A simplistic but mostly naive young man from Texas, Joe Buck, ironically becomes a cowboy after deciding to leave his hometown, headed to the last place that that kind of legendary hero exists, New York City, as every frame of MIDNIGHT COWBOY means something: starting from a sunlit drive-in to a public shower where Joe drops the soap...An obvious nod for an inevitable detour within a disturbing, almost sadistic character-driven story that's bright and cheerful otherwise, but that's when centered narrowly on Jon Voight's title character, who shows enough humanity and vulnerability in what he's hiding as first-billed sidekick Dustin Hoffman's crippled con-man hustler, Ratso Rizzo, appears to be right upfront: a tattered and swarthy, street savvy con-man who walks in a permanent, unguided shuffle that, alongside the handsome, tall blond Texan, make for perhaps the most bizarre odd couple of top-grade exploitation cinema: in one of the most well-deserved films to win Best Director (for John Schlesinger) and Best Picture (although another movie cowboy would take the Best Actor)...Curbing a seemingly endless gust of serious and often painstaking hard luck roadblocks are genuinely funny moments centered on and around the unlikely duo, teamed-up after what feels like fully-conceived short films...Including the initial bus trip; a clumsy attempt at hustling; and the doomed yet determined partnership before a sharp, frostbit winter cuts into Ratso's idyllic reverie of sunny Florida while the desperate, starving creature of a bleak and mysterious New York City (even haunting under a heavy dose of psychedelia) formidably reigns. By the end, what the audience has experienced, and the characters suffered through, can't reach the unique form of dark, tangible reality that no fiction (on screen or print) has yet to challenge, or equal.

Stars magnificent in eliciting our sympathy. Wished treatment of gay characters was more sympathetic and we saw more of New York's underbelly, besides Ratso's squat. Some aspects of direction haven't aged well.

Midnight Cowboy is a film where the individual parts are better and stand apart from the film as a whole. The performances from Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman are so masterful they almost exist apart from the message or overall story of this film. The cowboy and ratso bring so many unique elements that there is so much going on apart from the films plot. It is almost as if these two great performers were underused and maybe a deeper message or messages could be delivered. On its own it's a decent film about the harsh realities of life in New York and the unlikely bonding of disparate characters who rely on each other for survival. While this great premise looked promising on paper the reality of it on the screen and the great performances made it bigger than what it was. It is as if Joe Buck and Ratso could take on a reality of their own that is independent from the films premise. The integrity and strength of these two characters could start a life of its own which cannot be contained by the films plot. I felt perhaps different direction and plot points could have done this film favors. We could have done without Joe Buck's flashbacks and had more screen time for the two. Perhaps the two could have undertaken a big scheme together that could have been driven by their unique chemistry as opposed to the thin pimp/cowboy escort premise.

It's easy to see why this film won so many awards, even with all of the controversy surrounding it's nudity and explicit images for the time. The camera work was done really well, and many different types of shots were used such as close ups, tracking, medium and medium- long, long, and high and low angle shots. There were several great, establishing shots of the city as well. Tilt shots were used often too. Aside from this, the non-diegetic soundtrack was very good even though there wasn't a whole lot of music in this film. Some interesting things I found while watching were the "montage" type shot of Joe Buck in bed with a woman. While they were in bed, the television in the room was fully displayed, and the channel was changing rapidly. Every once in a while the two in bed would be displayed as if they were on the TV as well. Another thing I enjoyed in this film was how close we could get to Buck's character. There were several shots of him imagining something happening, which helps us get into the mind of his character. Lastly, I liked the costume choice, and how Buck was wearing a cowboy outfit while in New York City, making him appear out of place. Overall, I really thought Hoffman and Voight did a tremendous job in this film, as they obviously won awards for their roles.