Review
‘An anti-American love story‘
A 70s cult favourite and deservedly so, Midnight Cowboy is a critique on capitalist America, as well as a sentimental love story between two men who are running after the unobtainable American dream.
After my first screening of the film I read some reviews that described the two main characters Joe Buck (John Voight) and Ratso/Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) as “losers”, which upset me as the pair are victim to a greedy and unjust city. In this way, the movie is very effecting and will lead audiences to consider what kind of world we are living in; a place that marginalises the poorest and most vulnerable people in society. Following the journey of wannabe street hustler Joe and Jewish con-artist Rizzo, the protagonists fall in and out of a consumer society and occasionally into the bed of the elite. At one point while ambling through a colourful but vapid “hip” New York party Ratso pick pockets the drugged up “it” kids who think because they take LSD and own a film camera they are artists and have something important to say. While in reality Ratso or Rizzo as his preferred name stashes ham from the buffet under his trench coat for a later, hungrier hour, just before the cold sets into his bones and the last cigarette has dropped to the dirt ground in his deserted back alley home. All the while, a young starry eyed and baby faced John Voight rides the high of a quick fix and a taste of the dream he had so long hoped for. By the time the party dries up and his customer has had her fun, Joe is shooed away with 20 bucks in his back pocket and returns to the one constant pillar in his world. This is a film that is anti-American, in all senses of the word. It exposes a dark underworld, resembling the dystopian fiction we so often see in the movies but so rarely exposed in naturalist cinema. It is a visually striking and emotionally poignant story, about two friends stumbling through the pain of poverty, riddled by loneliness and use the odd gag to deal with it all.
For all the sex in the film and the indication of a past love the tragic heroes’ relationship seems the only thing that resembles any real human connection, even if deviated with their tough guy fronts. Whilst Rizzo and Joe are haunted by past traumas and constant push backs, they never lose sight of what the American dream promises but ultimately fails to deliver them. Because let’s be honest, what else do they really have to live for? As a story that rings true today, Midnight Cowboy remains essential viewing for both social and cinematic reasons.
The picture is celebrating 40 years since its release and has been visually restored and set for screening in a cinema near you this coming Autumn (UK). Don’t miss it.
Millie Mussett 