Midnight Cowboy

{100%} 💯

                                 #349TH Film Of 2020

Before actually writing this review I was excited to finally write a review of a film I was going to give 5 stars but not 100/100, this film I had noted down as a 95%, but once I clicked the review button on this film I thought yeah maybe it’s a 96 or even a 97 then eventually I thought you know what this is a 100...😂 I’m sorry but I can’t resist, in fact I just handed out my 200th 5 star rating in my previous review, for the film Stray Dog (1949). And this can add to that list and also it shall be welcomed into my all time favorites list which has over 150 films in it, all with 100% ratings from me...

Fun fact, this should have been my first film of the year, no joke. I ended 2019 with the excellent and fast paced recent film Ford V Ferrari (2019) and after that I recorded my video for the best films of 2019 and then I had new year celebrations with my family and then I was settling down to go to bed I started Midnight Cowboy... I watched the first 10 or so minutes and I honestly can’t remember what happened then, I probably became too tired and fell asleep. The next day I woke up very early to take a train to London since I was going on a short holiday to visit a relative of mine in Germany, and at the station I wanted to watch something so I pulled out my phone and my earphones and whatnot and I ended up going with Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories (2017). And I really loved that film (94/100) but it was a shame I didn’t kick of the year with this film, alas 348 films later I returned to this masterpiece and watched it in its entirety and here’s what I have to say about it...

I think it’s best to begin my train of thoughts with the film’s opening. It’s amazing. Interesting character desires and motifs are set up from the start and then we embark on a journey with Jon Voight’s character Joe Buck. A short but oddly drawn out sequence where Buck travels on a coach to New York then proceeds, and I like it’s oddly extended length, reminded me of a Tarkovsky shot, this of course is one sequence but it does a similar thing to the audience, of course John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy (1969) is vastly different to say Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979) which came exactly a decade later, or indeed any other Tarkovsky film, it just reminded me is all. Also the song used here has become a favorite of mine since watching this film, the cover of Fred Neil’s Everybody’s Talkin’ by Harry Nilsson released only a year before this film and fit so perfectly, it’s difficult to explain the match, but it was certainly made in Heaven.

“I’m Walkin’ Here!” - Rizzo

Dustin Hoffman is easily the best part of this film, not to put down Jon Voight or diminish his effort in this work, he’s also excellent and his character is likable and relatable, though Hoffman’s character Rizzo is truly one of a kind. First of all is just purely the superb acting, I still prefer The Graduate (1967) in terms of Hoffman performances, and also as a film, but Hoffman’s performance in this comes very close. Rizzo is also a very well written character, very interesting and exciting, fun to be around... wonderful character.

This film is very entertaining and engaging. I wasn’t bored once throughout its 113 minute runtime. The plot isn’t at all the focus in this film, and I really loved that aspect to this masterpiece. Very often filmmakers just rely on a plot to carry their films and as a result cinema becomes to narrative heavy, when a film comes around, like this one that really just throws the plot out the window and focuses on the 2 main characters, the mood, the atmosphere, the world they inhabit and so on... it realty intrigues me and in this particular case that slight risk of abandoning the idea of a very narrative driven film completely payed off.

Speaking of that atmosphere and the feel of the film, that grunge and dirt is really communicated to us perfectly. It’s very challenging to put to words   the feeling one gets when watching a certain film and how that particular feel is created by the filmmakers, but it’s definitely present. The cinematography, the score, the lighting, the extraordinary set design, an aspect which is always overlooked yet can make or break a film. Everything is set in place like chess pieces on a board all to get across certain ideas to the audience and it’s successful.

I mentioned those technical aspects and they are true highlights within this excellent work of art. However, when they’re utilized even beyond their fullest extent, is in my favorite sequence in this film and that’s the trippy, drug sequence about two third in. What a mind-blowing sequence! Really well made, effective and startling.

I’d like to briefly mention a couple of minor points... first I’d definitely like to watch Easy Rider soon which released the same year as this and was a part of that same revolutionary wave. Also this film finally filled in the gap in my best of each year list that was 1969.

I constantly make use of the word “culminates” when I’m referencing a great ending, so I won’t this time, but it really does. The ending is amazing and very emotional, it leaves you wanting more, wanting to return to this world, wanting to rewatch this film, but also wanting to depart into a new world. A tale of self-discovery was at the heart of this film, set in one of the busiest cities in the world and it feels like this was essential when it first released and very much so now.

This film changed the course of cinema, it’s fitting that it came at the end of an era, the bridge between the cinema of the 60’s and the dark, gritty , violent world of the 70’s. Initially receiving an X rating and becoming the first ever film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture with that particular age rating is just one reason it’s so important, in fact another sign of it’s importance is the fact that just a few years later the MPAA lowered their rating to an R since the cinema of 70’s was overwhelmingly like this film in that they had a similar sort of style and would typically receive very high age ratings so the board could no longer give films like this an X rating, that’s how much this changed cinema and if it changed cinema, I think it’s safe to say it changed the world.

🔙 Stray Dog
🔜 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ♻️