Midnight Cowboy is about a man with big dreams and plenty of ambition but not nearly enough brains or wisdom to do anything right. As he moves from Texas to New York seeking to become, of all things, a male prostitute, he falls in with a local hustler that attempts to teach him how to survive in the big city even though he’s just barely doing enough on his own. When the moment finally happens for the Texas cowboy he still comes up short and eventually finds a way to get him and his friend out of town. However, on their way to Florida his friend passes away from a debilitating illness and he’s left all alone.
It’s a very tragic story really.
10. Dustin Hoffman dressed as a beggar to show the auditioning executive of the film that he could fit the role.
The exec didn’t think that Hoffman’s all-American look would be good enough so Hoffman dressed up in rags and started begging people for change on the street. When the exec paid him no attention he went up and introduced himself.
9. Hoffman got so into one of his character’s coughing fits that he threw up.
That seems like a little too good of acting really if you’re going to make yourself sick while doing it.
8. The taxi incident wasn’t scripted.
They didn’t have the permits to shut down a city street so they had to simply go with the flow and used a hidden camera in a van parked down the street. Hoffman was worried that the cab was really going to run him over.
7. Hoffman kept pebbles in his shoe to keep his walk consistent.
This was to make sure that Ratso’s walk looked the way it was supposed to. He walked with a noticeable limp.
6. It was rated X originally.
This was changed to R eventually since pornographic filmamakers coveted the X rating and in reality there wasn’t much to base the X rating on in the movie.
5. Apparently audiences started leaving in droves during the gay scene in the movie.
Take into account the time period, you’d have to understand that being gay was not entirely acceptable back then and as a result would not be openly tolerated by a lot of people.
4. John Wayne wasn’t impressed with the movie.
It’s not too surprising that the Duke wasn’t fond of a movie in which two men were this close to one another at all times.
3. Jon Voight didn’t make much for his role in this picture.
He was paid to scale, which isn’t too surprising since he wasn’t all that well known yet. Since then however he’s managed to demand a much better price for his services.
2. There was a lot of concern that this role would ruin Hoffman’s reputation.
There were a few people, including Hoffman, that worried about how the role of Ratso would affect his career moving forward.
1. Dustin Hoffman spent some time in the slums of New York to get into character.
Spending time around some of the more disreputable parts of the city certainly allowed him to get the part down right.
It was kind of an odd movie, but something compelling enough to be award-winning.
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