Midnight cowboy PDF

Preview

Summary

analysis essay of midnight cowboy for GWAR 303 with soumyaa Behrens ...

Description

CINE 303 Soumyaa Behrens 09/17/2015

Film Review Midnight Cowboy is a good (not the best) representative of the new Hollywood era, which shows realistically the difficulty of a young countryside man to adapt to the hostile climate and busy lifestyle of New York. The story does not match the fashion; had it been shot more simplisticly, it could be an unforgettable film. Directed by John Schlesinger, the film starring Jon Voight, also has in its cast the star of the season, the talented Dustin Hoffman, asserting it as one of the iconic films of the period. The Texan Joe Buck, adherent of the cowboy look, leaves his small hometown bound for New York, for the purpose of prostitution to rich upper class women. His cartoonish cowboy look is not succesful in the metropolis; the profits do not appear and the foreigner is forced to turn to the trickster Ratso. The relationship between pimp and hustler, initially based on a deception, turns into friendship. The film hits the right tone in showing, without flourishes and exaggerations, the difficulty of adapting to a big city, a common feeling to most people who were not born in these places. Only those who have experienced the feeling of arriving in a big city for the first time know how it is exciting and scary at the same time. Ratso fantasized about moving to Miami, mainly due to the tropical climate and the impressive number of women there. The pimp's plans for Joe Buck were favorable, however the garments of his "product" bothered him. If Ratso wandered about Florida, the style inspired by westerns was also elusive for Joe. He was not a real cowboy; he was a simple former dishwasher who dreamed of making his leather garments a seductive exotic instrument. The atemporality of Midnight Cowboy lies both unique to Voight and Hoffman’s interpretations of two miserable men trying to keep a dignified life in the filth of the big apple streets. Among customers who do not pay and dubious friendships, Joe Buck can maintain the purity of his soul through the connection he develops with Ratso. Although Voight’s performance can sometimes seem a little too stupid, it is charismatic, and well done. What really stands out is Hoffman's performance, which makes his character very interesting, sometimes tough, sometimes very emotional, and you never know if he really likes the silly

cowboy, or if he’s just using him to make "mony". Hoffman confirms the great actor he is with a convincing performance, composing the character in detail by his nasal voice, quick speech, his crippled way of walking, which gradually becomes slower due to the evolution of his illness, mixing with a cough that punishes him with the smile of someone who has already adapted to the reality of that life. Ratso is a true big city rat, who is not ashamed to do everything in his power to survive, even if it means stealing and deceiving others. The film, even if too attached to a '60s aesthetic, goes far in addressing controversial issues such as male prostitution, homosexuality, and migration within the United States with all its contrasts, giving the film a touching emotional structure. The discussion of heterosexuality is interrupted, however the moral of the story remains: that of to make heroes prevail in the middle of ruins, models and daydreams. Stronger than opposing viewpoints, the question was to confront the harsh reality. Deconstructing old dreams is as laborious as peeling a coconut (referred to the unreachable Florida) that Ratso fumbled to eat in the company of a pseudocowboy. With aggressive and somewhat comforting interpretations of Voight and Hoffman, the film surprised by the acid image of the urban underworld, made of coldness, cynicism and hypocrisy, by reference to topics such as prostitution and homosexuality, particularly when they are linked to the American cowboy virility image. Voight can translate Joe’s childish yet ambitious personality. Joe expects to have an easy life that only exists in his head, and thinks his talent for sex is enough for this. Joe aspires to change in the end, a distant hope of reality, that aims for him to leave the branch which he was not successful at. As Rizzo, Hoffman manages to demonstrate that he nurtures a kind of confused feeling of use, interest, and friendship towards Joe Buck. The film talks about the fragmented and thoughtless actions that people take, and therefore pay in consequences, for different reasons. In Rizzo’s imagination, life is colorful likeMiami, but the reality is dark and cold as a winter night in New York. Midnight Cowboy is a story about broken dreams, about the lives of the invisible ones in the alleys of big cities, about friendship that springs from necessity....