Movies

This movie is a very fine film with a lot of merits. The film does look great, with beautiful scenery and crisp cinematography and the lighting is very atmospheric and always fits perfectly with every scene. The music is wonderful, with the highlight being the excellent Everybody's Talking', the story is very strong focusing on the friendship of the two main characters and well-paced and the dialogue is thought-provoking and poignant. The direction is top notch using every trick in the book and wonderfully and the characters constantly captivate. And this is helped by the magnificent playing of Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffmann, especially Hoffmann who I personally think should have got the Best Actor Oscar that year. Overall, a truly fine film. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Hadn't seen this in many years. How intelligent we once were!. This is unlike anything: flashbacks, flash-forwards, fantasies, reality, psychodelia, and underneath all of it is a very sentimental unpretentious touching tale of people needing each other. This is not an easy one to describe and even tougher to recommend. If you prefer movies that don't do all the work for you, this is the one. You can't watch Midnight Cowboy casually. It demands a lot on viewers. And in case you don't this already, this is not a western. Not even the West Side of Manhattan really. See this with someone with whom you want to share observations of humanity, not all pleasant ones, too.

Fascinating downer about a would-be male hustler in New York City forced to live in a condemned building with a crippled con-man. Extremely bleak examination of modern-day moral and social decline, extremely well-directed by John Schlesinger (who never topped his work here) and superbly acted by Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman. Packs quite a punch overall, yet the "fantasy" scenes--played for a quick chuckle--are mildly intrusive, as is the "mod" drug party. The relationship that develops between the two men is sentimental, yet the filmmakers are careful not to get mushy, and this gives the picture an edge it might not have had with a lesser director than Schlesinger. Originally X-rated in 1969, and the winner of the Best Picture Oscar; screenwriter Waldo Salt (who adapted James Leo Herilhy's book) and Schlesinger also won statues. ***1/2 from ****