Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Dustin Hoffman | ... | ||
Jon Voight | ... | ||
Sylvia Miles | ... | ||
John McGiver | ... |
Mr. O'Daniel
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Brenda Vaccaro | ... |
Shirley
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Barnard Hughes | ... |
Towny
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Ruth White | ... |
Sally Buck - Texas
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Jennifer Salt | ... |
Annie - Texas
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Gilman Rankin | ... |
Woodsy Niles - Texas
(as Gil Rankin)
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Gary Owens | ... | ||
T. Tom Marlow | ... | ||
George Eppersen | ... |
Ralph - Texas
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Al Scott | ... |
Cafeteria Manager - Texas
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Linda Davis | ... |
Mother on the Bus - Texas
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J.T. Masters | ... |
Old Cow-Hand - Texas
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Texas greenhorn Joe Buck arrives in New York for the first time. Preening himself as a real 'hustler', he finds that he is the one getting 'hustled' until he teams up with a down-and-out but resilient outcast named Ratso Rizzo. The initial 'country cousin meets city cousin' relationship deepens. In their efforts to bilk a hostile world rebuffing them at every turn, this unlikely pair progress from partners in shady business to comrades. Each has found his first real friend. Written by alfiehitchie
Virile, but naive, big Joe Buck leaves his home in Big Spring, Texas, and hustles off to the Big Apple in search of women and big bucks. In NYC, JB meets up with frustration, and with "Ratso" Rizzo, a scruffy but cordial con artist. Somehow, this mismatched pair manage to survive each other which in turn helps both of them cope with a gritty, sometimes brutal, urban America, en route to a poignant ending.
Both funny and depressing, our "Midnight Cowboy" rides head-on into the vortex of cyclonic cultural change, and thus confirms to 1969 viewers that they, themselves, have been swept away from the 1950's age of innocence, and dropped, Dorothy and Toto like, into the 1960's Age of Aquarius.
The film's direction is masterful; the casting is perfect; the acting is top notch; the script is crisp and cogent; the cinematography is engaging; and the music enhances all of the above. Deservedly, it won the best picture Oscar of 1969, and I would vote it as one of the best films of that cyclonic decade.