Midnight Cowboy is a gritty tale of a Joe Buck a man who leaves Texas to become a male prostitute in New York City. Once in NY he learns that it is not as easy or glamorous as he thought it would be. He ends up living on the street with the scum of the city. He becomes friends with Ratso who is a sickly con man. The two end up living in a condemned building with dreams of moving to Florida once they make enough money.
Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight are great in this movie. Really two actors at their peak. You see Jon Voight go from wide eyed dreamer to run down homeless man. It portrays the late 60's feeling of sexual freedom with a sense of hopelessness. It does feel that the movie speaks to that generation and asks what are the consequences of this sexual revolution. The movie does not shy away from dealing with hard subject matter. It shows Buck as he does everything from gay trysts to psychedelic partying to make a little bit of money. It also shows how far movies have pushed the boundaries since the beginning of the 60's. In 1960 when The Apartment won Best Picture it was controversial just to talk about men having affairs. By 1969 we have nudity and male prostitution in the Best Picture winner. I feel that it speaks volumes to the sexual revolution of the 60's.
Both Midnight Cowboy and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are great movies. While I think Midnight Cowboy was a bold pick for Best Picture that year I think that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is the better movie and has become a classic. While Midnight Cowboy is a good movie but speaks for its time and doesn't hold up as well that time has passed.
I feel that 2011 Oscar ceremony(which is this week) has some things in common with the 1969 awards. The two movies that are front runners for Best Picture this year are The Social Network and The Kings Speech. One speaks to the current generation about the quest for power and status and the other is a classic kind of movie about overcoming your disability. Do you pick the movie that speaks to the current culture and time(The Social Network) or do you pick the movie that is the typical Oscar movie(The Kings Speech). In the future will we look back and say the Kings Speech was better because it is a classic story or will The Social Network live on as more then just a current movie for this generation? For more on my thoughts on that check out my Yahoo! article what movie will win best picture? Another interesting connection of the 1969 and 2010 Oscars is the fact that True Grit is nominated in both years for best actor. John Wayne won in 1969 for playing Rooster Cogburn and we will see if Jeff Bridges will win this year.
Oscar Firsts.
Midnight Cowboy became the first and only movie to win Best Picture that had an X rating. At the time this just mean for mature audiences and had nothing to do with pornography. It is only the second movie to win since the MPAA started rating movies and it is interesting the first two rated movies to win were G and X and no G or X(NC-17 in today's rating) have ever won Best Picture since.
Midnight Cowboy was also the first movie to win Best Picture that had nudity in it(the reason for the X rating)
Cary Grant won a lifetime achievement award from the Academy. Despite his many memorable characters and amazing performances he never won a competitive award.
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