Midnight Cowboy
May 18, 2023
Afire
May 22, 2023
DESPERATE SOULS, DARK CITY AND THE LEGEND OF MIDNIGHT COWBOY
John Schlesinger’s legendary MIDNIGHT COWBOY, released in 1969 with an X rating, won three Oscars®, including Best Picture. A documentary that is as much about the ’60s counterculture as it is about the making of this brilliant movie. The mean streets of New York (the hellscape that was Times Square before its family-friendly reinvention) never looked sleazier, or more sexually audacious. Schlesinger’s foray into the world of lost souls remains equal parts funny and tragic. Its homoerotic subtext is both tender and surprising, especially for having been realized more than 50 years ago.
Directed by Nancy Buirski
Featuring Brenda Vaccaro, Bob Balaban, Jon Voight, Jennifer Salt, Brian De Palma, Michael Childers, Lucy Sante, James Hoberman, Adam Holender, Charles Kaiser and Edmund White
1h 41m
“A fascinating and hypnotic documentary.”
Deadline
“Makes the case that the 1969 Best Picture winner is the key film of the New Hollywood era.”
IndieWire