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Rating: Dedicated to the United States of the late '60s: the beginning and the end of everything.
The American cinema of those years was a creature that breathed on its own, leaving visionary attempts, distorted images, and above all, LIVING men. Just take a look at the city of New York captured in films of the time to perceive that strange light that seems to flood everything: buildings, parks, street corners, crowds of people. America truly seemed to have something magical, in celluloid as well as in music and historical events. As vast as the universe, it was populated by all kinds of living and pseudo-living forms and hid within it an incredible number of "microcosms" made of streets, men, and star dust. That was truly an unrepeatable moment: AMERICA!... the PIVOT between what had been and what was to come, between old and new convictions, between radio and TV, between poverty and poverty, between earth and moon. Hated and loved by everyone, it was discovered that even within that idol the worms crawled. And then there they are, the microcosms of the world, LOOK! they mix with psychedelic colors, PURPLE, RED, PINK, YELLOW! They melt into a great unbroken serpent of gray politicians, short-haired and long-haired kids, the penniless, artists, icons; and again, madmen, hidden corners, sex, bar chatter, hopes, wonderful women, children who will be men and men who will be dust, killers, dogs, Vietnam veterans who started it all on some mid-west farm and ended it all in 1978 with a needle still stuck in their arm.
"Midnight Cowboy" (1969) remains one of the finest films of those years alongside "Easy Rider" and "The Graduate." It tells the story of Joe Buck, an American provincial young man (John Voight) who decides to go to New York to become a gigolo, but he won't find life easy. And he will meet Rico, a poor crippled Italian immigrant (Dustin Hoffman), with whom he will first have some troubles but later forge a very solid friendship. Together, they will try to survive in the largest backside of the world, New York. Then, towards the end, trying to reach the sunshine of Florida.
The characters and caricatures that parade in this film are the most disparate, some more and some less inhabitants of the great universe of stars and stripes: odd mature women, pseudo-artists, religious madmen, life's victims, fragile girls, every kind of poor soul. The Big Apple is portrayed as the stage for the breaths of the most unreal and cryptic human apparitions. The camera sometimes abandons itself to realism, while the atmospheres are deliberately suffocating, more or less immersed in pure psychedelia. Worth mentioning, without a doubt, is the moment of the party to which John Voight is invited: acid-trip-like atmospheres, distorted music, melting colors. Here the connection with the other great "chemical journey" of 1969 is inevitable: the part of "Easy Rider" that takes place at the cemetery. Because the cameras of those years winked at each other: the norm was fast zooms and extreme close-ups. To better capture the expression of faces, to observe the human being in all its pulsating LIFE.
Dustin Hoffman in the film is almost always sick, constantly coughing and sweating from his brow. All this glues the viewer to the chair, who indeed lives the story down to the skin. However, there are moments of laughter, although bitter, almost always with Hoffman as protagonist. This is one of his best performances, ever; Rico represents life, as it can be cruel and bitter, and yet it can elicit a smile, even if forced and hysterical. Regarding Voight, he was not the first choice for the film, but the result is spot-on.
Another thing in common with films of the era (see "The Graduate") is the presence of a great soundtrack, here by Harry Nilsson, with the splendid "Everybody's Talkin'" (consider that the first choice was "Lay Lady Lay" by Bob Dylan, but it was not finished in time for the film). And luckily so, because the EPOCHAL and beautiful scene is the opening one in New York, where Voight walks among the crowd with his Texan hat in plain view, and the song playing in the background.
Also beautiful is the instrumental theme of the film, which accompanies well the movement scenes in the city, the night desolation with neon lights in the distance, and especially the final scene which, like in "The Graduate," takes place on a bus. Voight's face reflected on the glass is the face of one who has matured but does not yet know what he will encounter. It is the face of someone crossing the PIVOT, in one of the craziest periods of the last century. The ending of this film is one of the most beautiful gems ever.
Dedicated to the United States of the late '60s: the beginning and the end of everything.
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