| USA, 1969 | Drama | Mainstream | Trailer |
Midnight Cowboy is one of these movies that have an aura that transcends their existence. It’s one iconic piece from the American New Wave movement, constantly praised and acclaimed, and many of its amazing scenes and pieces of footage have been source of inspiration for photographs, imitations, homages and references in other cultural works. Nevertheless, in spite of knowing all of this, I have been postponing my watch for years, until yesterday.
Why?, you may ask yourselves. I dreaded that this movie would be overly gritty, repulsive and disheartening. The story of a Texas man who is conscious of his handsome physique, dreaming to become a gigolo for the high society in New York, and falling to the depths of lumpen for sure does not sound as a very nice prompt for a good time enjoyment. Nevertheless, something deep inside me thought that yesterday was the adequate day for forgetting my prejudices and starting the watch. Call it intuition, or so.
I am definitely happy to have given Midnight Cowboy a chance. The main story and topic are still consequential to the prompt, but it’s definitely not treated in a grimmy way. The movie shows reality bluntly but elegantly, and tarnishes the despair found within with a coat of warm feelings, like friendship, humanity, hope and exciting anticipation, that somehow give the work a cosy feeling. Even if the outcome is bad.
The usage of music here for sure helps with this tarnish. The lovely piece Everybody is Talking at Me, which is the main theme of the movie, is played in different contextes that give it an unique meaning every time. Its tunes highlight the consciousness of the individual, the feeling of being invisible in society, and the hopes on finding and enjoying human warmth many times throughout the work. Also partly because of this sound, Midnight Cowboy delivered me a similar aftertaste to other pieces from the time, like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Getaway or Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, not only because of the underlying humanity here. Incidentally, these movies are all, somehow, post-classic westerns that are able to find warmth in tragedy. What did the American New Wave have to love this archetype? I don’t know but it brings joy and freshness to my heart.
Midnight Cowboy also has the elegance to include many avant-garde, almost Warholesque camera resources, movements, mixing effects and ideologic montages that are bound to reveal more of the sensorial and memory world, rather than conveying a classic narrative. Things as the main character’s backstory or the mare magnum of thoughts and sensations he has in many scenes are hinted with these, and whilst they are not translateable by concrete definitions in our minds, we get the appropiate impression of them.
Do I repent to have postponed the experience with this elegant movie? Definitely not. It came to me at the moment it had to come, and if I was able to enjoy it so much, it’s thanks to that. I have enough filmic baggage now so I could enjoy the different aspects and goods that Midnight Cowboy has to offer. My heart is warm again now.