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Movies / On DVD / Midnight Cowboy
Midnight Cowboy

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Midnight Cowboy (1969)

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Reviews Counted:48

Fresh:43

Rotten:5

Average Rating:8.3/10

Consensus: John Schlesinger's gritty, unrelentingly bleak look at the seedy underbelly of urban American life is undeniably disturbing, but Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight's performances make it difficult to turn away.

Runtime: 1 hr 56 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: Joe Buck (Jon Voight), an aspiring male prostitute from Texas, heads to Manhattan where he hopes to find plenty of wealthy women willing to pay for the services of a handsome man. When he arrives,... Joe Buck (Jon Voight), an aspiring male prostitute from Texas, heads to Manhattan where he hopes to find plenty of wealthy women willing to pay for the services of a handsome man. When he arrives, the naive country boy befriends Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), a tubercular homeless con artist who dreams of moving to Florida. As they go about trying to get the money Ratso needs, the two men confront the seediness, corruption, and cruelty that flourish in the big city. Based on the novel by James Leo Herlihy, this Oscar-winning film (Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay) features brilliant performances by Voight and Hoffman, and brings to the screen an unusually gritty realism in its portrayal of the streets of New York City. [More]

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles, Brenda Vaccaro

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles, Brenda Vaccaro, John McGiver, Ruth White, Barnard Hughes, Bob Balaban, Viva, Paul Morrissey

Director: John Schlesinger

Director: John Schlesinger
Story: James Leo Herlihy
Composer: John Barry
Producer: Jerome Hellman

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Apr 22, 2008

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for Midnight Cowboy

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Reviews
Tomatometer Critic Review Category
N/R

David Ansen

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Aug., 18 2008 03:15 AM

Newsweek

tomato
5/5

Superb performances and a compelling script have made this film a strange mix of Oscar-winner and Cult Classic.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Feb., 20 2008 11:53 AM

Empire Magazine

tomato

Robert J. Landry

In this film the scenery is lovely and only the human race is vile.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 30 2008 05:02 PM

Variety

tomato

Douglas Pratt

The movie is locked into a sixties stylistic approach that can feel dated, but Hoffman’s performance can prevent one from ever tiring of the film.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 30 2008 05:01 PM

DVDLaser

tomato
4.5/5

Jon Fortgang

An impressive and enduring evocation of time and place, this is a moving low-life drama built around Oscar-winning writing and performances.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 30 2008 04:57 PM

Channel 4 Film

tomato
4/5

Robert Roten

No review available.

comment Comment | Feb., 27 2007 03:32 PM

Laramie Movie Scope

tomato
4/4

Talented Englishman Schlesinger had an unerring eye for capturing the grimy reality of New York, even if his directorial style is more jittery than is really necessary.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Dec., 13 2006 07:01 PM

TV Guide's Movie Guide

splat

Dave Kehr

The acting, showy and instinctual, is most of the movie; the visual style is too forced and chicly distended to let the drama acquire much natural life of its own.

Full Review Source: | comment 3 Comments | Dec., 13 2006 06:58 PM

Chicago Reader

tomato
4/4

Wesley Lovell

Great performances from Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman cap this bravest Academy Awards Best Picture choice in history.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Dec., 02 2006 05:40 AM

Oscar Guy

tomato
5/5

Cole Smithey

No review available.

comment Comment | Oct., 05 2006 08:30 PM

ColeSmithey.com

splat

Geoff Andrew

Outrageously overrated at the cynical end of the Swinging Sixties.

Full Review Source: | comment 1 Comment | Jun., 24 2006 04:28 AM

Time Out

tomato
4/5

Clint Morris

A film you won't soon forget

comment Comment | Mar., 11 2006 03:54 AM

Moviehole

tomato
4/4

Matt Brunson

It only takes a movie like Midnight Cowboy to point out the limitations of a rating system: How can a measly four stars convey the magnificence of this acknowledged classic?

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Mar., 10 2006 10:13 PM

Creative Loafing

tomato
5/5

Rory L. Aronsky

Sometimes a time capsule never dates.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Feb., 19 2006 11:13 PM

Film Threat

tomato
4/5

Emanuel Levy

Schlesinger's frenzied style and visual pyrotechnicas (New Wave influence) are less impressive than the characters, the central friendship, the awakening of conscience in Joe Buck and Ratso, and Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman's superlative acting.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Dec., 14 2005 01:19 PM

EmanuelLevy.Com

tomato
4/4

Phil Villarreal

Drove its spurs into the bucking bronco of 1970s cinema.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Aug., 12 2005 07:49 AM

Arizona Daily Star

tomato
5/5

Lori Hoffman

No review available.

comment Comment | Apr., 27 2005 02:08 PM

Atlantic City Weekly

tomato
4/5

Emily Blunt

A classic film that shows a great work has no era...

comment Comment | Apr., 08 2005 01:36 PM

Blunt Review

tomato
3/4

Roger Ebert

What has happened to Midnight Cowboy is that we've done our own editing job on it. We've forgotten the excesses and the detours, and remembered the purity of the central characters and the Voight and Hoffman performances.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Oct., 23 2004 10:21 PM

Chicago Sun-Times

tomato
5/5

Steve Crum

Still powerful story of two losers in New York.

comment Comment | Oct., 16 2004 05:15 AM

Kansas City Kansan

 
 
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