Retrospective Film Review

Midnight Cowboy (1969) • 55 Years Later — the film that killed the dreams of the 1960s

A naive hustler travels from Texas to New York City to seek personal fortune, finding a new friend in the process.

Now and then, a film is made that portrays contemporary society unflinchingly and uncompromisingly. These films are incisive, penetrating, and critical. Midnight Cowboy was such a film.

Joe Buck (Jon Voight) is a dishwasher in Texas, 1965. However, he believes a promising future awaits him in New York, where he can woo wealthy women with his Southern charm — for cold, hard cash. Dreaming of becoming a successful gigolo, Joe decamps to the Big Apple. But he soon discovers that the world outside Texas isn’t all sunshine and roses, and falls in with street-smart conman Enrico Salvatore ‘Rico’ Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), also known as ‘Ratso’ by his less-than-friendly acquaintances.

Midnight Cowboy hasn’t aged a day. The everyday struggles of ordinary people and the social issues of late-1960s America are on full display. The…