Midnight Cowboy
Macadam Cowboy
John Schlesinger
Joe Buck is a Texan looking for something new. He decides to go to New York, with the hope of being able to live as a gigolo. But he soon hits disillusion head-on. Alone and penniless, he meets Ratso Rizzo, a sickly individual he shares the misery of the street with. Together they journey into the slums of New York...
With : Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles, John McGiver, Brenda Vaccaro, Barnard Hughes, Ruth White
Screenplay : Waldo Salt, d'après le roman de James Leo Herlihy
Image : Adam Holender
Sound : Abe Seidman
Music : John Barry
Editing : Hugh A. Robertson
Decors : Phil Smith
Screenplay : Waldo Salt, d'après le roman de James Leo Herlihy
Image : Adam Holender
Sound : Abe Seidman
Music : John Barry
Editing : Hugh A. Robertson
Decors : Phil Smith
Production : Florin Productions
Distribution: Carlotta Films
Distribution: Carlotta Films
A pitiless description of New York: a man lying crumpled on the pavement that no-one notices, the filth of the slums... "The anti-hero is not me. It's New York." This line from the film sets the tone. "A cowboy in the city is a little more than folklore. It is the symbolic coming and going of an America which, starting from the wide open spaces of yesteryear, returns to urban stench. From the myth of the West, which is brutal but healthy, the sons of pioneers have fallen into disenchanted corruption", wrote one critic on the film. Despite the gravity of the subject, John Schlesinger, a British-born director, manages to soften the rawness of the scenes, turning the narrative towards comedy. The jokes and the satire, as well as the many aesthetic processes, divert the audience from the immediate reality.