Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy

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. The New York Times called Dustin Hoffman as Ratso Rizzo: “something found under an old door in a vacant lot,” and Jon Voight as Joe Buck “a tall, handsome young man whose open face manages to register the fuzziest of conflicting emotions within a very dim mind.” 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. With Bob Balaban, Brenda Vaccaro, Lucy Sante, Ian Buruma, Jennifer Salt, and Brian De Palma.

Directed by Nanyc 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