The encounter ends badly as he gives her money after she is insulted when he requests payment and it is loosely implied that she is a high class prostitute herself. Initially unsuccessful, he manages to bed a middle-aged woman, Cass, in her posh Park Avenue apartment. Joe Buck, a young Texan working as a dishwasher, quits his job and heads to New York City to become a male prostitute. In 1994, Midnight Cowboy was deemed 'culturally, historically or aesthetically significant' by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
It has since been placed 36th on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American films of all time, and 43rd on its 2007 updated version. Midnight Cowboy is the only X-rated film ever to win Best Picture. Set in New York City, Midnight Cowboy depicts the unlikely friendship between two hustlers: naïve sex worker Joe Buck (Voight), and ailing con man Enrico 'Ratso' Rizzo (Hoffman).Īt the 42nd Academy Awards, the film won three awards: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film was written by Waldo Salt, directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, with notable smaller roles being filled by Sylvia Miles, John McGiver, Brenda Vaccaro, Bob Balaban, Jennifer Salt, and Barnard Hughes. Midnight Cowboy is a 1969 American drama film, based on the 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy.
