Midnight Cowboy

Midnight Cowboy is a drama film that was released May 25, 1969 in New York City and July 30, 1969 in the rest of the United States. When first released it was rated X, but its rating was later changed to R. Both Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight were nominated for Oscars Best Actor in a Leading Role, but neither of them won. The movie did however win Best Picture, Best Director and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium as well as nominations for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and Best Film Editing.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064665/awards

Trapped in a dead in job as a dishwasher in a small town in Texas Joe Buck (Jon Voight) sees no future for him there. So he decides to take the one talent that the local girls assure him he has and go to New York City where he feels he will be able to find wealthy high society women who will be willing to pay to enjoy those talents. It doesn't take long for Joe's dreams of a more lucrative, easy going life style in the big city to crumble right before his eyes. The tables turn when his first trick Cass (Sylvia Miles) makes him pay her. His next eye opener was handed to him by Rico "Ratzo" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) when Rico swindles him out of $25. When things get so bad for Joe that he doesn't know how he can survive, Rico welcomes into his condemned apartment so that the two men can hopefully help each other. Ratso takes over the management of Joe's talents finding wealthy women who will be willing to pay to enjoy them. Joe finally acquires his first female trick Shirley (Brenda Vaccaro) and things start getting alittle better for the two men. But the light they had seen at the end of the tunnel doesn't last for long, when Rico's health gets even worse. Rico has had a dream to get out of New York to spend his remaining years in Miami, Florida. When Joe see's Rico's failing health he realizes he may have to take actions that he had never thought he would have to consider, but he needed to do something to make money to get Rico to Florida. http://www.allmovie.com/work/midnight-cowboy-32558

"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 42d Street, avoiding the eyes of the drifters, stepping around the little islands of hustlers, and closing your nostrils to the smell of rancid griddles."—Vincent Canby The New York TImeshttp://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=EE05E7DF1730E56EBC4E51DFB3668382679EDE&partner=Rotten%20Tomatoes

"What has happened to "Midnight Cowboy" is that we've done our own editing job on it. We've forgotten the excesses and the detours, and remembered the purity of the central characters and the Voight and Hoffman performances."—Roger Eberthttp://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19940705/REVIEWS/40813002/1023

"The acting, showy and instinctual, is most of the movie; the visual style is too forced and chicly distended to let the drama acquire much natural life of its own."—Dave Kehr Chicago Reader http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/midnight-cowboy/Film?oid=1048952

• Dustin Hoffman as Ratso

• Jon Voight as Joe Buck

• Sylvia Miles as Cass

• John McGiver as Mr. O

• Brenda Vaccaro as Shirley

• Barnard Hughes as Towny

• Ruth White as Sally Buck

• Jennifer Salt as Annie

• Gilman Rankin as Woodsy Niles

• Gary Owens as Little Joe

• T. Tom Marlow as Little Joe

• George Eppersen as Ralph

• Al Scott as Cafeteria Manager

• Linda Davis as Mother on the bus

• J. T. Masters as Old Cow hand