Midnight Cowboy Blu-ray Review

• 10th May 2011

Time may have passed, but Midnight Cowboy still stands up for all of its relevance today. The tale of a couple of street hustlers in New York having to confront the fact that their dreams may never be realised and having to depend upon one another is a heart breaking tale and, ultimately, an uncomfortable one when you see how they live, how shunned by society they are and what little hope they have for the future.

Jon Voight (as the out-of-towner) and Dustin Hoffman (as the Bronx regular) are mesmerising in their parts. The film tore down a few barriers in its time, and despite its X rating at the time, it still went onto win the Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay awards. Both the actors were nominated and it isn’t hard to see why. Hoffman with his many added psychical inflections make for quite a change from his role in The Graduate. Voight has a bigger arc to play though as the charming and cheerful playboy who comes to town all cocksure and ready to run his hustle but all too quickly finds himself victim of almost anyone he tries to help or that tries to help him.

The extras look short, but you get a lot of depth. There is a half hour retrospective with all of the key players (save for the late director). There is also a short piece contemplating the reception of the film, and a piece where people remember director, John Schlesinger. This isn’t just the cast and crew of this film – you get many other directors, actors and critics from other projects that have been kind enough to lend their thoughts on the man. There is also a producer’s commentary for the film as well.

The Blu-ray looks a bit grainy in places, but there are aspects of the more psychedelic and B/W moments that need to retain that rough edge to their look – so don’t be worried that you have been given a terrible transfer of the film.

Steven Hurst