Dustin Hoffman and John Voight give tremendous performances in this classic movie as outcasts in New York City. Voight plays a naive young Texan new to New York who thinks his good looks will attract women and their money. He soon learns otherwise and the one person who helps is Hoffman who is streetwise enough to eke out a living through petty theft and trickery. They come to rely on one another and even form a strong friendship. For Hoffman the movie was a major departure from his previous film The Graduate and it proved he was a major talent who remains to this day, a great character actor. Voight was outstanding and has also left his mark in a number of major roles. Director John Schlesinger, who usually directed in Great Britain, showed his talent in movies like Darling and Far From the Madding Crowd. His ability to create stories and realistic backgrounds was put to great use with the on location shooting in NYC. We see the gritty street life and the 1960s drug culture well presented in this movie. This movie for me marked a new wave in American cinema that continued through the 1970's. This great movie is somewhat dated but still ranks high in America's film history.
Review of Midnight Cowboy
