Jackie Spafford
By Jackie Spafford
This documentary is a gift to film-lovers, and to everyone still trying to understand the tumultuous 1960s. Directed by Nancy Buirski, and partially based on the book Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic by Glenn Frankel, it looks at how the film reflected themes and struggles of that decade.
Midnight Cowboy (1969) told the story of two outsiders: Joe Buck, a naïve pretend-cowboy trying to make it in New York City as a gigolo, played by Jon Voight, and ‘Ratso’ Rizzo, a petty criminal with health problems and dreams of moving to Florida, played by Dustin Hoffman. These were breakout roles, and the film includes original screentests and recent interviews.
Among the themes explored in the film were sexuality, isolation, and poverty. Set against the backdrop of New York City at its grittiest, it was shot at a time of massive upheaval in the US, with the Vietnam War and political unrest as points of reference.
Director John Schlesinger started out as a documentarian in England in the post-war era, which developed his observation of real lives in challenging circumstances. His diverse directing career included several British “kitchen sink” films, and Hollywood films such as Marathon Man. He took huge risks by attaching himself to this project. (The film was released with an X rating, which was much later adjusted to R.) He was passionate about the story, and as a gay man was drawn to the depiction of the relationship between the two protagonists. Several interviewees in the doc agree on what that ultimately was: a tender friendship between two unlikely companions. It had gay undertones, and depicted a type of relationship not seen before in popular film.
One interviewee with keen insight into the making of the film is Jennifer Salt, the actress who played Crazy Annie in Midnight Cowboy and daughter of the screenwriter Waldo Salt. Her father, who also wrote the screenplays for Coming Home and Serpico, was blacklisted in the McCarthy era. Bob Balaban, who played a teenager who encounters the Jon Voight character in Times Square, is also interviewed, along with others who worked on the film and film historians.
In 1970, Midnight Cowboy won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Directing and Writing, and both leads were nominated for Best Actor. It was the first X-rated film to ever win an Oscar. Ironically, John Wayne won that year as Best Actor (True Grit) – the ultimate film cowboy, and a rabid anti-Communist and conservative.
Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy will be released theatrically.
The 38th Santa Barbara International Film Festival runs through February 18. Official events including screenings, filmmaker Q&As, industry panels, and celebrity tributes, will be held throughout the city, including at the historic Arlington Theatre. Passes and tickets are on sale now at .
