It’s crazy to think of an X-rated movie winning the Academy Award for Best Picture, and crazier still that such a movie received an X-rating essentially for gay stuff. But its story holds up, and is anchored by two rather incredible performances by its leading men, a young, virtually unrecognizable Jon Voight, and a smooth talking, limp walking Dustin Hoffman.
Something about the pure aesthetic quality of the Texan countryman moving to big old New York City in hopes of fulfilling some vague dream about making it rich brims with all the naïveté of Bonnie and Clyde but with far less actual success. In terms of pushing sexual and narrative boundaries, Midnight Cowboy is quite remarkable. It’s almost become a cliché for indie movies today to center on a protagonist trying to get laid, whether it’s for the learning experience, the money, a last ditch effort being going to college, or in the face of impending death. Filmmakers are almost cavalier about this plot now, and it’s because of movies like Midnight Cowboy that paved the road to exploring sexual situations in earnest ways on film.
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