Midnight Cowboy (1969) on Netflix
Joe Buck leaves Texas for New York City hoping to make a fortune as a male prostitute. Broke, he falls in with Rico Rizzo, a limping con man who dreams of Florida.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.8/10132,841 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes89%
Trailer
Plot summary
A Texas dishwasher, Joe Buck takes a bus to New York City in cowboy clothes, set on making money as a male prostitute. His first client, a middle-aged woman named Cass, is insulted when he asks to be paid. Rico Rizzo, a limping con man, takes twenty dollars from Joe for an introduction to a pimp. Joe wanders the city with a portable radio and sits in his hotel room until his money runs out and the management locks him out. Rico, squatting in a condemned building, offers him a place to stay, and the two begin working the streets together.
Cast
- T. Tom Marlowas Little Joe - Texas
- George Eppersenas Ralph - Texas
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Midnight Cowboy is the only X-rated film ever to win Best Picture, and the only X-rated film ever to win an Academy Award at all. At the 42nd Academy Awards it also took Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
- On initial review the Motion Picture Association of America gave Midnight Cowboy an R rating. After consulting a psychologist, executives at United Artists were told to accept an X rating instead, because of the "homosexual frame of reference" and its "possible influence on youngsters".
- Dustin Hoffman's line "I'm walkin' here!" came about when a cab unexpectedly ran a red light and nearly hit him. He wanted to shout "We're doing a movie here!" and can be heard beginning to say it, but changed the sentence halfway and stayed in character, so the driver's angry response is also unscripted.
- Director John Schlesinger and producer Jerome Hellman approached Andy Warhol to play an underground filmmaker, but he passed the role to his superstar Viva. Various Warhol superstars were recruited as extras for the party scene while Warhol lay in hospital recovering from an assassination attempt.
- Harrison Ford auditioned for the role of Joe Buck. Michael Sarrazin, who was Schlesinger's first choice, was actually cast, only to be let go when Universal, who had him under contract, asked for too much money.
- Jennifer Salt recalls the evening spent shooting the rape scene, which took several hours, as a traumatic ordeal. She had stripped off the nude-colored body suit because the night was so hot: "I felt that the most horrible thing in the world was that people were seeing my bare ass."
- Jon Voight was paid "scale", the Screen Actors Guild minimum wage, for his portrayal of Joe Buck, a concession he willingly made to obtain the part.
