>>
>>
> Wha? Gay movie? Midnight Cowboy
was one of the weirdest and most
> depressing films I ever saw
Just to bring a bit back into New York, Ken, here are a couple of Google
hooked takes on the film:
"This is one of the most emotional gay relationship movies ever made. The
two main characters go through life on the bad side of society with only
each others love and support to keep them going."
"Joe Buck (Jon Voight) a good-looking, naively charming Texas "cowboy" who's
convinced that he's the salvation of many love-starved New York women, makes
his way to the Big Apple to seek his fortune.
Trouble is, his well-to-do clientele never materializes - and the only
wealth he finds is in the friendship of Ratso Rizzo (Hoffman), a scrounging,
sleazy, small-time con man with big dreams.
Living on the tattered fringe of society, these two outcasts develop an
unlikely bond - one that transcends their broken dreams and get-rich-quick
schemes and makes Midnight Cowboy "that rarest of things...every bit as
moving now as it was when it was [first] released" (Premiere Magazine).
Daring. Provocative. Shocking. Compelling. Nearly thirty years after its
original release, "Midnight Cowboy is still heartbreaking - and timeless"
(The New York Observer)."
but if there was gayness to it, that went
> right past me. Well, I was 25, newly married, profoundly naive (still
> am at 61), and I was about to leave New York City for Upstate. I've
> never lived in New York since. For me, at least, Midnight Cowboy was
> the perfect urban nightmare for someone about to depart it for Upstate
> and the presumed "vita nuova" of graduate school. "THIS is what I'm
> leaving behind? Dustin Hoffman? Sylvia Miles?? I'm outta here!" But
> gay? I was naive, yes. For all that, MC is one of two movies I refuse
> to watch ever again. The other is Sophie's Choice. I'd rather see a
> marathon of Todd Browning movies, including a colorized version of
> Freaks. So I guess I'm bound to have missed stuff.
>
>> Take advantage while we can before the media begins to fill us with fake
>> sugar and nostalgia (the 'docs' are coming.)
>>
>>
> I have a profound regret...and it predates Katrina...that I never got to
> see New Orleans. I could either never afford the trip or was turned off
> by the idea of the humid weather. I don't do humidity too well. But
> that upset me only in the New Orleans context. I'd been in South
> Florida in 1986 to visit some dying relatives (who else goes to Florida
> except dying relatives?) and the heat had no redeeming social value
> because there is NOTHING there except ways to get old gracelessly. I
> knew I was not some exceptional being and could probably adjust to New
> Orleans, but the opportunity never came. Now? I'm doubtful. I'm
> waiting for the strip malls, WalMart, and theme parks (Resurrection
> Village) to move into the reconstruction. They'll have a clarinetist
> out front to do Pete Fountain imitations. Imitations because the old
> guy will have died of shame.
>
>
> Ken
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