With all of the films and stories centered around hookers with a heart of gold (see: Nights of Cabiria, Pretty Woman, Striptease, and Mary Magdalene); it’s nice to see a man take on this sort of role. John Voight (Brangie’s dad) plays Joe Buck, a naive Texas dishwasher who heads north in hopes of becoming a kept man in New York City. He packs his boots, hops on a bus, and sets up shop in a seedy hotel in Times Square. On his first trick he’s the one who ends up paying and Joe quickly learns that the world’s oldest profession isn’t as glamorous as it seems.
He needs money, so he starts pounding the pavement looking for rich old ladies that need a little sexual healing. Instead he meets Enrico “Ratso” Rizzo, a crippled crook who sees Joe as an easy mark. Dustin Hoffman’s performance as Ratso is so believable and greasy that you can almost smell his B.O. coming off of the screen. The two loners become friends and then accomplices. They’ve got champagne daydreams of moving to Florida and living like kings; But unfortunately neither of them is very good at hustlin’ and New York winters are pretty damn unforgiving. Midnight Cowboy is an excellent film with flawless performances from Voight and Hoffman, and a poignant look at two guys just trying to make it.
Factoid: Midnight Cowboy is the first X rated film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. I thought it was pretty tame by today’s standards…
