The year that man first walked on the Moon and we are graced with an other-worldly adaptation of James Herlihy’s 1965 novel. It is the only ever X-rated film to win Best Picture and has since been inducted into the Library of Congress and the National Film Registry. An impressive CV but is it still a good watch 55 years later?
Joe Buck (played by Angelina Jolie’s father - Jon Voigt) washes dishes in a café in Texas but dreams of making it in the big city. He therefore decides to catch a bus to New York to find work as a male prostitute. Sadly, a sentence you read correctly. In New York, he meets con man Rico (Dustin Hoffman) who offers to be Joe’s “business partner” and help him find work.
As one may have envisaged, it doesn’t go particularly well for either of them. Life is brutally hard as they try to keep going underneath the unforgiving seat of capitalism. The physical and psychological pain they endure is very well captured as they find increasingly desperate ways to survive.
The depiction of Joe’s past traumas manifesting in his current psyche is as masterful as it is disturbing. Ethereal dream sequences of the false reality they envisage for themselves are mesmerising as well as heartbreaking. It manages to vividly traverse the boundary between the dream world and the real world in a way that precious few films ever manage. Watching this movie is truly an experience.
Midnight Cowboy caps off a mercurial decade for the Best Pictures and goes for a respectable 8/10. Let the 1970s begin!
Rating: 8/10
Oscar Best Picture Rankings:
1. Casablanca (1943)
2. The Apartment (1960)
3. Rebecca (1940)
4. The Sound of Music (1965)
5. A Man for All Seasons (1966)
6. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
7. Ben-Hur (1959)
8. Lost Weekend (1945)
9. All About Eve (1950)
10. Hamlet (1948)
11. How Green Was My Valley (1941)
12. Gone With the Wind (1939)
13. West Side Story (1961)
14. Mrs. Miniver (1942)
15. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
16. Wings (1928)
17. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
18. You can’t take it with you (1938)
19. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
20. On the Waterfront (1954)
21. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
22. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
23. Marty (1955)
24. Oliver! (1968)
25. Cimarron (1931)
26. Grand Hotel (1932)
27. An American in Paris (1951)
28. From Here to Eternity (1953)
29. It Happened One Night (1934)
30. My Fair Lady (1964)
31. Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)
32. Cavalcade (1933)
33. The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
34. Going My Way (1944)
35. The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
36. All the King’s Men (1949)
37. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
38. Gigi (1958)
39. Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
40. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
41. The Broadway Melody (1929)
42. Tom Jones (1963)
Previous or current ranking leaders are in bold.
With credit and thanks to the patrons of the Best Picture Film Club:
Dr Sophie Bloomfield
Dr Caspar Briault
Dr Kate Diomede
Dr Fionnuala Durrant
Dr Josh Fisher
Mr Vivian Gallaher
Mrs Clare Gallaher
Dr Adam Holland
Dr Hannah Morrison
Dr Meera Radia
Great review of Midnight Cowboy - wow! 🫡 xx