Review of Midnight Cowboy
Aug. 20th, 2006 11:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunabee34Andy and I were looking at one of his Entertainment Weekly's and they had all the covers pertaining to Bond over the years on this issue. The cover from 1969 had a tag line about Midnight Cowboy that said, "The gay cowboy movie." Since Andy owns it, I demanded we watch.
Review of Midnight Cowboy
I love that this movie is fundamentally about storytelling, about fantasy and reality and the sometimes shaky line in between. The very first frame of the film is a blank drive-in movie screen, and what is Joe Buck other than a blank? He tries, unsuccessfully, to write narratives for himself; he even practices the script in front of the mirror. But ultimately the only narratives that matter are the ones that others write for him. He remains, from start to finish, this gangly, strangely innocent boyman who cannot completely rid himself of hope and optimism.
I love that his past is an enigma. We never discover exactly what happened with his grandmother. The images of her run the gamut from adored matriarch to abusive woman with an enema. Ditto for the woman in his past. It's never clear whether Joe simply imagined her or witnessed her rape or even was complicit in the rape himself.
The only character in this film who is completely certain about his identity is Rizzo. Only once do we see him indulge in fantasy (and bygod what a beautiful and heartrenching fantasy it is), and it is the fantasy of a dying man. He never believes that this dream will come true, unlike Joe; it's just the wishful thinking of a man who knows he will die.
The moment in this film that means the most to me is the moment on the stairs when Rizzo is obviously very ill and Joe leans over and wipes the sweat from his brow with the hem of his shirt. For just the barest instance, Rizzo leans in and puts his arm around Joe's waist. That's it. That's the sum total of the contact between them, but it's a gesture so goddamn full of longing and pain that it kills to me to see.
Similarly, the final moments of the film are exquisite. Rizzo has become so ill that on the train to Florida, he wets himself. He starts to cry, but Joe turns it into a joke and buys him new clothes. The next scene shows them back in the bus and Joe zipping up his fly, the implication being that Joe has cleaned him and taken him to the bathroom. Moments later, Rizzo is dead, and the final shots of the film are of their faces through the bus window, the palms of Florida reflected there.
Dude. For I have wailed.
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krayat's much more cogent thoughts.
Review of Midnight Cowboy
I love that this movie is fundamentally about storytelling, about fantasy and reality and the sometimes shaky line in between. The very first frame of the film is a blank drive-in movie screen, and what is Joe Buck other than a blank? He tries, unsuccessfully, to write narratives for himself; he even practices the script in front of the mirror. But ultimately the only narratives that matter are the ones that others write for him. He remains, from start to finish, this gangly, strangely innocent boyman who cannot completely rid himself of hope and optimism.
I love that his past is an enigma. We never discover exactly what happened with his grandmother. The images of her run the gamut from adored matriarch to abusive woman with an enema. Ditto for the woman in his past. It's never clear whether Joe simply imagined her or witnessed her rape or even was complicit in the rape himself.
The only character in this film who is completely certain about his identity is Rizzo. Only once do we see him indulge in fantasy (and bygod what a beautiful and heartrenching fantasy it is), and it is the fantasy of a dying man. He never believes that this dream will come true, unlike Joe; it's just the wishful thinking of a man who knows he will die.
The moment in this film that means the most to me is the moment on the stairs when Rizzo is obviously very ill and Joe leans over and wipes the sweat from his brow with the hem of his shirt. For just the barest instance, Rizzo leans in and puts his arm around Joe's waist. That's it. That's the sum total of the contact between them, but it's a gesture so goddamn full of longing and pain that it kills to me to see.
Similarly, the final moments of the film are exquisite. Rizzo has become so ill that on the train to Florida, he wets himself. He starts to cry, but Joe turns it into a joke and buys him new clothes. The next scene shows them back in the bus and Joe zipping up his fly, the implication being that Joe has cleaned him and taken him to the bathroom. Moments later, Rizzo is dead, and the final shots of the film are of their faces through the bus window, the palms of Florida reflected there.
Dude. For I have wailed.
Also check out
krayat's much more cogent thoughts.
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-21 06:09 am (UTC)hoorah.
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Date: 2006-08-21 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-21 12:39 pm (UTC)Midnight Cowboy is one of the reasons I freaking love Dustin Hoffman. He is one hell of an actor. "I'm walkin' here! I'm walkin' here!" I love that scene!
The stark, gritty, realism of this film has held up over time. Did you know it was originally rated X(later downgraded to R) and became the first and only X rated film to win a Best Picture Oscar?
no subject
Date: 2006-08-21 05:47 pm (UTC)I do think it's held up well over time. The only scene in the movie that doesn't work for me is the drug scene, but those rarely work for me on film anyway.
I had no particular feelings about DH until seeing this movie and now I'm impressed the hell out of.
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Date: 2006-08-21 06:13 pm (UTC)What really impresses me, is this is only Hoffman's second film. The first being The Graduate. Total 180.
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Date: 2006-08-21 01:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-21 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-21 06:16 pm (UTC)Heartrending is good sometimes. :)
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Date: 2006-08-21 02:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-21 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-21 03:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-21 05:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-22 01:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-22 02:00 am (UTC)