Midnight Cowboy - The Fragile Cowboy Persona 

I love this film and the book so much. They both capture loneliness and love ad desperation so perfectly. Read the book.

I'm 68 years old, since I was 06 years old I love movies, this film is one of the best I ever seen in my all life, it's a Master Piece

He's from Texas and thinks he's a cowboy because he was born there. Men are made. The experience made him and the world desperately needs compassion and understanding. We're not all supposed to be cowboys.

This is the saddest movie I've ever seen. It haunts me still.

Beautiful analysis. My dad, a smart man, introduced this film to me as a teen, at just the right age to realise films could be more than easy fun. It blew my tiny mind. I watched it for the first time in years the other day. Still as true as the best kind of song. Every aspect of the film is working towards the same goal. You summed it up perfectly. Thank you.

"Midnight Cowboy" was one of the first movies, if not the first one, to depict New York City as a decaying, dirty hellhole of a collapsing urban landscape. This theme continued in films for years afterwards and in reality, of course, NYC was having some very bad times in the 1970s into the early '80s.

One of those films I can watch over and over again.

they don't make films like this anymore the same can be said about the rating

One of my top ten favorite film's of all time, the novel is definitely worth reading. Dark existentialism is what I enjoy the most.

Wow this analysis was brilliant. I've always felt one of the main themes of this movie was that of the search for identity and home.

@billgriff The director once said that the flashbacks in the movie aren't flashbacks -- they're the actual thoughts running through Joe's head at various times. I think that's why they don't slow down the story, as most flashbacks do. As for the content of the 'flashbacks' themselves, I always thought that Joe Buck had been sexually assaulted by those thugs as well as his girlfriend, and that his decision to be a 'hustler' was compensation for this emasculating experience.

The film was so bold in its approach. Using the image of the cowboy, a well recognized icon in American culture, in such a context was brilliant. Joe Buck is enamored with the persona but in reality is as far as you can get from the swaggering John Wayne archetype. In spite of his apparent virility and sexual charisma he still comes across as hopelessly naive and innocent. And the glimpses we're given of his past traumas add even more depth and ambiguity to his character. Joe accusing Ratso of never having been laid also adds an interesting contrast between them. Ratso may be more sexually innocent and inexperienced than Joe but ultimately is much more street smart and capable within the cold and unforgiving environment of New York, a reversal of a common dynamic we see in most movies.

I actually enjoy when people talk about the technical aspects of film in videos. Editing, good cinematography, music or lack thereof can elevate a scene and convey emotions that are more efective than having to just give auditory exposition. Its not the only thing i look for in film analysis videos or essays, but it does make me feel like fhe person understands filmaking and isnt just a movie "review" channel.

This is one of my favorite films. I think very few people analyze it as a film about coping with trauma, especially gender related trauma. I think you are right on. I also think there's huge gay subtext in this film. It is an intimate look at people at their most desperate and vulnerable.

It was a stark time in America when this came out. The Manson murders were on people’s minds and the 60s were coming to a crashing end. The mood of this film and the music depicts the spirit of that particular time.

I just watched this tonight (it's on Tubi right now) after listening to Millie & Danielle cover it on their I Saw What You Did podcast. It DESTROYED ME ! 😩🥺❤️ Veryyyy beautiful, VERY BLEAK. New York City soooo dirty, dreary and crowded, everyone sooo mean and ugly. (The girls mentioned that this was one of the first times New York was shown this way. (Until then Hollywood always showed us NYC as BRIGHT LIGHTS AND BIG CITY extravagance). So many times I just put my head in my hands & shook it saying "NOOOOOO, I CAN'T TAKE ANYMORE ! HOW MUCH MORE CAN THEY BARE?" The sadness, poverty, the cold, hunger.. THE LONELINESS? Dear God ! Anyway... BEAUTIFUL FILM AND FANTASTIC ANALYSIS AND CRITIQUE ! You did an exquisite job and I'm going to watch your video again tomorrow. Thank you for you time and detailed review. LOVED IT ! 👍❤️❤️❤️

To see this film when it was new and I was 13 changed my course. The depth of humanity alongside so many shattered glamors and illusion is amazing and remains special to this day. The long toll of abuse on a Texas kid, and someone he finds kin.

My bf had a friend like Joe. He was SA'd as a child and had sorta of an outlaw/renegade thing going. I get it. I'm female and I was SA'd as a child too and I know how to enlarge myself like a blowfish. I've made several bullies literally from me when I've finally had enough and I tell them what I think in no uncertain terms and I'm only 4'10 and 90lbs, tiny. They are shocked because normally I am sweet and smiley and easy going. They're gone so fast I'm like, "where did they go?" because I am so built up to expect a fight my vision narrows to a pin point.

I just watched this and now I'm sad 😭 so beautiful but tragic, ugh

As a film fan i never hear much about this film. Just watched it for the first time and thank you for voicing some of my very thoughts.

One of my favorite films! I saw it for the first time in theaters a couple days ago, and I didn’t know what to expect going into the film, but was shocked how sad and truly amazing this film is!

Speaking of fragile I was 12yrs old when I saw this movie in 1972, too much information at a young age, but watched it nevertheless, it was like a good book I couldn't put down, it's an amazing movie, filled with the ugly truths of life in NY ,where I grew up, and it's bad curves, I must of watched this film at least 10x throughout the yrs! Thx for your great incite on a incredible film and amazing actors!

Sad and unforgettable. I love it,but it can be hard to watch.

Great video. Saw this movie for the first time and it is equal parts bleak and beautiful.

This movie's theme is stranger in a strange place. It usually works, and this time it worked very well. This is one of my all-time favorite movies.

Joe’s flashbacks and dreams are horrifying.

How very dare you say this isn't one of the greatest films ever? I say it's the best film ever!

You did a really good RU-vid on this. Midnight Cowboy is one of my favorite movies. Joe Buck lost his friend and gave up his cowboy persona at the end, but I think he's learned from the whole experience how to dig himself out of the life he's had, and move on to better things.

I had never heard of Midnight Cowboy until Faith No More did a cover version of “Midnight Cowboy (Theme From)” on their Angel Dust album in 1992.

@ 00:28 '... he meets a man named Rico Ratso...' I think it's ironic that the character played by Dustin Hoffman spends half the movie trying to get Joe Buck to say his name properly instead of calling him Ratso and you don't once call him by his proper name which is, by the way, Enrico Salvatore Rizzo!

Best film ever made

Great job Bill on your commentary. I came in wondering about what people thought the movie was about, and I think you nailed it.

Love this film and the music two great actors they don’t make them like that anymore

Saw this film today not gonna lie it was a bit slow but man this movie hits what a sad movie the bond between ratso and Joe is so good and him tryna save ratso at the end was so beautiful and powerful it was so sad yet beautiful.

lovely review for a lovely movie bro. eventhough the movie ending is broke my heart, the duo will be in my innermost part of heart..

I felt like ratzo had to die, so the audience felt like the two main characters were punished enough for their ‘sins’.

WOW! My head is exploding about this memorable film!!! Thanks Bill

Great job, you have a very pleasant voice for this. You’re a story teller ❤️

One of my fave movies of all time.

That was a very WELL expressed convey and conclusion shared very thoughtfully! Also, Harry Nielsen's song: :🎶Everybody's talking at me...is just OUTSTANDING for the film's opening and just period. Huge Fan❣ Great review and I am happy to subscribe to your channel! 👍🏼💚*🙏🏼

Awesome analysis bro ❤

Pretty good analysis of the film. A few misunderstandings here and there but still a pretty good analysis. For starters, Joe wasn't sexually abused by his grandmother or her lovers. He was EXPOSED to his grandmother's lifestyle... He wasn't a VICTIM of it. Being in bed with his grandmother while her and her lover were unclothed drinking either before or after she had sex was probably pretty traumatic for a young kid 😕 He also was raped by those cowboys too 😢 While Crazy Annie was getting raped, he was sexually assaulted as well (per his flashbacks of the ordeal) Also, he didn't use the Cowboy persona to imitate his grandmother's lovers... He lived in Texas 🤷 When he was a kid, there were TONS of Westerns on TV. Cowboys were looked at as heroes in the 40's, 50's, and early 60's. That's all you saw 😕 But of course that began to change in the late 60's... And Joe held on to that persona for too long 😢 Dressed as a cowboy in Texas was still cool in the 60's. But in a big city like New York, that was considered "Odd". And there were only one group of people who dressed up like cowboys there... Gay men 🤷 Hence Ratso's explanation to Joe about his attire. I LOVED his hint to Joe about the biggest Cowboy of all-time (John Wayne) being gay 😊 Back then, Hollywood KNEW who was gay and who wasn't. They just refrained from outing them. But every now and then they would drop little "Easter Eggs" about star's personal lives... With "The Duke" being one of them. That's why Ratso never responded to Joe when he said "You think John Wayne is a f**!!"... He just looked at him 😉 Although it was never revealed what Ratso died of, one could only assume he had either Tuberculosis or Pneumonia. Living in an abandoned building in the dead of winter with no heat wasn't good for either scenario 😢 Even though Midnight Cowboy is almost 55 years old, it still holds up in today's world as far as the struggles some people go through in life. It is a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ movie in my honest opinion 👍👍👍

Thank you for an excellent video. A truly wonderful film. An interesting take on "The American dream".

Very nice job, Bill, on a very powerful, sad, brilliant film. Blessings to you--

I think you commentated this beautifully.

This film was extremely raw and nasty and profane at the time it was released. The dirtier parts of real life hadn't appeared in Hollywood movies before this, but that's what was suddenly happening starting in 1968, the year before this.

A masterpiece ！

This is one of my favorite movies !!! Joe Buck went to N.Y.C. fully believing that he would clean up as a hustler. He learned a cruel lesson in the process but he was not a quitter....By the end of the movie Joe was In Miami and in his own way he payed a tribute to Rico Ratzo who so wanted to move there ................................................

Thank you. You clarified much that I missed.

The theme song brings me back to the age 5 or 6 and is now a bit haunting. A character death is usually sad. This one was particularly also anti climatic and less than calculated like those of "Less Than Zero"

In the end there is a love between Joe and Rico that transcends sex and the gay/straight dichotomy, and that's what makes it beautiful.

I watched this movie this passed semester for my cinimatogeophy class. It was fun.

I really liked this analysis a lot, but I think I would have liked it a lot more if you had given yourself the freedom to elaborate in much deeper ways regarding the essential parts of the film, even so, I liked your work, you have definitely earned Another subscriber, and I hope your other videos are full of more freedom in scriptwriting (if you have a script when it comes to movies). Greetings and good vibes from Chile!

Thanks Bill- I don't watch a ton of movie reviews but I did my time in literary criticism classes etc and I really appreciate your sensibility and way of making the videos. I'm definitely going to watch this movie again! Also- if you read this comment, a Jon Voight movie that messed with me when I was a kid was The Champ. Do you know that film? I remember when I saw Zoolander it all came flooding back to me that Voigt is a real heavy. I appreciated that Ben Stiller let Voigt hold the only probably serious/high form moment in that whole movie. I'm remembering now that there's also that movie Table for Five. That was on cable TV somehow at my house and it messed with me too. I was like 13 or 14. Did Voigt do only sad af movies??

It’s a beautiful film❤

I can't even look at young Jon Voight without seeing Shiloh

I don't think Joe's grandmother sexually abused Joe. I think Joe was emotionally neglected. I never heard that theory before. It's interesting and I'd have to rewatch the film but based on my memory of the movie I don't think joe was molested. Rather he was neglected by his grandmother's who was emotionally unavailable for Joe's needs. The abandonment by his mother and living with a older surrogate mother and her various romantic relationships is what I mean. Whatever he witnessed formed his mental makeup. The kid definitely walked in on something traumatic. Maybe even bathed with two adults. Something like that. I don't believe that to be sexual abuse.

great movie can relate

Thanks for the great video!

Masterpiece film

greatest drama of all time

Great analysis!

Very well done commentary

Great video dude!

Very good analysis

This film is perfrection

Great review!

Thanks for sharing!

Good video and great movie

I saw this movie already twice recently, and oh boy did u love this masterpiece. What beautiful albeit sad movie. For me is al about Voight performance, just beautiful and earnest, of course Hoffman performance was incredible as well. And that song that I fell in love with ever since I discovered the song on a Watchmojo top classic Hollywood movies songs.

Enjoyable commentary!

Amazing video

Movie is two gay guys who won’t hook up meets dumb and dumber

That or because he got blood on them from the assault 🤣

This is the story of Joseph and Jimmy.

Rico "ratzo" Rizzo

Good movie, better book.......

The name's rizzo

I dont think he was abused by his grandmother she was more of a mother to him

"For 1969 standards"? 1969 films are several orders of magnitude better than today's rubbish.

It's nothing to do with fragile masculinity. Complete misunderstanding

You should read the book

And the shear act of desperation, symbolized by the sign "Jesus Saves" passing by as he makes his way to sin-city, leaving behind the only viable alternative to finding "love" is the spoiler and Schlesinger, while intending to mock the man from Nazareth, unwittingly testifies to the only reality in the universe that will truly satisfy. - Peace!

nytimes rephrased

There is nothing masculine about Midnight Cowbow main protagonist fragile or not. He is obviously gay. It is like written all over the movie (I did not read the book).

lower the music next time! good video besides that!

A poignant film

Ricco Razzo? No that's not correct.

What a tragic ending.

Great analysis. Thanks ❤