Over the years, the ranks of its admirers has only grown, among them documentary filmmaker Nancy Buirski.
It felt different from anything I had seen…
It was like a gut punch.
‘Midnight Cowboy’United Artists
The source material was the 1965 novelMidnight Cowboyby James Leo Herlihy, an openly gay American writer.
He got what was going on in the culture and what was affecting us, Buirski tells Deadline.
So, he wasnt making a film about Vietnam, he wasnt making a film about gay rights.
Director Nancy BuirskiCourtesy of Zeitgeist Films
He was feeling the disruption.
Midnight Cowboywas no studio confection shot on a soundstage.
His clinching butt is seen briefly.
Some of Joe Bucks customers are men hungry for sex.
That content famously earned Midnight Cowboy an X rating.
Because they were in a climate where homosexuality was still against the law, Buirski notes.
I guess they were protecting the movie.
That was nonsense in the first place.
The actor remembers Schlesinger being overwhelmed with misgivings, telling him, What have we done!
Whatll they say about this picture?
Readers of Frankels book will know Voight wasnt Schlesingers first choice for Joe Buck.
Kiel Martin (later to play J.D.
LaRue onHill Street Blues) also was in the running to play the title character.
As for the role of Ratso Rizzo, Hoffman had to lobby for that part.
But Buirskis documentary isnt a making of exercise.
I think sometimes the making of can be a little boring.
The emphasis here is on the cultural context and momentous influence ofMidnight Cowboy.
Joe Buck, whos a hustler is also a kind of dopey guy, and naive.
And, Ratso definitely has humor, which is Dustin Hoffmans great performance.
It premiered at the Venice Film Festival last September before heading to Telluride.
Honestly, I was nervous about opening in New York, Buirski says.
I could have disappointed them a lot, but I havent.
And theyve been fantastic.
Can any film of today produce a cultural tsunami of that magnitude?
Buirski brings nuance and a somewhat more optimistic perspective to that question.
I didnt really connect withA Thousand Clownsas much as I connected toMidnight Cowboy.
So, it all depended on where you were in your life.
But I think that theres a lot of good stuff out there.
