony to its era, I was born in 1969 and I can pretty much relate to it in chronological terms. Great cinema is gone though, I guess. Greetings from Argentina.
You know its a special film when you remember when and where you were when you first saw it..and the need to tell everyone within yelling distance to see it..as I did..I felt vindicated when a good friend said he watched it and loved every moment..
Surprised when I read reviews and articles about this movie that no one mentions the implied sexual abuse of Jon Voight’s character at the hands of his grandmother. So many people become nymphs or abusers because they were abused themselves. It’s symbolic when he writes another postcard and rips it up throwing it out of the window and him throwing his cowboy clothes away in Florida. He’s leaving his old life behind and trying to forget the pain. Yet every time, he just winds up alone again.
Good comments Always wondered myself too about the relationship with his grandmother Yes trying to leave his pain behind A great tale of mateship too, similar to Of Mice and Men
@@frank19593 I even bought the book to see if more was written about it but nothing was really mentioned but implied that Buck could have been abused by his grandma and her boyfriends
Book is great So much of it captured on the screen with the flashbacks. Could describe the scene when he's in bed with his grandma as disturbing. Only movie to win the Oscar for best picture with an X rating
@@frank19593 There was really nothing "explicit" in the movie - no graphic sex or violence scenes - that would have earned an X rating these days but a lot was implied. Compared with all the sex and violence in films these days, that was very tame - it would have been given no more than an "R" max or even a "PG" now.
Great overview of the filming production. ... Plus, Midnight Cowboy and Deliverance, two Voight movies, that'll never see a reboot/remake. ... Could you imagine Hollywood releasing Midnight Cowboy 2. ... Where Voight is a retired restaurant owner living in South Beach with Brenda Vaccaro and their little dog Ratso who speaks to Jon in the voice of Dustin Hoffman. ...
Utterly depressing movie but brilliant in its realism, anyone who has visited NY has had a Joe Buck moment. New York can feel so lonely despite the lights and glamour. I will never forget visiting New York walking near Bleeker street late after a gig 20 years ago and finding a young woman in her 30's crying hysterical, she had just been evicted and was crying uncontrollably, I couldn’t get a word in, and what made it worse for her she said she had just had her period and had no change or sanitary towels, an older woman who was not homeless came and joined to help, the young woman said sobbing loudly "people keep walking by and ignoring me, I don’t want people to think I’m a nobody”, I gave the young girl $20 and walked away, I felt like Joe Buck, I arrived in NY as naive as him and reality hit me right there, New York is not cosy like a Friends episode. This is before social media, her desperate panic reverberates with me to this day and I often think of what might have happened to her. This film shows that New York can be as barren and deadly as a desert, it’s cold and heartless, it's a machine. I still love it. Crazy that they moved the entire contents and rebuilt the condemned grimy apartment, someone actually lived in that, can you imagine the real Ratzo Rizzo seeing his "Crib" on the big screen before "Cribs" even existed. Wonderful music by John Barry, you can really hear the similarity with "You Only Live Twice" which came out around the same period.
Excellent! So well said! I felt what you said in your words as I could very well have been "that young woman", as so many of us could have been then. These days they just 'kill us , don't they?' Since when did women become so ' expendable'?
Both of the central characters went through a Lot in their lives,! they both struggled through hard, squalid conditions.. In many ways, it showed that the " American Dream" does not come to pass for Everyone... In the end, they were left with little, despite their best efforts. Buck thought NYC would be the " golden palace" a place to strike it rich and live great. What he Saw was something Different than what he Imagined! A great and deeply moving film!
the word 'classic' just doesn't cut it for this movie. Midnight Cowboy is a game-changer. Movies changed after this masterpiece landed in theaters. The only down side was that Hoffman and Voight didn't share the "Best Actor" Oscar that year.
I was 15 years old at an exceedingly sensitive moment in my life when a close friend invited me to share MC with her and some friends. I fell madly in love with her friend, Mitzi, a love that stayed with me for decades after she broke my heart.
I saw this film in Salina, Kansas when it came out - 1969 or so. I was eighteen years old. Loved the opening song/credits: "Everybodys Talking" . Listen carefully for the baseline, and final vocals high notes. Outatanding arrangement. Great film.
Rarely a movie gets away with depicting real-life drama and in this case, it does do so easily that art and life crash into each other here on the set. What Dustin says about story line being too simplistic and linear in today's movies is so true. The party scene reminds me of a night in the limelight I once had with a girlfriend of mine so long ago.
Inmenso film, gracias a todos los que contribuyeron para realizarlo. El "otro lado" del sueño americano, pero narrado de un modo tan universal que aplica a las geografías y sociedades más variadas.
They probably split the vote, giving Wayne the win by default. Midnight Cowboy won everything else that matters, director, picture and adapted screenplay. If Hoffman puts in for supporting actor he wins that easily and Voight might take Actor.
My mom is an extra in this film. She was a waitress in the donut shop scene. She’s 85 now and I am very proud that she played even a small part in such an iconic film.
Brilliant
What a great memory! Part of history ...
How cool!! Next time I watch it I'll keep an eye out for her. 👍
@@cherylb5680 some people consider this the best movie ever made...cool!
My mum who has now passed on this was her favourite movie of all time
“Has it ever struck you that life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going?”― Tennessee Williams..
It's all memory if you are alone. Otherwise you are constantly making new memories with friends and acquaintances and have no actual reason to remember the past.
One of my all time favorite movies. Voight and Hoffman were brilliant in their roles, this great movie holds up 50yrs later.
Gostaria de ver este filme traduzido em portugues.
@Cheryl B
Shes in this scene
ua-cam.com/video/xd7SESj-nfA/v-deo.html
@@MarzanWorldwide Thanks for sharing! 👍
I like the actors, tried watching again on Amazon and was just too depressing.
@@casyatbat It was supposed to be depressing.
My parent's preacher got up in church and declared "It is a sin to see this movie" So, my parents went on a Tuesday night late show because they didn't want anyone from church to see them. They said half the church was there and NOBODY SPOKE TO EACH OTHER WHEN IT ENDED! EVERYONE JUST PUT THEIR HEADS DOWN IN SHAME! HILARIOUS!
OH WOW
And that’s christianity in a nutshell…
lol 😂.
@@javiero1711 lol That's humanity in a nutshell, nothing particularly Christian about it. It's just the same as an enviro eating a burger on an airplane.
Christianity is so incredibly stupid
I first discovered Midnight Cowboy in 1994 when I was 18. My stepdad rented it and I was blown away by it. At that time in ways I somewhat identified with Joe Buck because I was from a small town in Texas and had just moved to the city of Austin. While Austin is no New York city, it definitely has it's downtown weirdo characters and a urban culture that's contrast to small Texas towns. Anyway, there is so much about this movie that is so emotional/touching. Joe's flashbacks of crazy Annie and his grandma while on the bus leaving his life in Texas behind are some of the most cinematic, poignant and moving scenes I've ever experienced in films. And even though I wasn't alive in the late 60s it gives a real sense of nostalgia of the old America. It's a very sad, yet beautiful movie masterpiece and in my top 5 all time favorite movies.
Yep must agree Wendal....one hell of a movie.
I saw it around that time as a teen, and said, "This is the movie that got banned?!?" Then I saw it again in a special theater screening, and I loved it. I think VHS ruined the experience.
You pretty much summed up my experience. Also I thought it was my favorite movie. It's editing, and cinematic scenes are beyond comparison.
I also identified with Joe Buck, so beautify played, by Jon Voight.
Sometimes I used to say his line, Joe are you a real cowboy, Well I ain't a for real cowboy but I sure am one hell of a stud! When I had gone out, feeling tipsy though it didn't make sense for me, just loved the line.
Thing is I am female
As I grow older, one one of my favorite things to do is to take a Saturday to etch out 2 hours to watch classic movies that came out a few years before (in the case of this) or after I was born. Miss the days when there were no cell phone; the grimy nature of some restaurants, the day we engaged each other. This movie was so good - Jon and Dustin both killed the movie. Their chemistry was through the roof.
Truth Indeed
A film I’ve seen over 20 times since the early ‘80s. A superlative film on every possible level. Humour, pathos, protective camaraderie, tenderness, gritty realism, unfulfilled nirvana
It was a bitterly cold, snowy night in late 1969/early 1970 that a good friend and I went to the old Uptown theatre in Calgary, Alberta, Canada to watch this great movie . I had a 1961 black Ford Fairlane 500 car that my mother allowed me to drive ( I was only 19-years-old). We watched the movie, and I drove Brian home that night. I was so depressed that I couldn't get over that feeling for years after.
The movie helped me grow up and fast. Finally met a great guy who treated me right. We had 30 years together.
Awesome story, I'm from Edmonton and watched this for the first time last night. I couldn't imagine seeing this in the theater. Such a deep film
borrrrrrrrrrrrrrring bs
Harry Nillson's version of "Everybody's Talking" was just perfect for this movie
As was John Barry's harmonica instrumental
@@richardcoleman1083 I agree. It was haunting .
Everybody who knows me, knows Midnight Cowboy is my all time, forever, favorite movie. The acting was impeccably Brilliant.
I first saw this as part of a late night double bill with Death Wish back in 1979. One of the best nights of my life.
@D z We should all form a Midnight Cowboy's Club, make a date to all watch this Fantastic movie, on a certain date...and share thoughts.
me too its so good to me its become personal
Same here
The way that John Voight captured Joe Buck's naïveté is stunning. The dialog in this film, the story, the acting, the music, the cinematography, the wardrobe, sets... I have seen this film probably a dozen times or even more. I never get tired of watching this movie. BRILLIANT
I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing the first time I saw the film.
The way both men physically, emotionally transform is acting genius.
A haunting musical score sets the stage for this film.
New York chewed me up and spat me out. I can relate to this movie.
Me too
I was born in 1966. I grew up watching many movies because that is what my parents watched - and there was ONE tv. When iI was younger, wasnt much of a Hoffman or Voight fan until I saw The Graduate, and Midnight Cowboy and of course Deliverance. The great actors who create this artistic films are almost days gone by.
Top 5 american movie of all time , it captured humanity at it's worst and at it's best , Living in Miami in 1969, looking back at the Florida scenes , recognizing the streets and buildings that I had walked myself , from Hollywood to Haulover Beach , to Miami's Broad causeway leading to Miami Beach , passing by the great hotels , I feel like I witnessed it myself
Best movie ever IMO. It's been my favorite since I was a teenager in the 1980s and the older I get and live life the better it gets. Great characters and acting to go with the directing.
you and me both bro. lived in the N. Miami area from 1957 til 1984. even worked as a male escort for a while out of some sleazy office on Biscayne Blvd and 74th street. i know what you mean. once got bitched out by Muhammad Ali at the 5th street gym, chased through a parking garage by Joe Namath after stealing his cigarettes from the dashboard of his Cadillac convertible, definitely the best and most exciting times of my life.
@@garykay7418 what a life y've had!!!
@@gaynordurdy7689 that's only scratching the surface :) now just another old man.
@@garykay7418no, not 'just another old man' but someone who's done it all and then some!!
One of the all time great movies.
Hoffman correctly sums it up at the end. Films and the audience are not sophisticated today. Art is no longer being produced. Midnight Cowboy was a brilliant work of art and the sort of people who made it do not exist today. We only have the past if we want to see art in film. Thank God for TCM and UA-cam. Without them, we would be living in a cultural desert devoid of film art.
Pretty short-sighted of Hoffman considering he starred in one of the biggest flops (Ishtar) in the history of Hollywood not to mention some goofy parts like Mumbles in Dick Tracy.
Sure it's fair to say that Hollywood is more commercialized than it was in the 1960s, but even in the 1960s there were commercialized "safe" pictures usually with cowboys or gangsters or pretty debutantes meant to sell tickets. Movies like Midnight Cowboy are generational and are rare but there are many good films that exist today (and at the time this documentary was filmed) that are just as brilliant in their own way.
I want to believe Hoffman isn't so parochial in his views; instead I'm choosing to believe what he meant is that Schlesinger's style of visual storytelling is relatively unique and not broadly adopted by other filmmakers. That's both factual and not some broad generalization that falls apart on further scrutiny.
@@therexbellator You're right. Dustin Hoffman is an actor. If the check is really big, he will take the job. Marlon Brando and Richard Burton were professional actors - they worked for money and some of the movies they appeared in sucked.
I feel that Paul Thomas Anderson creates the “real” art you feel is missing from screens
You're right! He is one of the few significant filmmakers in Hollywood. There were a lot of them in past decades. Now, he is one of the few.@@Deadsies556
@godfreycarmichael I disagree. In the 60's college students discussed the French New Wave. Now they're fat, and immature with short attention spans.
My all time favourite movie...God bless Toots Thielmans...
Ditto!
the eerie sound of Toots Thielemans' harmonica is the spirit of the movie.
Totally. New York City and the harmonics do not go together.
I remember hearing it as a little girl and the indescribably lonely feeling it gave me
Didn't John Barry play the harmonica for this!
One of my favourites. Coming from a small town and going into the Navy, I had my Joe Buck moments when I walked around downtown Chicago for the first time.
You blew a guy at a movie theatre?
@@dirkdiggler. comon what's all this
@@meandmymonkey5137 watch the movie chap
One can identify as a Traveler with BOTH Characters! Well meaning Dignity for OTHERS and SURVIVING the BRUTAL, Base existence,,,,
Great casting superpowers
The movies of my generation, so lucky to have witnessed the last eras of truly great movie making.
Great acting, great script, great score, great direction, great production, one of the best ever!
Enjoying all the comments immensely. I saw the film when I was very young, when it was first released in the UK (just a short time after it's premiere). What astounds me now, so many years later, is that I understood the entire film at 12 or 13 years old.
Of course I was blown away by the acting and cinematography, and moved to tears by the storyline. I think the Joe Buck character made it more accessible to me, as though he invited me to see the events through his naive eyes. I saw some truly epoch-making films within a short space of time then (Easy Rider, 2001 A space Odyssey...) it coloured my whole world-view. Nothing since has had such a profound impact on me. Jon Voight's and Dustin Hoffman's performance together was simply outstanding.
oh , and the amazing soundtrack ,
agreed
That sound track!!! Just amazing, sums it all up pefectly
This is without a doubt one of the best movies ever! A masterpiece of New Hollywood!
I was born the year before release. All my life I heard about the brilliance of this movie. 12 years ago I rented the DVD and was blown away. Couldn't stop listening to the sound track, even today.
"The grace of the film was in the vision of human compassion."
No other film better represents the human condition in our lifetime. No man is an island, yet here we are.
An X-rated film about the trials and tribulations about a couple of sordid, sleazy down and outs getting out fought in the big bad world. Pure genius film-making all round to make it compelling, engaging, respectful and beautiful. One of a kind and of my favourites.
Dustin's right, they just dont make movies like this anymore! Amen.
in part due to guys like hoffman who kept making shitty movies in the last 30-35 yrs which set a VERY low standard.. The money is never enough.
If they did make them like this fucking Iron Man would play Joe Buck and Dustin Hoffman character would be played by Spider-Man, or some shit like that.
They sure don't
All of a sudden its 50 years later. I remember seeing the film in a theater in NYC where I grew up around 1971. It was one of those few films that left me unable to move throughout the ending credits. Genius at work on every level.
It must be surreal for you if you lived in NYC in the 70s, seeing it on film like this, and seeing how NYC is today. The urban decay of the 1960s/70s is startling. I hope such a phenomenon never plagues our metropolises.
Such a fantastic film. Great filmmaking on so many levels.
I just loved that movie. I remember the year 1969 quite clearly. The movie perfectly captured that year with its street scenes and the whole energy of that time being in New York city. Dustin Hoffman did such an incredible acting job portraying a disabled, sickly man who never had a chance at living even close to a normal life. The way he showed his character slowly getting sicker and sicker and finally dying was incredible to watch. What a great actor and what a fantastic movie! Like the people in the comments section, they certainly don't make great movies like this anymore. An incredible movie about real people with real problems, just struggling to survive. It well deserved the Academy award it won for Best Picture!
This movie touched my soul ! Named my Italian greyhound Rico ! that’s how great Dustin Hoffman’s performance was to me !
@Anthony Hauser Indeed, check out my comment that I just posted BEFORE I read your comment.
Did it have a limp?
@@stepchicken3238 lol
touched my soul........blaw blaw blaw
@@mikehollingworth2262 no it really did , and your mothers too 😂
I'm 61 yrs old and I watch this movie back in the early 80s .what a incredible movie
Wonderful account of all the talent and hard work that goes into making a great movie.
This is my all time favourite film. I’ve seen it dozens of times, that’s how much I love it. Such superb performances.
The free, improvisational nature of the 60's lives forever in this, my favorite film.
One of the greatest films ever made and one that still Sears the soul. When everything gelled, the screenplay, the acting, the direction, the music all coming together and creating a truely magical piece of cinema.
I was sixteen when this first was released and it made a huge impact on my then younger self and through the years I’ve revisited and always find something new and still delights and moves me.
Somehow in a perfect world always imagined that Ritzo never died and Joe Buck only discovers this years later on and it’s then it’s them in their eighties seeing and experiencing life again together in the new millennium.
This marvellous documentary which I just didn’t want to end reflects to me that Hoffman & Voight are still connected to these characters and would happily return to these characters given the right script.
An American Art standards . The talents in those days. The creativeness and storytelling. One of my favorites 😊
A depth of talent, conviction and artistry
The result -
A wonderful movie like no other -
The movie was an incredible work of art.
Just discovered this film. Not what I expected which made it so good. Fantastic film!
So many brilliant films/music in 69. Half a century has passed so quickly.
I'm 62 and i always knew of this film but never gave it a chance until for some reason i watched it for the first time a year ago and i really enjoyed it and i will watch it again.
What a wonderful thought provoking doc here. I am floored by all i learned from it. Thank you to all who shared their thoughts and memories in the making of this great work Midnight Cowboy.
This was a well-made movie, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight worked well together. The film was brilliantly produced.
greatest movie of all time
Greatest film of all time .
So true
It remind me of my brother and his freind. It has somethin for every one
One of my favourite films,of all time.I only watch it every couple of years.Its a treat!!
All time favorite movie the acting was superb. The theme was great , a true classic of all time.
Remains a masterpiece.
A Great Film Indeed. Dustin Hoffman was brilliant in it!
This movie so touched my soul at the time that I remember truly weeping at its opening moments when it first came on tv, feeling it a sacrilege with the upcoming commercials and edits. Edit: And when John Wayne won Best Actor for True Grit rather than Dustin Hoffman (or Jon Voight - they were both nominated and thus many felt split the vote) at that moment I experienced it as a lesson about the injustices of the world.
👌🏻
@@anthonyhauser3063 Correct. I wasn't born until 1970 but this has been my favorite film since I was a teenager in the 80s. John Wayne basically winning an award for his career that night, was no doubt and insult to the great acting by Hoffman and Voight. Given Midnight Cowboy did win best picture, adapted screenplay and director though. It's a possibility that Voight and Hoffman split the votes giving Wayne a victory by default. Regardless, award shows are lame and subjective.
My feeling is that "Midnight Cowboy" exemplified the sixties "counter culture" of the time. John Wayne was a representative of the "straight culture" or "America: Love It or Leave It" mentality that was so strong at the time--a true cultural civil war going on between "straights" (Wayne) and "heads"--those who smoked marijuana & experimented with LSD and other "mind-expanding" drugs of the times. I think "True Grit" had to win over "Midnight Cowboy" as a message from the Academy to marginalize sixties emerging values that conflicted with middle America.
@@cate1657 What are you talking about? True Grit didn't win over MC. Wayne won Best Actor, but MC won Best Picture of the Year and Schlesinger won Best Director.
@@cate1657 know exactly the point you're making
Everytime i watch midnight cowboy (seen it at least 20 times) i think about it for almost a week afterward, & pick up new things each time. that`s the mark of a great film!
A Great Movie, Soundtrack and Two Young Actors playing Characters of lifetime! Fantastic writing, editing and casting! I was 13 when Midnight Cowboy hit the theaters rated X! But my Mom saw it and there was nothing dirty about it! But it was a great movie with a sad tragic ending! Saw it much later and thought it was a Great Movie but also the sad ending! Like my Mom, hers had a sad ending too! Have on DVD but my favorite way! Is on VHS like watching it again on film at the theater! Really enjoyed the interview and listening to Dustin & John and the whole crew!
The soundtrack is so bitter sweet . It fits the movie . Perfectly john. Goldfinger Barry .
When I saw Midnight Cowboy in the 70s ,Loved it! Showed it to a girlfriend in the early 80s she was blown away, One of the best movies and deserved the academy award.
I have this movie on dvd. It’s fantastic.
Listening to all of this? Time well spent. This
is a masterpiece. Real ear candy.
I was a young guy once, it's a trip getting old, I love it. 😊🙏
One of my favorites of all time.
Mine too
The most riveting film ever and I was 14 !... nothing has come close to it since. It made a BIG impression.
I had seen this movie when I was about 19. Years later I come across it on television. It's about halfway through the film. My husband comes in and starts watching it. He has no clue what's going on, but he was captivated. They just don't make movies like this anymore.
They sure don't and Never will again. Sad
That ‘gob iron’! Haunted me since I first watched this film all those years ago. One of my top three best movies ever! Ever! Just fantastic. Thanks.
An interesting fact about this film is that it's The first use of Karo corn syrup based blood in a motion picture. It was used for the scene where he hits the guy and his dentures fall out. It was then used for EVERY movie from then on, until today because the blood made for technicolor looked like red paint. This stuff tastes great, is non-toxic and looked exactly like real blood.
You've touched on something I've long wondered about. I've noticed in films pre-1970 that blood had this bright redness to it that looked like paint (Charlton Heston's Omega Man and Soylent Green comes to mind as well as Hammer films). Was it because of technicolor that this grade of blood was used so ubiquitously? It always struck me as weird that makeup artists never experimented with different tints to make it look more realistic.
If you can point me to any good sources of info on this topic online. I'd appreciate it!
One of the Best films ever made.
There are certain movies that are just iconic in that you can never tire of watching them just like certain songs you cant get sick of. Movies like MC and jaws or exorcist or Forrest gump pulp fiction full metal jacket ect ect. There really arent many movies that can be labeled iconic and this is one of the few.
Best cinematography of any film I think I've ever seen.
I saw Midnight Cowboy when it first came out in 1969. I was 19 years old. Being a white bread, suburban kid I was stunned by what I had just seen. The superb acting by Hoffman and Voight. The under belly of New York. The great friendship that developed between two of the most disparate personalities you could ever run across. The intensely sad ending that hits you right at your core. All shot in a semi-documentary look that made it seem real. That was over 50 years ago but it doesn't matter: Midnight Cowboy is a classic and the classics are timeless. It will always be my favorite movie.
One of the few movies that has stuck in my mind for decades and always appreciate rewatching at least in part or in small clips. A testimony to its era, I was born in 1969 and I can pretty much relate to it in chronological terms. Great cinema is gone though, I guess. Greetings from Argentina.
My goodness, Voight and Hoffman were in the most iconic role of their lives and they both had quite a few others !
You know its a special film when you remember when and where you were when you first saw it..and the need to tell everyone within yelling distance to see it..as I did..I felt vindicated when a good friend said he watched it and loved every moment..
Surprised when I read reviews and articles about this movie that no one mentions the implied sexual abuse of Jon Voight’s character at the hands of his grandmother. So many people become nymphs or abusers because they were abused themselves. It’s symbolic when he writes another postcard and rips it up throwing it out of the window and him throwing his cowboy clothes away in Florida. He’s leaving his old life behind and trying to forget the pain. Yet every time, he just winds up alone again.
There was definitely something happening there
Good comments Always wondered myself too about the relationship with his grandmother Yes trying to leave his pain behind A great tale of mateship too, similar to Of Mice and Men
@@frank19593 I even bought the book to see if more was written about it but nothing was really mentioned but implied that Buck could have been abused by his grandma and her boyfriends
Book is great So much of it captured on the screen with the flashbacks. Could describe the scene when he's in bed with his grandma as disturbing. Only movie to win the Oscar for best picture with an X rating
@@frank19593 There was really nothing "explicit" in the movie - no graphic sex or violence scenes - that would have earned an X rating these days but a lot was implied. Compared with all the sex and violence in films these days, that was very tame - it would have been given no more than an "R" max or even a "PG" now.
Brilliant, Genius in every way, made me cry again
Great overview of the filming production. ... Plus, Midnight Cowboy and Deliverance, two Voight movies, that'll never see a reboot/remake. ... Could you imagine Hollywood releasing Midnight Cowboy 2. ... Where Voight is a retired restaurant owner living in South Beach with Brenda Vaccaro and their little dog Ratso who speaks to Jon in the voice of Dustin Hoffman. ...
That's funny! Now you can put down the joint...
It's a possibility
Can you believe they've made a third remake of the Thing c'mon man
Please bring back more great movies.
Utterly depressing movie but brilliant in its realism, anyone who has visited NY has had a Joe Buck moment. New York can feel so lonely despite the lights and glamour. I will never forget visiting New York walking near Bleeker street late after a gig 20 years ago and finding a young woman in her 30's crying hysterical, she had just been evicted and was crying uncontrollably, I couldn’t get a word in, and what made it worse for her she said she had just had her period and had no change or sanitary towels, an older woman who was not homeless came and joined to help, the young woman said sobbing loudly "people keep walking by and ignoring me, I don’t want people to think I’m a nobody”, I gave the young girl $20 and walked away, I felt like Joe Buck, I arrived in NY as naive as him and reality hit me right there, New York is not cosy like a Friends episode. This is before social media, her desperate panic reverberates with me to this day and I often think of what might have happened to her. This film shows that New York can be as barren and deadly as a desert, it’s cold and heartless, it's a machine. I still love it. Crazy that they moved the entire contents and rebuilt the condemned grimy apartment, someone actually lived in that, can you imagine the real Ratzo Rizzo seeing his "Crib" on the big screen before "Cribs" even existed. Wonderful music by John Barry, you can really hear the similarity with "You Only Live Twice" which came out around the same period.
Yes!
Excellent! So well said! I felt what you said in your words as I could very well have been "that young woman", as so many of us could have been then. These days they just 'kill us , don't they?' Since when did women become so ' expendable'?
Aren't you missing the point of this movie . You get murdered for being a homosexual. That's what took from it..
@@meandmymonkey5137 How so, the gay nerd in the toilet who stiffed Joe got away Scott free ? Genuinely interested to hear your explanation thanks.
Murca: the Land of Illusion.
Wonderful documentary. Thank you.
Both of the central characters went through a Lot in their lives,!
they both struggled through hard, squalid conditions..
In many ways, it showed that the " American Dream" does not come to pass for Everyone...
In the end, they were left with little, despite their best efforts.
Buck thought NYC would be the " golden palace" a place to strike it rich and live great.
What he Saw was something Different than what he Imagined!
A great and deeply moving film!
Superb background. Enriching, respectful, commentary. Highly recommend.
the word 'classic' just doesn't cut it for this movie. Midnight Cowboy is a game-changer. Movies changed after this masterpiece landed in theaters. The only down side was that Hoffman and Voight didn't share the "Best Actor" Oscar that year.
Jon conveys a lot of empathy/feeling/ emotion, with eyes ...very expressive eyes 👀
Wonderful, saw it while in the Air Force in NY State. Also got me deeper into my harmonica & feelings it can evoke
Masterpiece, my all time favourite movie.
I was 15 years old at an exceedingly sensitive moment in my life when a close friend invited me to share MC with her and some friends. I fell madly in love with her friend, Mitzi, a love that stayed with me for decades after she broke my heart.
Midnight Cowboy: The epitome of filmmaking.
This movie made me understand what love truly is.
Most excellent, thank you! Superb background. Enriching.
I saw this film in Salina, Kansas when it came out - 1969 or so. I was eighteen years old. Loved the opening song/credits: "Everybodys Talking" . Listen carefully for the baseline, and final vocals high notes. Outatanding arrangement. Great film.
This film about the movie is as great as the movie itself. So revealing. Brillitan!
Rarely a movie gets away with depicting real-life drama and in this case, it does do so easily that art and life crash into each other here on the set. What Dustin says about story line being too simplistic and linear in today's movies is so true. The party scene reminds me of a night in the limelight I once had with a girlfriend of mine so long ago.
Thanks for uploading this classic movie
It is such a memorable film with so many great scenes.
I miss the NYC of that era....dirty,dangerous,sleazy but infinitely cool and fascinating
I love that you think that, NY now to me looks awfuly artificial
@@gaynordurdy7689 all the things that gave it “character “ are gone...along with the soul
Move to Buffalo New York .
@@junkboxxxxxx you mean homeless aka bums and vagrants?
one of my alltime fave movies....gosh it had ev thing.....brilliant !!!!
john wayne beating john and dustin was alltime huge disappoiintment !!!!
Do tears tell you what this movie means...masterpiece
Inmenso film, gracias a todos los que contribuyeron para realizarlo. El "otro lado" del sueño americano, pero narrado de un modo tan universal que aplica a las geografías y sociedades más variadas.
Both John Voight and Dustin Hoffman were nominated for best actor Oscar for "Midnight Cowboy"...John Wayne won for "True Grit"!
They probably split the vote, giving Wayne the win by default. Midnight Cowboy won everything else that matters, director, picture and adapted screenplay. If Hoffman puts in for supporting actor he wins that easily and Voight might take Actor.
best soundtrack of all time hands-down
Great review and a fantastic film with a score that is one in a million
I loved this.