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41-402: Tony Hall is a film-school student who does not care to make conventional films. His first avant-garde effort features Melisse, who becomes Tony's lover and moves in with him. Seeking a grant, Tony is steered to Paul, who's a Hollywood agent, but he continues to reject the notion of making movies that conform to the norm. Tony shoots realistic footage of a couple making love in a car, a derelict,

82-596: A Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Male for Harry Nilsson . Schlesinger chose the song as its theme, and the song underscores the first act. Other songs considered for the theme included Nilsson's own " I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City " and Randy Newman 's "Cowboy". Bob Dylan wrote " Lay Lady Lay " to serve as the theme song, but did not finish it in time. The movie's main theme, "Midnight Cowboy", features harmonica by Toots Thielemans , but

123-620: A Great Notion (1970), then did The Groundstar Conspiracy (1972) at Universal. Sarrazin supported James Coburn in Harry in Your Pocket (1973) and received excellent reviews for the television film Frankenstein: The True Story (1973). He appeared as Barbra Streisand 's husband in the screwball comedy For Pete's Sake (1974). He then starred with Margot Kidder and Jennifer O'Neill in The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975), about

164-420: A bad back and lung damage from inhaling shoe polish . Rico learned shoeshining from his father, but considers it degrading and generally refuses to do it. When he breaks into a stand and shines Joe's cowboy boots to attract clients, two police officers arrive and sit with their dirty boots next to Joe's. Rico dreams of escaping to Miami , shown in fantasies in which he and Joe frolic on a beach and are pampered at

205-443: A bus to Florida . Desperate for cash, Joe picks up an effeminate middle-aged man in an arcade. The two return to the man's hotel room, where Joe demands money. However, when the man refuses to give him more than $ 10, Joe brutally beats, robs, and apparently smothers him. Joe buys two bus tickets to Florida with the stolen cash. Rico again tells Joe that he wants to be called "Rico", not "Ratso", and Joe finally begins to oblige. During

246-472: A loss to the studio. This 1970s drama film–related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to an American film of the 1970s is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Michael Sarrazin Michael Sarrazin (May 22, 1940 – April 17, 2011) was a Canadian actor. His most notable film was They Shoot Horses, Don't They? . Sarrazin

287-566: A man doomed to die the same kind of death twice. Sarrazin went to Europe to star opposite Ursula Andress in the sex comedy The Loves and Times of Scaramouche (1976). He starred in The Gumball Rally (1976), then had lead roles in the Iran-shot film Caravans (1978), the Canadian mystery thriller Double Negative (1980), and the vigilante crime drama Fighting Back (1982). He hosted

328-595: A meek young man in a movie theater, but the man cannot pay. Joe threatens him, but releases him unharmed. The next day, Joe spots Rico at a diner, and angrily confronts him. Rico manages to calm Joe, and invites him to share his squalid, condemned apartment squat . Joe reluctantly accepts, and the two begin a "business relationship" as hustlers. Rico asks Joe to call him "Rico" instead of "Ratso", but Joe does not oblige. They struggle with severe poverty, stealing food and failing to get work for Joe. Joe pawns his radio and sells his blood, while Rico's persistent cough worsens during

369-401: A prostitute, even an argument between Melisse and a young student that nearly turns violent. He alienates all eventually, and becomes alone in the end. It was based on an original script by George Wells. Michael Sarrazin originally was sought for the lead role. Filming took place in spring 1969 under the working title Run Shadow Run . Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that

410-440: A resort, including a boy polishing Rico's boots. A Warhol -like filmmaker and an extrovert female artist approach Joe in a diner, taking his photograph and inviting him to a Warhol-esque art event. Joe and Rico attend, but Rico's poor health and hygiene attract unwanted attention. After mistaking a joint for a cigarette and receiving uppers , Joe hallucinates. He leaves with Shirley, a socialite who pays him $ 20 for spending

451-432: A winter without heat in the freezing apartment. In intermittent flashbacks , Joe's grandmother raises him after his mother abandons him. He has a tragic relationship with Annie, disclosed through hazy flashbacks in which they are attacked and raped by a cowboy gang. Annie shows signs of mental trauma and is taken into an ambulance. Rico tells Joe his father was an illiterate Italian immigrant shoeshiner whose job yielded

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492-628: Is a 1969 American drama film directed by John Schlesinger , adapted by Waldo Salt from the 1965 novel by James Leo Herlihy . The film stars Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight , with supporting roles played by Sylvia Miles , John McGiver , Brenda Vaccaro , Bob Balaban , Jennifer Salt and Barnard Hughes . Set in New York City , Midnight Cowboy depicts the unlikely friendship between two hustlers: naïve prostitute Joe Buck (Voight) and ailing con man Rico Rizzo (Hoffman), referred to as "Ratso". At

533-575: Is insulted when he requests payment, and Joe ultimately gives money to her. Joe meets Rico "Ratso" Rizzo, an indigent con man with a limp who takes $ 20 for introducing him to a pimp . After discovering that the alleged pimp is actually an unhinged religious fanatic , Joe flees and unsuccessfully searches for Rico. Joe spends his days wandering the city, listening to his Zenith portable radio and sitting in his hotel room. When his money runs out, management locks Joe out and impounds his belongings. In an attempt to make money, Joe receives oral sex from

574-415: Is shocking, in 1994, is to see a major studio film linger this lovingly on characters who have nothing to offer the audience but their own lost souls." As of 2022, Midnight Cowboy holds an 89% approval rating on online review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes , with an average rating of 8.50/10, based on 116 reviews. The website's critical consensus states: "John Schlesinger's gritty, unrelentingly bleak look at

615-417: Is so rough and vivid that it's almost unbearable.   ... Midnight Cowboy often seems to be exploiting its material for sensational or comic effect, but it is ultimately a moving experience that captures the quality of a time and a place. It's not a movie for the ages, but, having seen it, you won't ever again feel detached as you walk down West 42nd Street, avoiding the eyes of the drifters, stepping around

656-469: Is subject to differing accounts. Producer Jerome Hellman disputes the notion that it was an ad-lib on the two-disc DVD set of Midnight Cowboy . The scene, which originally had Ratso pretend to be hit by a taxi to feign an injury, is written into the first draft of the original script. Hoffman, however, on an installment of Bravo 's Inside the Actors Studio , stated that there were many takes , with

697-526: The 42nd Academy Awards , the film won three awards: Best Picture , Best Director , and Best Adapted Screenplay . Midnight Cowboy is the only X-rated film (equivalent of the current NC-17 rating) to win Best Picture. It placed 36th on the American Film Institute 's 1998 list of the 100 greatest American films of all time , and 43rd on its 2007 updated version . In 1994, Midnight Cowboy

738-754: The April 15, 1978 episode of Saturday Night Live . Sarrazin increasingly shifted to television work. He starred in Beulah Land (1980) and The Seduction (1982) and had a support part in Fighting Back (1982). He also appeared in Joshua Then and Now (1985), the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode " The Quickening " (1996) and The Outer Limits episodes " I Hear You Calling " (1996) and " The Other Side " (1999). For seven years (1967–1974), Sarrazin

779-836: The Chrysler Theatre as well as the TV film The Doomsday Flight (1966) and the feature Gunfight in Abilene (1967). 20th Century Fox borrowed him for the lead role in The Flim-Flam Man (1967), co-starring George C. Scott and Sue Lyon . Universal then cast him with Anthony Franciosa in A Man Called Gannon (1968) and with James Caan in Journey to Shiloh (1968). Fox asked him back to star in The Sweet Ride (1968) alongside Jacqueline Bisset , who became his real-life girlfriend for

820-489: The November 6, 1970 issue of Life , Richard Schickel called Forster's Tony Hall "a sullen creep" but added that "the writing is so bad and Mr. Black's direction so unpersuasive that he (Hall) deserves more to be pitied than censured, as does everyone else caught up in this foolishness." According to Fox records, the film required $ 3,525,000 in rentals to break even, and by 11 December 1970, it had made $ 1,050,000, resulting in

861-746: The United States, with a weekly gross of $ 550,237, and was the highest-grossing movie in September 1969. The film earned $ 11 million in rentals in the United States and Canada in 1969, and added a further $ 5.3 million the following year when it won the Academy Award for Best Picture. It eventually earned rentals of $ 20.5 million in the United States and Canada. By 1975, it had earned rentals of over $ 30 million worldwide. More than five years after its theatrical release, Midnight Cowboy premiered on television November 3, 1974. Twenty-five minutes were edited from

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902-432: The actors hoping to get to the crosswalk at a red light so as not to have to wait for traffic while talking. In that take, they were able to cross the road without waiting, but a cab unexpectedly ran the red light and nearly hit them. Hoffman wanted to say, "We're doing a movie here!" and can be heard beginning to say as such in the final film, but he ultimately changed his sentence halfway and stayed in character as he berated

943-622: The bus continues past rows of Floridian palm trees . The opening scenes were filmed in Big Spring, Texas , in 1968. A roadside billboard , stating, "If you don't have an oil well...get one!", was shown as the New York-bound bus carrying Joe Buck rolled through Texas. Such advertisements, common in the Southwestern United States in the late 1960s and through the 1970s, promoted Eddie Chiles ' Western Company of North America . In

984-638: The bus trip, Rico's health worsens, and he suffers from urinary incontinence . Joe buys new clothing for Rico and himself at a rest stop, discarding his cowboy outfit and boots. Back on the bus, Joe muses that there must be an easier way to make money than hustling, and tells Rico that he will get a regular job in Miami. When he does not respond, Joe realizes that Rico has died. Joe alerts the bus driver, who asks Joe to close Rico's eyelids, saying that they will soon be in Miami. The other passengers stare. With tears in his eyes, Joe sits with his arm around his dead friend as

1025-471: The driver. As such, the latter's angry response is also unscripted. On initial review by the Motion Picture Association of America , Midnight Cowboy received an "R" ("Restricted") rating. However, after consulting with a psychologist, executives at United Artists were told to accept an "X" rating, due to the "homosexual frame of reference" and its "possible influence on youngsters". The film

1066-417: The film displayed "a compulsive need to ridicule itself, to deny its basic intelligence and to fail. It accomplishes all of these things with an idiocy that should warm the neurotic heart." He explained that it was "loaded with its own clichés of dialogue, attitude and style." He also pointed out the irony of the protagonist railing against the studio system in a movie financed by 20th Century Fox . In

1107-489: The film due to censorship regulations and a desire for broader appeal. Although the cuts were approved by director John Schlesinger, critic Kay Gardella of the New York Daily News said the film was "hacked up pretty badly". John Barry composed the score, winning a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Theme , although he did not receive an on-screen credit. Fred Neil 's song, " Everybody's Talkin ' ", won

1148-582: The film has been largely positive. Vincent Canby 's lengthy 1969 review in The New York Times was blunt: "a slick, brutal (but not brutalizing) movie version of   ... Herlihy's 1965 novel. It is tough and good in important ways, although its style is oddly romantic and at variance with the laconic material.   ... As long as the focus is on this world of cafeterias and abandoned tenements, of desperate conjunctions in movie balconies and doorways, of ketchup and beans and canned heat , Midnight Cowboy

1189-658: The film, Joe stays at the Hotel Claridge , at the southeast corner of Broadway and West 44th Street in Midtown Manhattan . His room overlooked the northern half of Times Square . The building, designed by D. H. Burnham & Company and opened in 1911, was demolished in 1972. A motif featured three times throughout the New York scenes was the sign atop of the facade of the Mutual of New York (MONY) Building at 1740 Broadway. It

1230-492: The little islands of hustlers and closing your nostrils to the smell of rancid griddles." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune said of the film: "I cannot recall a more marvelous pair of acting performances in any one film." In a 25th-anniversary retrospective in 1994, Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote: " Midnight Cowboy ' s peep-show vision of Manhattan lowlife may no longer be shocking, but what

1271-710: The male lead in Cover Me Babe , but was replaced by Robert Forster . Sarrazin's breakthrough role was in the dark Great Depression drama They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). The Sydney Pollack film earned nine Oscar nominations. Sarrazin starred alongside Jane Fonda , Susannah York , Gig Young , Red Buttons , Bonnie Bedelia and Bruce Dern . He starred in the youth dramas The Pursuit of Happiness (1971) with Barbara Hershey and Believe in Me (1971) with Bisset. He supported Henry Fonda and Paul Newman in Sometimes

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1312-514: The next several years. Sarrazin appeared in some thrillers for Universal such as Eye of the Cat (1969) with Gayle Hunnicutt and Eleanor Parker and In Search of Gregory (1969) with Julie Christie and John Hurt . He was originally cast to play Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy (1969), but he was unable to gain release from a prior contract and the part went to Jon Voight . He was announced for

1353-472: The night was so hot and sticky that she quickly stripped it off. "I felt that the most horrible thing in the world was that people were seeing my bare ass, and that was so humiliating I could not even discuss it. And this kid was just on top of me and all over me and it hurt and no one gave a fuck and it was supposed to look like I was being raped. And I was screaming, screaming, and it was traumatic in some way that couldn't be acknowledged." Critical response to

1394-403: The night, but Joe cannot perform sexually. They play Scribbage , and the resulting wordplay leads Shirley to suggest that Joe may be gay; suddenly, he is able to perform. The next morning, she sets up her female friend as Joe's client, and at last his career appears to be progressing. When Joe returns to the apartment, Rico is severely feverish. He refuses medical help, and begs Joe to put him on

1435-479: The seedy underbelly of urban American life is undeniably disturbing, but Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight's performances make it difficult to turn away." The Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa cited this movie as one of his 100 favorite films. The film opened at the Coronet Theatre in New York City, and grossed a house record $ 61,503 in its first week. In its tenth week of release, the film became number one in

1476-515: Was born Jacques Michel André Sarrazin in Quebec City, Quebec , and moved to Montreal as a child. After acting in school plays, he landed his first professional role at age 17. Sarrazin worked on television productions in Toronto such as Festival and Wojeck . He then gained a contract with MCA Universal . His early appearances include episodes of The Virginian (1965) and Bob Hope Presents

1517-541: Was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress , and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry . Young Texan Joe Buck quits his dishwashing job, and heads by bus to New York City in cowboy attire to become a male prostitute . Initially unsuccessful, he finally beds a middle-aged woman, Cass, in her Park Avenue apartment. She

1558-449: Was extended into the Scribbage scene with Shirley the socialite, when Joe's incorrect spelling of the word "money" matched that of the sign. Dustin Hoffman, who played a grizzled veteran of New York's streets, is from Los Angeles . Despite his portrayal of Joe Buck, a character hopelessly out of his element in New York, Jon Voight is a native New Yorker, hailing from Yonkers . Voight

1599-404: Was in a relationship with actress Jacqueline Bisset , whom he met while making The Sweet Ride (1968). Before that, he had two children by an unknown girlfriend. Sarrazin died of mesothelioma on April 17, 2011, aged 70, in his hometown of Montreal. According to a family spokesman, his daughters Catherine and Michele were at his side when he died. Midnight Cowboy Midnight Cowboy

1640-517: Was paid "scale" (the Screen Actors Guild minimum wage) for his portrayal of Joe Buck, a concession he willingly made to obtain the part. Harrison Ford auditioned for the role of Joe Buck. Michael Sarrazin , who was Schlesinger 's first choice, was cast as Joe Buck, only to be fired when unable to gain release from his contract with Universal . The line, "I'm walkin' here!", which reached number 27 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes ,

1681-410: Was released with an X rating. The MPAA later broadened the requirements for the "R" rating to allow more content, and raised the age restriction from 14 to 17. The film was later rated "R" for a reissue in 1971. It took several hours to shoot the rape scene, and Jennifer Salt recalls the evening as a traumatic ordeal for her. The wardrobe crew had given Jennifer a nude-colored body suit to wear, but

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