tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38454049.post5722156646387037858..comments2024-03-27T23:36:43.408-07:00Comments on Apocalypse Later Film Reviews: Midnight Cowboy (1969)Hal C. F. Astellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16807389103456317098noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38454049.post-65560508426309145032016-11-25T22:36:59.657-07:002016-11-25T22:36:59.657-07:00I don't know how many times I have watched Mid...I don't know how many times I have watched Midnight Cowboy. Each year I relive the magic of this picture. There's so much reality and insanity going on. Is there a better reflection of life's surprises . When you watch this movie you forget it's just acting and you are absorbed into that terrible and lonely world . Joe and Rico live in a world of do unto others before they do it to you. Society's message is take all you can , when ever you can . A message we can all relate to in our money driven lives. Joe and Rico escape from that cold and empty world but for Rico it's only a dream never to come true. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08464257128252248894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38454049.post-14898106636721043022014-08-24T02:46:46.626-07:002014-08-24T02:46:46.626-07:00No one seems to have caught the symbolic "ech...No one seems to have caught the symbolic "echo" between Ratso's famous line, spoken with gusto, "I'm walkin' 'ere!" and his pitiful admission to Joe Buck late in the film: "My legs aren't workin' -- I don't think I can walk no more!" And with that, Ratso bursts into tears.<br /><br />This triggers Joe's decision to do whatever it takes to get the money for the bus ride to Florida (Ratso rejects getting a doctor because they'll send him "to Bellevue," he says). This decision is a major turning point: Joe was sexually exploited as a child and his mother was a hooker. As a teen, he had to watch helplessly as his girlfriend was raped and the same gang also raped him. He has been a victim his whole life. Ironically, his decision to New York to "take control" of his life, was a pathetic extension of the sexual role chosen for him by others.<br /><br />The rage that comes boiling up when he assaults (kills?) the self-loathing homosexual in the hotel room is therefore understandable, though it is doubtful that Joe understands where it comes from. For Joe, it is a kind of purging of all the anger he's felt, and it releases him from the stud role forever. <br /><br />The bus ride to freedom is the visual symbol of his liberation. Ratso, however, dies on the ride to his vision of freedom, and here again, I don't think anyone has pointed out the irony that he didn't want to die like his father, "coughing my lungs out," and yet that's exactly what he did, except, tragically, as a much, much younger man.<br /><br />Also recall that Joe was just about to achieve his dream -- Brenda Vaccaro ("Shirley") was about to set him up with a string of her girlfriends -- when Ratso's crisis interrupted Joe's progress along his chosen path, and thereby SAVED his soul.<br /><br />I think the reviewer who says that Ratso's death might represent a kind of absorption of Joe's sins is on to something, but Ratso's role as Joe's pimp can't be forgotten. Another irony. Ratso manifested the practical side of Joe's dream. In that sense I see Ratso as another side of Joe's character. This is what gives their friendship and codependency such pathos.<br /><br />Ironically, the one who sets out to help Joe achieve his dream becomes his savior from it in the end. As Joe purges his anger and becomes conscious of himself as a human being, not a sex object, his pimp self must die away. That is the symbolic content of Ratso's death.<br /><br />At the same time, Ratso arouses pity, but it is in much the same way that Joe's naive quest to become a stud arouses pity. Each of them is trying to survive by relying on a false self generated by circumstances beyond their control: Ratso the hustler and Joe the stud. Ratso's role consumes him, but he gives life to Joe by holding a mirror up to him, something that only an expert in human nature such as a hustler could do.<br /><br />Incidentally, another tipoff to Joe's transformation is the female clothing store clerk in Florida who flirts with him: It is the first sign of a healthy relationship we've seen in Joe's life since the beginning of the film. It is a very understated moment, but it is a blazing contrast with what has gone before. The film is filled with subtle symbolism like this, and I only say subtle because it hasn't -- so far as I know -- been noted in other reviews.<br /><br />I would qualify a film for greatness on its staying power, among other things, and by that I mean its ability to reveal new shades of meaning as you watch it over and over through the stages of your own life. "La Strada" is one such film. "Midnight Cowboy" is another. Neither are particularly happy prisms of life, but then what is life but loss?<br /><br />It is some consolation to find that every once in a while a Fool (in the Tarot sense) such as Joe can somehow find the bus to Florida because he listens to his better self and sacrifices his dream to help another human being.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38454049.post-39967509523513433732013-12-07T03:31:38.358-07:002013-12-07T03:31:38.358-07:00I agree with a number of the above themes in Midni...I agree with a number of the above themes in Midnight Cowboy. What a ground-breaking film it was. The theme of redemption stands out the most. Simply put, Joe Buck starts out as a very self-centered and vain person. He goes to New York, a modern-day Babylon, to pursue and feed that vanity. But New York turns out to be a gritty and ugly crucible, one which tears him down and strips away his vanity. Along the way he meets Ratso Rizzo and starts to befriend him, at first out of desperation. This turns gradually to genuine closeness and brotherly affection by the time they leave New York. By the time Ratso dies on the bus, Joe has become a real person. His demeanor has changed, he's cast off his old clothes and become "a new man". In essence, he needed to go through Hell to become truly saved. <br /><br />A couple of things. The movie begins and ends with a bus ride, symbolizing Charon taking him over the river Styx. Ratso's death could symbolize the taking on of Joe's sin's, including the murder of the businessman, with him. And the change of clothes at the end was poignant. A new pair for Jow, representing baptismal garments, and for Ratso, representing a new suit for the corpse. If anyone has anything to add to this synopsis, I would be appreciative...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38454049.post-28153057061082412192011-07-20T08:47:41.578-07:002011-07-20T08:47:41.578-07:00I found the film sad and thought provoking. I hone...I found the film sad and thought provoking. I honestly think my life changed just a little after I first saw it all those years back, whenever I hear the beautiful title song sung by Nielsson it always make me think of the film and brings a tear to my eye.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com