Film History Milestones - 1969 Event and Significance 1969 Midnight Cowboy (1969) , starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, became the only X-rated picture to ever win an Oscar for Best Picture (the rating was later changed to an R). More and more mainstream films contained sexual content that was unacceptable only a few years earlier. 1969 The last film to be rated M (for Mature Audiences) was director Pierre Grimblat's foreign film Slogan (1969, Fr.), issued on January 26, 1970. It marked the first collaboration between legendary French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg and English actress/singer Jane Birkin, who had previously appeared in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up (1966, UK). The couple later married and became infamous for the sexually explicit hit song "Je t’aime… moi non plus." 1969 Stand-up comic, writer and part-time actor Woody Allen made his directorial feature film debut in the comedy Take the Money And Run (1969) , serving as the film's director, actor, and co-scriptwriter.

He had shared directorial duties for an earlier film, What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966), composed of rearranged and redubbed scenes from two Japanese spy films. 1969 On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) was the first (and last) film with Australian-born actor George Lazenby as Agent 007, the youngest (at age 29) of the actors to portray Bond at the time of filming. This was the only film in which Bond married one of his romantic conquests - although his bride was murdered in a drive-by shooting shortly afterwards on her wedding day by villain Blofeld's assistant Irma Bunt (Ilse Steppat). 1969 ABC-TV programmer Barry Diller created "The Movie of the Week." By 1971, ABC was airing Tuesday and Wednesday night versions. 1969 Sony introduced a new device -- the videocassette recorder (VCR) for home use. 1969 Kinney National Company, a New York conglomerate whose interests included parking lots and funeral homes, acquired Warner-Seven Arts and in 1972 renamed the company Warner Communications Inc.

1969 Director Costa-Gavras' French-Algerian co-produced thriller Z (1969) received the Oscar as the Best Foreign Language Film by the Academy. It was also the first nominee in the Best Foreign Language Film category to be nominated for Best Picture. It also had the shortest title of a film nominated for an Oscar. 1969 After her last film, Fox's Mr. Belvedere Goes to College (1949), former child star Shirley Temple entered politics after raising a family - she was appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Later, she served as U.S. ambassador to Ghana (1974-1976) and Czechoslovakia (1989), and during the late 70s was the U.S. Chief of Protocol. 1969 Mario Puzo’s novel The Godfather was published in March of 1969, becoming the basis for director Francis Ford Coppola's monumental duo of Godfather films in the 1970s: The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather, Part 2 (1974) .

1969 The first of four theatrical feature film releases based on the popular Peanuts comic strip characters created by Charles Schulz, the animated A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969), appeared - directed by Bill Melendez. The other three feature films were: Snoopy, Come Home (1972), Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown (1977), and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (1980). 1969 The establishment of the "First Artists Production Company" was an attempt by Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman, and Barbra Streisand to form their own studio and control their own projects. Steve McQueen joined in 1971 (and later Dustin Hoffman in 1976). The first effort of the short-lived studio (until 1980 when the company was sold) was Streisand's own Up the Sandbox (1972).

[Streisand's other two films for First Artists were A Star is Born (1976) and The Main Event (1979).] Approximately two dozen films and television shows were produced by First Artists, among them Paul Newman's The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) and Steve McQueen's The Getaway (1972). 1969 A new wave of independent film-making in Hollywood (dubbed "The New Hollywood") was signaled by Dennis Hopper's anti-Establishment release of the low-budget "road film" Easy Rider (1969) . Its phenomenal success shook up the major Hollywood studios, and spawned many imitators - as well as made supporting actor Jack Nicholson a star. This movement was termed Hollywood's New Wave (fashioned after the earlier French New Wave), and would last through the next decade. Hopper's next experimental film The Last Movie (1971) was less successful, both commercially and critically, and sounded a death-knell for his own ambitious film-making efforts.

1969 Sam Peckinpah's ultra-violent western The Wild Bunch (1969) was exceptional for its non-glorification of bloodshed, and its slow-motion, heavily-edited, stylized views of multiple deaths -- it was influential for other filmmakers ranging from Martin Scorsese to John Woo to Quentin Tarantino in years to come. Due to its violence, the film was originally threatened with an X-rating by the newly-created MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), but an R-rating was its final decision. A so-called 'director's cut' version of the film, threatened with an NC-17 rating when submitted to the MPAA ratings board in 1993 prior to a re-release in 1994, held up the film's re-release for many months. 1969 The first "Alan Smithee" feature film was Death of a Gunfighter (1969). Its original and subsequent directors, Robert Totten and Don Siegel, both walked off the set, and appealed-complained to the Directors Guild of America (DGA), protesting against heavy editing cuts against their wishes that altered the film and their vision.

To appease them, the DGA credited the film to "Alan Smithee" (aka Allen Smithee) - a common pseudonym often used by movie directors who no longer wanted to be associated with a film and disowned it (others who have done so include David Lynch and William Friedkin). Decades later, the mockumentary An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1997) reduced the effectiveness of the alias name, and it was the last film to ever bear the pseudonym. 1969 Director Roman Polanski's 26 year-old pregnant wife/actress Sharon Tate was brutally murdered with four others in her Hollywood Hills home, by members of Charles Manson's 'Family.' The accused were convicted of the heinous crime in 1971 and ultimately sentenced to life in prison. 1969 Iconic 61 year-old western films actor John Wayne - after an almost forty year career - received his first and only Academy Award - Best Actor - (presented in 1970) for his role as feisty, drunken gunfighter Marshall Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn in True Grit (1969).

He was previously nominated for his performance in Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and as producer of Best Picture nominee The Alamo (1960). 1969 MGM musical star Judy Garland died at the age of 47 on June 22, 1969 in her London home, from the eventual effects of a life-long addiction to prescription drugs - an accidental overdose. Her life was marked by five marriages (and four divorces), suicide attempts, and numerous personal problems. She was best known for her roles as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939) , her three teamings with Mickey Rooney in a series of Andy Hardy films (in 1938, 1940, and 1941) and other musicals such as Babes in Arms (1939), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) , Easter Parade (1948), The Harvey Girls (1946), and a comeback performance in A Star is Born (1954) - for which she received her first and only Best Actress nomination (and lost to Grace Kelly for The Country Girl (1954)).

1969 African-American film-maker and cinematographer Gordon Parks directed his own autobiographical The Learning Tree (1969), and became the first black director of a major feature film for a major US studio. This laid the groundwork for Parks' next film -- the landmark blaxploitation action film Shaft (1971) with Richard Roundtree - a very successful cross-over film. 1969 English-born actor Boris Karloff (aka William H. Pratt) died at the age of 81 in his native England, of pneumonia. The star-making role of his career was in Universal's horror classic Frankenstein (1931) , in which he was cast as The Monster. He reprised his role in Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939). Another iconic role was as the ancient Egyptian priest Imhotep in The Mummy (1932). He also appeared in Howard Hawks' Scarface (1932) , and The Black Cat (1934) opposite Bela Lugosi.

1969 A three-day rock music festival, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, simply dubbed Woodstock, occurred in a large farming field in upstate New York in August of 1969, attracting 400,000 young people for an outdoor concert marked by drug use, nudity, food shortages and profanity, as well as superb performances by the rock stars of the era. The landmark concert was captured in director Michael Wadleigh's successful widescreen (and split-screen) rockumentary Woodstock: 3 Days of Love & Music (1970) - winning the Best Documentary Academy Award. 1969 For her performance in director Ken Russell's Women in Love (1969, UK), actress Glenda Jackson became one of the earliest performers to win an Academy Award for Best Actress (presented in 1971) for a role in which she appeared significantly nude. [Jackson was pregnant during the film shoot and commented about how her breasts ("wonderful bosom") had never before been so full.] The first Oscar-winning performance for a short, backside nude scene was for Julie Christie's portrayal of Diana Scott in Darling (1965, UK).

It was also one of the first films to feature male full-frontal nudity in the wrestling scene between Oliver Reed and Alan Bates. 1969 The satirical sex comedy Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) was the successful debut film of writer/director Paul Mazursky. It reflected the 'free love' era of the late 60s sexual revolution and the notion of bed-hopping-swinging. The film was noted for its publicity - a view of couples in bed together readied to experience group sex. The two couples were Bob and Carol Sanders (Robert Culp and Natalie Wood) and Ted and Alice Henderson (Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon). It also featured music of the period including one of the 1960’s most popular singles -- Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s "What the World Needs Now Is Love." 1969 The sexploitation film The Stewardesses (1969) was the first soft-core (actually hard-core adult film) 3D (Stereovision) feature film.

The sex comedy was first shown in 1969 and unique for any film, it was reshot and edited as it was shown for a few more years. It became the most profitable 3-D film in history (a budget of $100K brought in box-office of approx. $25-30 million), although eventually superseded by Avatar (2009). It was originally released with a self-imposed X-rating (although it was actually only soft-core), then re-cut for an R, and finally released again later as a porno film with hardcore inserts of completely different actors. 1969 There were two influential TV program debuts in 1969: the first episode of "Monty Python’s Flying Circus" debuted on BBC One on October 5, 1969 - the original surreal sketch comedy showcase for the Monty Python troupe, and the children's TV show "Sesame Street" made its broadcast debut on PBS-TV on November 10, 1969, including Jim Henson's Muppets.

1969 On December 6, 1969, hundreds of thousands of people gathered at the Altamont Speedway in Northern California for a free concert headlined by the Rolling Stones. It was mostly remembered for the violence that erupted, including the onstage killing of a gun-wielding teenager by a member of the Hells Angels (serving as the security force), captured and documented in the film Gimme Shelter (1970). Midnight Cowboy (1969) - IMDb IMDb 17 January 2017 4:34 PM, UTC NEWS There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error A naive hustler travels from Texas to New York to seek personal fortune but, in the process, finds himself a new friend.

Director: Waldo Salt (screenplay), James Leo Herlihy (based on the novel by) Stars: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 35 titles created 12 May 2012 a list of 49 titles created 02 Jul 2013 a list of 29 titles created 13 Sep 2014 a list of 27 titles created 05 Apr 2015 a list of 22 titles created 11 months ago Search for " Midnight Cowboy " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 3 Oscars. Another 24 wins & 15 nominations. See more awards » Photos A pair of NYC cops in the Narcotics Bureau stumble onto a drug smuggling job with a French connection. Director: William Friedkin Ted Kramer's wife leaves her husband, allowing for a lost bond to be rediscovered between Ted and his son, Billy. But a heated custody battle ensues over the divorced couple's son, deepening the wounds left by the separation.

Director: Robert Benton A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter. Director: Mike Nichols A graduate history student is unwittingly caught in the middle of an international conspiracy involving stolen diamonds, an exiled Nazi war criminal, and a rogue government agent. Director: John Schlesinger Bonnie Parker, a bored waitress falls in love with an ex-con named Clyde Barrow and together they start a violent crime spree through the country, robbing cars and banks. Director: Arthur Penn The World War II phase of the career of the controversial American general, George S. Patton . Director: Franklin J. Schaffner An African American police detective is asked to investigate a murder in a racially hostile southern town. Director: Norman Jewison Michael Dorsey, an unsuccessful actor, disguises himself as a woman in order to get a role on a trashy hospital soap. Director: Sydney Pollack Selfish yuppie Charlie Babbitt's father left a fortune to his savant brother Raymond and a pittance to Charlie; they travel cross-country. Director: Barry Levinson Follows hard-to-please Aurora looking for love and her daughter's family problems. Director: James L.

Brooks Two counterculture bikers travel from Los Angeles to New Orleans in search of America. Director: Dennis Hopper Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy. Directors: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise Stars: Natalie Wood, George Chakiris, Richard Beymer Edit Storyline Texas greenhorn Joe Buck arrives in New York for the first time. Preening himself as a real 'hustler', he finds that he is the one getting 'hustled' until he teams up with a down-and-out but resilient outcast named Ratso Rizzo. The initial 'country cousin meets city cousin' relationship deepens. In their efforts to bilk a hostile world rebuffing them at every turn, this unlikely pair progress from partners in shady business to comrades. Each has found his first real friend. Written by alfiehitchie See All (255) » Taglines: For those who have never seen it and those who have never forgotten it.

(1980 re-release) See more » Genres: 16 June 1969 (Brazil) See more » Also Known As: Perdidos en la noche See more » Filming Locations: Did You Know? Trivia Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman often competed with each other. Hoffman became a movie star before Voight did, and that brought some jealousy to the set. "We were like Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard, two fighters going at it," Hoffman told the Los Angeles Times. "We knew the movie depended on the bond between us. All through shooting, we'd say to each other, out of the side of our mouths, like a fighter in a clinch, 'Buddy, is that the best you can do?'" See more » Goofs When the main character, Voight, is hungry and destitute, he stops in a diner and sits with a weird mother and son. The son looks at the tracking camera not once but twice before dialog resumes. Easily edited, but left in, maybe on purpose.

See more » Quotes Jungle Jim at the Zoo (Also called "Jungle Gym at the Zoo") Music and Lyrics by Stan Bronstein (uncredited) and Rick Frank (uncredited) Produced by Wes Farrell for Buddah Records Sung by Elephant's Memory (as Elephants Memory) (Ohio, USA) – See all my reviews In my opinion, this is one of the greatest movies ever made in America and it deserved every single award it won and it's place on the AFI Top 100 list (though it's shamefully too low on the IMDB Top 250 list, at only #183 as of this writing). If you enjoy acting of the highest calibre (Voight and Hoffman are a superb match), well-drawn characterizations and inventive direction, editing and cinematography, you'll love this just as much as I did. Schlesinger paints a vivid, always credible picture of the late 60s New York City scene and it's many victims struggling to overcome personal demons and survive amidst the amorality, poverty and hopelessness of 42nd Street, New York City.

The filmmaking techniques employed here brilliantly capture the feel of the underground New York film movement (and of the city) and are nothing less than dazzling. I've seen many ideas (including the rapid-fire editing, the handling of the voice-over flashbacks, the drug/trip sequences and the cartoonish face slipped in during a murder scene to convey angst and terror) stolen by other filmmakers. The relationship between Joe and Ratso is handled in such a way as to be viewed as an unusually strong friendship OR having it's homosexual underpinnings. I think the director handled this in a subtle way not to cop out to the censorship of the times, but rather to concentrate his energies on the importance of a strong human connection in life, whether it be sexual or not. MIDNIGHT COWBOY is a brave, moving film of magnitude, influence and importance that has lost absolutely none of it's impact over the years, so if you haven't seen it, you're really missing out on a true American classic. I recommend this film to everyone. Score: 10 out of 10. 161 of 195 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Yes Midnight Cowboy (Blu-ray) (1969) Starring Dustin Hoffman & Jon Voight; Directed by John Schlesinger; MGM (Video & DVD) | OLDIES.com "I'm walking here!

I'm walking here!" Major Awards: Academy Awards 1969 - Best Adapted Screenplay: Waldo Salt Academy Awards 1969 - Best Director: John Schlesinger Academy Awards 1969 - Best Picture Entertainment Reviews: Entertainment Weekly - 03/11/1994 "...[The performances] have lost none of their magic....[They show us] characters who have nothing to offer the audience but their own lost souls." -- Rating: A- Los Angeles Times - 02/20/1994 "...What knocked people out 25 years ago, the parallel performances of Voight and Hoffman, still have the power today..." USA Today - 03/06/1992 "...The '69 Oscar-winner seems fresher than ever..." Premiere - 04/01/2004 "[T]his is a story of dreams unfulfilled, and Hoffman' pathetic street rat, both hilarious and heartbreakingly sad, becomes a kind of tragic hero." Rolling Stone - 02/23/2006 "[A] haunting 1969 classic about a conflicted connection between a naïve Texan hust

ler and a sickly Bronx-born scammer." Total Film - 06/01/2011 5 stars out of 5 -- "The elegiac ending offers one of the most tender, understated goodbyes in American cinema." Product Description: Joe Buck (Jon Voight), an aspiring male prostitute from Texas, heads to Manhattan where he hopes to find plenty of wealthy women willing to pay for the services of a handsome man.

When he arrives, the naive country boy befriends Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), a tubercular homeless con artist who dreams of moving to Florida. As they go about trying to get the money Ratso needs, the two men confront the seediness, corruption, and cruelty that flourish in the big city. Based on the novel by James Leo Herlihy, this Oscar-winning film (Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay) features brilliant performances by Voight and Hoffman, and brings to the screen an unusually gritty realism in its portrayal of the streets of New York City. Plot Synopsis: Originally rated X, this exceptional film based on James Leo Herlihy's novel centers on a naive, small-town Texan who comes to New York to become a paid stud. He forms a unique relationship with a slimy con man who becomes his closest friend, and ultimately, the key to his salvation. The film depicts New York at its absolute grittiest, and features a very memorable soundtrack. Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay. Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Actor--both Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight. Plot Keywords: Shot in Technicolor.

MIDNIGHT COWBOY was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1994. Director John Schlesinger originally wanted actor Michael Sarrazin for the Joe Buck role, but he was already committed to THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY' MIDNIGHT COWBOY was Dustin Hoffman's first film after his star-making turn in THE GRADUATE. To achieve that distinctive Ratso Rizzo limp, Hoffman placed pebbles in his shoes. "Everybody's Talkin'" was featured on Harry Nilsson's 1968 album AERIAL BALLET. Nilsson's intended theme for COWBOY was "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City," written by Nilsson specifically for the film. The film was named one of the year's 10 Best English-language films by the National Board of Review, one of the year's 10 best foreign films by Japan's Kinema Jumpo, and the best non-European film of 1970 by Denmark's Bodil awards. Schlesinger received best foreign director of 1969-70 from two Italian awards, the Davids and the Silver Ribbons.

Hoffman was named best actor of 1969-70 by Italy's David Awards. Voight was named Best Actor by the New York Film Critics and the National Society of Film Critics. A restored print of MIDNIGHT COWBOY was re-released to theaters in late February 1994 to commemorate the film's 25th anniversary. COWBOY was the first major studio release to sport an X rating and was the first X-rated film to win the Best Picture Academy Award. It was re-rated R by the MPAA in 1971. 65% OFF Midnight Cowboy (Collector's Edition) (Widescreen) (2-DVD) (1969) Starring Dustin Hoffman & Jon Voight; Directed by John Schlesinger; MGM (Video & DVD) | OLDIES.com "I'm walking here!

I'm walking here!" Major Awards: Academy Awards 1969 - Best Adapted Screenplay: Waldo Salt Academy Awards 1969 - Best Director: John Schlesinger Academy Awards 1969 - Best Picture Entertainment Reviews: Entertainment Weekly - 03/11/1994 "...[The performances] have lost none of their magic....[They show us] characters who have nothing to offer the audience but their own lost souls." -- Rating: A- Los Angeles Times - 02/20/1994 "...What knocked people out 25 years ago, the parallel performances of Voight and Hoffman, still have the power today..." USA Today - 03/06/1992 "...The '69 Oscar-winner seems fresher than ever..." Premiere - 04/01/2004 "[T]his is a story of dreams unfulfilled, and Hoffman' pathetic street rat, both hilarious and heartbreakingly sad, becomes a kind of tragic hero." Rolling Stone - 02/23/2006 "[A] haunting 1969 classic about a conflicted connection between a naïve Texan hust

ler and a sickly Bronx-born scammer." Total Film - 06/01/2011 5 stars out of 5 -- "The elegiac ending offers one of the most tender, understated goodbyes in American cinema." Product Description: Joe Buck (Jon Voight), an aspiring male prostitute from Texas, heads to Manhattan where he hopes to find plenty of wealthy women willing to pay for the services of a handsome man.

When he arrives, the naive country boy befriends Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), a tubercular homeless con artist who dreams of moving to Florida. As they go about trying to get the money Ratso needs, the two men confront the seediness, corruption, and cruelty that flourish in the big city. Based on the novel by James Leo Herlihy, this Oscar-winning film (Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay) features brilliant performances by Voight and Hoffman, and brings to the screen an unusually gritty realism in its portrayal of the streets of New York City. Plot Synopsis: Originally rated X, this exceptional film based on James Leo Herlihy's novel centers on a naive, small-town Texan who comes to New York to become a paid stud. He forms a unique relationship with a slimy con man who becomes his closest friend, and ultimately, the key to his salvation. The film depicts New York at its absolute grittiest, and features a very memorable soundtrack. Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay. Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Actor--both Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight. Keywords: Shot in Technicolor.

MIDNIGHT COWBOY was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1994. Director John Schlesinger originally wanted actor Michael Sarrazin for the Joe Buck role, but he was already committed to THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY' MIDNIGHT COWBOY was Dustin Hoffman's first film after his star-making turn in THE GRADUATE. To achieve that distinctive Ratso Rizzo limp, Hoffman placed pebbles in his shoes. "Everybody's Talkin'" was featured on Harry Nilsson's 1968 album AERIAL BALLET. Nilsson's intended theme for COWBOY was "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City," written by Nilsson specifically for the film. The film was named one of the year's 10 Best English-language films by the National Board of Review, one of the year's 10 best foreign films by Japan's Kinema Jumpo, and the best non-European film of 1970 by Denmark's Bodil awards. Schlesinger received best foreign director of 1969-70 from two Italian awards, the Davids and the Silver Ribbons.

Hoffman was named best actor of 1969-70 by Italy's David Awards. Voight was named Best Actor by the New York Film Critics and the National Society of Film Critics. A restored print of MIDNIGHT COWBOY was re-released to theaters in late February 1994 to commemorate the film's 25th anniversary. COWBOY was the first major studio release to sport an X rating and was the first X-rated film to win the Best Picture Academy Award. It was re-rated R by the MPAA in 1971. 60% OFF 15 Uncensored Facts About ‘Midnight Cowboy’ | Mental Floss 15 Uncensored Facts About ‘Midnight Cowboy’ YouTube Like us on Facebook On May 25, 1969, United Artists released the film Midnight Cowboy, starring Jon Voight (Texas transplant Joe Buck) and Dustin Hoffman (the sleazy Ratso Rizzo) as street hustlers in NYC.

It was the first studio film to receive an X-rating (the studio refused to edit anything out), and it became the first X-rated movie to be nominated and win a Best Picture Oscar (A Clockwork Orange and Last Tango in Paris followed suit with X-rated nominations). Hoffman and Voight were also nominated for Oscars, and screenwriter Waldo Salt and director John Schlesinger ended up winning gold statuettes for the movie. After the movie became a success, the MPAA demoted its rating to an R. Based on the novel by James Leo Herlihy, the film featured controversial gay intonations, yet it grossed $44 million —about $200 million by today’s standards. The movie saved the careers of its actors, producers, and Salt, who had been blacklisted and fallen on hard times. It also produced a hit song, Harry Nilsson’s “ Everybody’s Talkin’ .” Here are 15 facts about the landmark film. 1. JOHN SCHLESINGER WAS RELUCTANT TO HIRE DUSTIN HOFFMAN. Like everybody else, the filmmakers associated Dustin Hoffman with Benjamin Braddock, the clean-cut twentysomething he played in The Graduate.

“The truth was, I saw The Graduate as a setback, because I was determined not to be a star,” Hoffman told the Los Angeles Times . Hoffman was doing Off Broadway performances during the casting of Midnight Cowboy, so Schlesinger checked him out in a play. Hoffman frequented an automat with fellow thespians Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall; one night Hoffman showed up there with a scruffy beard, disheveled clothes, and a Bowery accent. Schlesinger said to Hoffman, “Why Dustin, you do fit right in,” and he got the part. 2. MIKE NICHOLS TRIED TO TALK HOFFMAN OUT OF DOING THE MOVIE. Hot off the heels of Mike Nichols’ The Graduate, Hoffman could’ve kept his romantic lead image up, but instead he opted to take a supporting part in Midnight Cowboy. “Mike Nichols, in fact, called me up,” Hoffman told Peter Travers . “And he says, ‘Are you crazy?’ He says, ‘I made you a star. This is an ugly character. It’s a supporting part to Jon Voight.’ He says, ‘What are you doing?

Why are you sabotaging?’” But Hoffman stuck to his guns and took the role. “I love the fact I was trying to remain a character actor and that was my desire,” he said. 3. VOIGHT WAS CAST ONLY AFTER THE ORIGINAL ACTOR WAS FIRED. Jon Voight auditioned for the role of Joe Buck and really wanted the part, but the producers chose Michael Sarrazin, whose major claim to fame is the 1969 Jane Fonda film They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? “Sometimes I would be offered a role and I would recommend somebody else—I was that kind of person,” Voight told Box Office Mojo . “Yet this one stopped me because the thing I was excited about for this piece wasn’t going to happen. I felt quite sick about it.” Fortunately for Voight, the producers changed their minds when Sarrazin demanded more money. “It came back to looking at our screen tests back to back,” said Voight.

“Apparently, Marion Dougherty, who was the casting director, was in the room and said, ‘Well, there’s no doubt who's the best actor.’ John Schlesinger said, ‘Who?’ And she said, ‘Jon Voight.’ Then, Dustin was called in to look at the tests and apparently he said, ‘When I look at my scene with Michael Sarrazin I look at myself—when I looked at my scene with Jon Voight, I look at Jon.’ That was a huge compliment. I think between these comments, that’s what tipped the balance and then John [Schlesinger] came forward, so I was very fortunate.” 4. VOIGHT WORKED FOR SCALE. Voight was so desperate to play Joe Buck that he worked for scale: “‘Tell them I'll do this part for nothing,’” Voight recalled to The Telegraph . “They took me at my word, and they gave me minimum for Midnight Cowboy.” At the end of the shoot, they sent him a $14.73 bill for meals on the last day of filming. 5. HOFFMAN THOUGHT THE MOVIE WOULD RUIN HIS CAREER.

The actor attended a preview of Midnight Cowboy and noticed “people walked out in droves.” “Twenty minutes into that movie, Jon Voight has a gay sex scene in the balcony with a kid who was played by Bob Balaban, and people would get up at that point and just walk out of the theater,” Hoffman told Larry King . “We said, ‘We have big problems’ when we heard we got an X-rating and we thought this could end everybody’s career. As a matter of fact, I was talked into doing a movie I wished I hadn’t done, because they had me so frightened that I had buried myself and reversed whatever good The Graduate did.” Hoffman’s agent forced him to star with Mia Farrow in the romantic drama John and Mary to make him “look like a respectable person.” 6. VOIGHT KNEW THE FILM WAS DESTINED TO BECOME A CLASSIC. Voight and Schlesinger wrapped filming in Texas and Voight noticed how red the director’s face was. Voight thought Schlesinger was having a heart attack and asked him if he was okay. “He looked up at me and said, ‘What have we done?

What will they think of us?’ After all, we had made a film about a dishwasher who lives in New York and f*cks a lot of women,” Voight told Esquire . “In the moment he’d finished it, he was shaking. All of a sudden, he saw it as banal and vulgar. He’s having an anxiety attack and I grabbed his shoulders to shake him out of it. I said, ‘John, we will live the rest of our artistic lives in the shadow of this great masterpiece.’ He said, ‘You think so?’ I said, ‘I’m absolutely sure of it.’ The only reason I said such an extravagant thing was because I wanted to get him out of it and nothing would take him out of it but that. But the statement turned out to be true.” 7. VOIGHT AND HOFFMAN WERE COMPETITIVE WITH EACH OTHER. What made the chemistry between Hoffman and Voight work so well is they were constantly competing with one another. Hoffman became a movie star before Voight did, and that brought some jealousy to the set. “We were like Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard, two fighters going at it,” Hoffman told the Los Angeles Times .

“We knew the movie depended on the bond between us. All through shooting, we’d say to each other, out of the side of our mouths, like a fighter in a clinch, ‘Buddy, is that the best you can do?’” 8. HOFFMAN PLACED PEBBLES IN HIS SHOE TO ACQUIRE RATSO’S LIMP. “Why pebbles? It’s not like you’re playing a role on Broadway for six months where you’re so used to it, limping becomes second nature,” Hoffman told Vanity Fair . “The stone makes you limp, and you don’t have to think about it.” 9. SCHLESINGER OUTED HIMSELF DURING FILMING OF THE MOVIE. In the late 1960s, one's sexuality wasn't often discussed in the open. But the British director fell in love with Michael Childers, who worked as his assistant on the movie. “We were one of Hollywood’s first out couples,” Childers told Vanity Fair . “He took me everywhere. I felt a little bit uncomfortable at times, but John never did.

He said, ‘F*ck ‘em.’” “John was totally torn up, because part of him wanted to just embrace this, and another part of him was in terror,” the film’s producer, Jerome Hellman, said. “He had these fantasies that if he were openly gay on a film set, that if he tried to give the crew an order, they would turn on him. I said to him, ‘John, look, you’re the director. It’s your movie. I’m the producer, but I’m your partner. There’s nobody who can challenge your authority. If someone speaks out of line to you, they’ll be fired the same minute.’” 10. THE FAMOUS “I’M WALKIN’ HERE” LINE WAS IMPROVISED. The scene in which Joe and Ratso attempt to walk across the street and almost get hit by a cab was filmed guerilla-style, with a camera in a van across the street. “It was a difficult scene, logistically, because those were real pedestrians and there was real traffic, and Schlesinger wanted to do it in one shot—he didn’t want to cut,” Hoffman explained .

“He wanted us to walk, like, a half a block, and the first times we did it the signal turned red. Schlesinger was getting very upset. He came rushing out of the van, saying, ‘Oh, oh, you’ve got to keep walking.’ ‘We can’t, man. There’s f*cking traffic.’ ‘Well, you’ve got to time it.’” They figured out how to properly time the walk but then almost got run over by a cab. “I guess the brain works so quickly, it said, in a split of a second, ‘Don’t go out of character,’” Hoffman said. “So I said, ‘I’m walking here,’ meaning, ‘We’re shooting a scene here, and this is the first time we ever got it right, and you have f*cked us up.’ Schlesinger started laughing. He clapped his hands and said, ‘We must have that, we must have that,’ and re-did it two or three times, because he loved it.” 11. HOFFMAN THREW UP ON SET WHILE TRYING TO COUGH. Talk about Method: Ratso has a deadly cough (consumption), and in a particular scene Hoffman got sick in real life.

“Because I was so nervous that I was going to come across fraudulent and not have the right cough, I tried to do the cough as realistically as I could,” Hoffman told Vanity Fair . “Each time, I tried to do it more realistically until, finally, I did it so realistically I threw up all over Jon. My lunch came up. All over his cowboy boots. Jon looked down. He said, ‘Man, why’d you do that?’ He thought I did it on purpose.” 12. SCHLESINGER DIDN’T THINK ANYBODY WOULD MAKE THE MOVIE TODAY. In 1994, the director found himself at a dinner party with a studio executive. “I said, ‘If I brought you a story about this dishwasher from Texas who goes to New York dressed as a cowboy to fulfill his fantasy of living off rich women, doesn’t, is desperate, meets a crippled consumptive who later pisses his pants and dies on a bus, would you—’ and he said, ‘I’d show you the door,’” Vanity Fair reported in 2000. 13.

THE SUNDANCE FILM ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL PAYS TRIBUTE TO MIDNIGHT COWBOY. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl features two friends who turn The Criterion Collection movies into film school comedies . One of those films is Midnight Cowboy, renamed as 2:48 p.m. Cowboy. In the film, Greg (Thomas Mann) and Earl (RJ Cyler) portray Ratso and Buck, respectively. “Midnight Cowboy became my favorite movie,” Cyler said in a featurette on Greg and Earl’s films. “Now I can’t stop watching it. I’m addicted to it. I’ll be in my trailer. ‘RJ, whatcha doing?’ ‘Watching Midnight Cowboy with some ramen noodles right now.’ It’s just so quirky the way the parody was made, and not just because I got to wear a beautiful cowboy hat.” 14. THERE’S A SPEAKEASY BAR IN AUSTIN NAMED AFTER THE FILM. Midnight Cowboy the bar is located inside a former oriental massage parlor that was busted by the F.B.I., hence the seedy name.

It has a red light—not a sign—outside to mark the place. In order to drink there, you need to make a reservation online , and when you get there, you buzz the box and give the password “Harry Craddock.” They have rules, though: no talking on your cell phone inside the bar, and no “excessive displays of public affection.” 15. A CHICAGO THEATER IS TURNING IT INTO A STAGE PRODUCTION. Chicago’s Lifeline Theatre puts on a lot of literary adaptations, and this February they begin previews for Midnight Cowboy, based on the book. This will be the world premiere adaptation of the novel. The show runs through April 10. More from mental_floss...

Question: Which film, released in 1969 and starring Dustin Hoffman is unique in the fact that it was the first X-rated film ever to win best picture Oscar ?
Answer: MIDNIGHT COWBOY