This article is about the 1969 film. For the novel on which this film is based, see Midnight Cowboy (novel). For other uses, see Midnight Cowboy (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Manhattan Cowboy, Cowboy in Manhattan, or Urban Cowboy.
Midnight Cowboy
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
John Schlesinger
Screenplay by
Waldo Salt
Based on
Midnight Cowboy by James Leo Herlihy
Produced by
Jerome Hellman
Starring
Jon Voight
Dustin Hoffman
Brenda Vaccaro
John McGiver
Ruth White
Sylvia Miles
Barnard Hughes
Cinematography
Adam Holender
Edited by
Hugh A. Robertson
Music by
John Barry
Production companies
Jerome Hellman Productions
Mist Entertainment
Distributed by
United Artists
Release date
May 25, 1969 (1969-05-25) (New York)
Running time
113 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$3.2 million[1]
Box office
$44.8 million[2]
Midnight Cowboy is a 1969 American drama film directed by John Schlesinger, adapted by Waldo Salt from the 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. The film stars Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, with supporting roles played by Sylvia Miles, John McGiver, Brenda Vaccaro, Bob Balaban, Jennifer Salt and Barnard Hughes. Set in New York City, Midnight Cowboy depicts the unlikely friendship between two hustlers: naïve prostitute Joe Buck (Voight) and ailing con man Rico Rizzo (Hoffman), referred to as "Ratso".
At the 42nd Academy Awards, the film won three awards: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Midnight Cowboy is the only X-rated film (the current equivalent of an NC-17 rating) to win Best Picture.[3][4] It placed 36th on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American films of all time, and 43rd on its 2007 updated version.
In 1994, Midnight Cowboy was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress, and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.[5]
^Balio, Tino (1987). United Artists: The Company That Changed the Film Industry. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 292. ISBN 9780299114404.
^"Midnight Cowboy". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on January 30, 2012. Retrieved February 26, 2012.
^Mitchell, David (2014). "Gay Pasts and Disability Future(s) Tense". Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies. 8 (1): 1–16. doi:10.3828/jlcds.2014.1. S2CID 145241198.
^Ditmore, Melissa Hope (2006). "Midnight Cowboy". Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work. Vol. 1. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 307–308. ISBN 9780313329685.
^"Complete National Film Registry Listing". National Film Registry. The Library of Congress. Archived from the original on October 31, 2016. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
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