Let's just take a moment and evaluate the academy award winners for 1968 and 1969!! In 1968, "Oliver" (which was an innocuous musical) won for best picture. 1968 was a year of absolute tumultuousness.. Robert Kennedy was assassinated, Martin Luther King was assassinated, and there were riots on the streets of America from coast to coast on an ephemeral basis. Upheaval at the Democratic convention was an assertive rejection of the structured status quo by this nation's hegemony, and, our protracted involvement in Vietnam was emerging as a volatile avenue for an utterly pandemic disdain!! So!! what movie won for best picture in 1969? "Midnight Cowboy".... Does this tell you anything? The 180 degree polarization of these two movies could not be anymore emphatic, it is almost as if the occurrences of 1968 had a profound impact on the choice for best picture in 1969!! Such a radical difference in Academy Award winning pictures in just one year, gave a crystal clear indication of how the social transition in America was indelibly ubiquitous!! Hence, the radicalism of the 1960's was influencing virtually everything!! "Midnight Cowboy" is a film which depicts the sordid sexual behavior which was pertinent to the decaying American moral value system which erupted during the 1960's!! Such depraved and detailed immorality had never been illustrated on the silver screen before!! Jon Voight is tremendous in this film, as he engages in precarious sexual theatrics, (which were the antithesis of his conservative upbringing) as a means of supporting himself. What was so demoralizing about this whole endeavor, is that supporting himself with this nefarious occupation completely backfired!! Dustin Hoffman's character goes beyond desperate and hopeless, his situation is tailor made for society to shut the door on him, and pretend that he simply does not exist... New York City is a cosmopolitan venue which has the formidable potential to effortlessly ostracize and socially obliterate their victims of sub level poverty!! The characters Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman play become metaphorically decimated by New York City's cavalier imperviousness.. This film serves as a five alarm fire wake up call for Americans to be aware of the actual United States they live in, as opposed to the United States that is masqueraded around in front of Americans on the Fourth of July!! Significantly prescient for the prevailing paradigm for movies made during this era, the film "Midnight Cowboy" presents a circumstantial set of tragedies which will not conquer adversity.. All parties concerned will go from bad to worse, a scenario which directors were reluctant to bring to the American moviegoer's attention back in the late sixties!! John Schlesinger directs this film (He is also known for directing films such as: "Darling", "Marathon Man", and "Falcon and the Snowman" to name but a few), he does an amazing job directing "Midnight Cowboy"!! Schlesinger won for best director with this picture in 1969! Dustin Hoffman is definitely in a category all by himself when it comes to his acting genius!! The theme song "Everbody's Talking" by Harry Nilsson, made its debut in tandem with this movie!! In a nutshell, "Midnight Cowboy" was a cunningly relevant tenet for admonishing societal despondence. This film was incredibly poignant, as it denounces a bevy of socially callous philosophies in America!! Fabulous film!! One of my top fifty!! I recommend to everybody that they see this movie!!
Review of Midnight Cowboy
