Movie #8: Midnight Cowboy

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Midnight Cowboy


Date Watched: 06/11/24

Format: Streaming on TV via Tubi

Hmm....

Directing (⭐⭐⭐):

OK, it wasn't bad, and it had its moments.  Sometimes I felt Schlesinger was trying to get too fancy.  New York stood out in this one which can either be distracting or not.  I was right on the edge.  Overall, a good job of directing.

Writing (⭐⭐):

Unlike the directing, the writing got very distracting for me.  Outside of Hoffman and Voight, everyone else acted like NPCs in a computer game.  It really hurt the acting.  See below.

Acting (⭐⭐⭐):

Voight and Hoffman could have done so much better if the writing was better.  I felt bad because you started to get into their characters but then just got distracted from some repetitive, mundane dialogue.  Don't get me started on McGiver's two minutes of screen time.

Wildcard (⭐):

WTF!  Did I expect the "controversial" film from 1969?  By today's standards, of course not.  A couple of quick edits and you could put this on FX.  My problem was just that this did not deliver as an Oscar worthy story.  It tried so hard to be edgy and failed.  A couple of one-liners is all this was really good for.

Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda:

It was a weird year with some weird movies.  It was also a very unique time in America so the success of Midnight Cowboy that year is not surprising.  You could have switched it out with Z, Easy Rider, or They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and had the same result.  Butch Cassidy is one that stood above all of them and should have won.  Bad timing.

Ranking:

1) Forrest Gump (Movie #5) 20⭐

2) Gone with the Wind (Movie #1) 17⭐

3) On the Waterfront (Movie #3) 16⭐

4) Amadeus (Movie #4) 13⭐

5) Shakespeare in Love (Movie #2) 13⭐

6) Rain Man (Movie #7) 12⭐

7) Wings (Movie #6) 10⭐

8) Midnight Cowboy (Movie #8) 9⭐

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