Spoiler Alert: Florida dreams on a New York budget

Movie: Midnight Cowboy

Rank: 43

Year: 1969 Director: John Schlesinger

Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight

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[Possible trigger warning]

This movie was… a lot? A mood? A vibe? An immersive experience? A bromance love story? An exploration of sexual trauma? An actualization of sexual orientation? A pursuit of the American dream?

I don’t really know how to classify the story of a faux-cowboy hustler and his con-man frenemy struggling to make a life in New York City. If I’m being honest, I think this was a one-and-done viewing experience for me. I can look at this analytically and guess why it resonated with viewers. However, I can’t say it was a wholly enjoyable experience.

We first meet Jon Voight’s Joe Buck as he prepares for his bus ride from Texas to New York. It’s true, Jon Voight was young once. Shortly after arriving, he gets conned by the limping New Yorker, Dustin Hoffman’s Ratso, who steals his money and sends Joe off to meet with a pimp who ends up being a religious fanatic. After being kicked out of his room for not paying, Joe runs into Ratso in a fit of rage, but ends up becoming his roommate. Everything after is a series of misfires in the pursuit of a livable wage.

Throughout the film, we are bombarded with flashes of fantasy sequences, nightmares, memories, pot-based delusions and television clips. While Joe appears the ever boisterous, southern “stud” to Ratso’s dirty, fast-talking con-man, Joe struggles with the onslaught of many triggers and stark images of his life compared to Ratso’s blissful dream of moving to Florida.

These “flashes” in their varying capacities are the elements which I disliked the most. I have discovered over the course of my viewing history, stark intercutting between flash blacks or delusions and the reality of the scene only disable my suspension of disbelief. I’m sure others find these snippets to be where the real art of a film takes place. They can write about it in their blogs.

"I'm walking here! I'm walking here!"

- Ratso, Midnight Cowboy

While I think the narrative purpose of these flashes could have been achieved in another way, I do see their purpose. These scenes are not always realistic and rarely linear, but they give insight into the sexual trauma of Joe. A man so repulsed by the notion of being called gay, yet fairly willing to turn to homosexual relationships in a pinch for money. He even gets a blow job from Phoebe Buffay’s biological father (who casually looks like Rick Moranis of Ghostbuster and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids fame). The extent of the trauma is not always clear. Flashes reveal his mother abandoned him at his grandmother’s house. It was slightly unclear if she was a source of that sexual trauma, or, if her hyper-sexualization introduced Joe to sexuality rather early. There are also flashes of Joe and a woman around his age having sex. This same woman is seen running scared from a group of men. Eventually, we see them pulled apart while having sex in a car and the seeming insinuation they were both repeatedly raped. It looked to cause her mental deterioration.

Maybe as a result of his trauma, we see Joe turn to violence on several occasions. After being swindled by Ratso, Joe has fantasies in black-and-white of strangling him. When he decides to stay at Ratso’s place, he makes it clear he can be dangerous. A rather tall and imposing figure, he turns on a potential client (wearing clear plastic glasses, which seem so ahead of his time) when trying to get money for Ratso to travel to Florida. If the man survived this encounter is unclear.

These violent realizations are in direct contradiction to the Joe we see in the first scene. He is naked, tall and singing. He loves to scream, “Yipee.” He even seems proud to be a “hustler,” male hooker, rather than turning back to a life of washing dishes. This shiny persona quickly starts to fade as he is in need of money and comes to realize he is not the only cowboy.

"I ain't a f'real cowboy. But I am one helluva stud!"

- Joe Buck, Midnight Cowboy

Joe’s foil, Ratso, comes from a much different existence. “Crippled” as he puts it, he lives alone in an apartment with no heat until Joe arrives. He starts to develop a cough, which manifests into greater physical struggles with the eventual inability to walk, control his bladder or dress himself. This starts to manifest to a serious extent at an artist’s party, described online as “Andy Warhol-esque.” (Let’s call it as we see it, the party was super fucking weird and Joe accidentally smoked something illegal.) When coordinating a “hustler” encounter for Joe, he falls down the stairs.

His dream isn’t of a bustling city, but rather the warm, laid back life of Florida. He wants to frolic on the beach with Joe and mingle with the elderly.

Throughout this film, the LGBT community is mentioned or shown. Often, these depictions were stereotypical and the language used was overtly offensive. Joe seems to dislike his same-sex encounters, but has visceral reactions to being called gay which may indicate his sexual orientation. During a moment of impotence, being accused of being gay prompts Joe to sexually perform. Ratso greatly objects when being asked about his sexual orientation. I think I am supposed to realize neither, at least not Joe, identify as straight.

"I ain't no kinda hustler."

- Joe Buck, Midnight Cowboy

Voight and Hoffman were masterful in their portrayals. While I wasn’t a fan of the film as a whole, it was hard to not have your heart breaking as Ratso realized his life might end and Joe’s desperate attempts to help Ratso achieve his dream.

On the bus, poor Ratso is confronted with the realities of his condition (maybe Tuberculosis or Pneumonia according to the World Wide Web): wetting himself, sleeping, sweating and being changed by Joe. The writing is very clearly on the wall. As Joe discusses giving up his hustler lifestyle, he realizes Ratso has passed.

The bus driver looks at Ratso and deems the journey worth continuing until they reach Miami. While Ratso could never stand in the sun, he did make it to Florida. However, his death left a broken-hearted Joe to hold onto his body.

What’s not odd? Dustin Hoffman being in another movie on the list. What is odd? Dustin Hoffman ending a second movie sitting on a bus.

P.S. Did you noticed the movie showing at the theater was Twisted Sex?