A wide-eyed hustler with big dreams arrives in New York City from Texas aiming to charm wealthy women. Unexpectedly, he forms a bond with an ailing con-man who dreams of escaping to sunny Florida. John Schlesinger’s exploration of the darker aspects of urban American life secured three Oscars at the 42nd Academy Awards: Best Director, Best Screenplay (awarded to the once-blacklisted writer Waldo Salt), and the first ever Best Picture win for an X-rated movie. Enhanced by its iconic soundtrack and the legendary performances of Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, Midnight Cowboy is now widely celebrated as one of the most ground-breaking American films of the late 1960s.

Reviews

‘Director John Schlesinger and screenwriter Waldo Salt pump so much emotion into it that it becomes a moving epitaph both to its two striving characters and the American dream itself.’
★★★★★
Sophie Monks Kaufman, Time Out

‘A still potent stew of 60s sleaze…Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman’s squabbling amid the squalor of low-rent New York remains a heartbreaking triumph’
★★★★★
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian