Midnight Cowboy

A detailed Summary of Midnight Cowboy

Midnight Cowboy, a story about the loneliness and obstacles, was difficult to comprehend. Although I did enjoy some aspects of the movie, my overall opinion was one of distaste. A few of the themes were awkward and confusing, and the movie moved at the speed of a one-legged hurdler.

Midnight Cowboy is about not only the hardships one has to overcome, but a friendship along the way. Joe, a young, naive, uneducated boy, makes a major move from the only home he has ever known, Texas, to the Big Apple. In Texas, he is a lonely dishwasher with no future ahead of him. Rather then go to work one day, he dresses, bathes, and puts on flashy cowboy attire. While looking in the mirror he states, "You know what you can do with them dishes. And if you ain't mad enough to do it yourself, I'd be happy to oblige. I really would."

He leaves his room at the Big Spring Motel with just a suitcase carrying his belongings. Before he leaves for his fantasyland, he stops at Miller's Restaurant, his work, to quit his dead-end job. There he has a conversation with Ralph, a co-worker. He tries to explain himself by declaring "Lotta rich women back there, Ralph, begging for it, paying for it, too...and the men- they're mostly tutti-frutti

Finally, the movie is very drawn out. Midnight Cowboy is an incredibly long movie. The pacing is awful. The second time viewing the movie, I found myself in a comatose state. Almost falling asleep every minute.

During the film, he had a lot of homosexual tendencies; whether he was gay or not, I am not sure. I think that the homosexual part comes from only being raised by women and therefore liking men. Joe has a couple of homosexual experiences throughout the movie. Did he really do it for the money? That is a question I am still trying to figure out.

The next morning he spots Ratso at a dirty diner. He tries to get his money back, but he finds out that Ratso has no money at all. To make a long story short, this is the beginning of their weird friendship. Ratso invites Joe to stay in the X-flat with him. He finally says yes. They grow close because they only have each other. They are two lonely guys. During the movie, they go through many obstacles, but they seem to overcome them all.

Joe decides to hit up the bar. He starts talking to the guy next to him, Ratso. Joe is impressed with how street smart Ratso is. He continues to talk to Ricco about hustling and Ricco suggests that he needs a pimp. He states that he knows the perfect guy for him. After scamming Joe out of $20, Ratso leads him to a rundown hotel room. The guy is no way going to help Joe out with hustling, but more like help him with religion.

Towards the end, Ratso is dying and wants to go to Florida. Florida is seen as an escape to a pleasant life. Joe gets the money for bus fare by stealing from an old homosexual guy, which I think he murdered. After getting on the bus, Ratso seems to be getting sicker. He wets his pants. He tells Joe that his name is Ricco from now on and not Ratso. They both want to "start over" and forget the past. On the way to Florida, Ricco dies. Joe goes to get the bus driver to let him know. The bus driver tells him to shut his eyes and then drives on. When Joe gets to Florida with the corpse, he throws out his cowboy attire and buys new clothes. He redresses Ricco and it ends there. Joe starts a new, changed life.

A review by Damian Cannon gives an overall good view of Midnight Cowboy. A couple of comments here and there, I did not agree with. "It's a credit to the filmmakers that these mental drifts, squeezed in throughout the film, never disrupt the core plot." I believe this statement cannot be farther from the truth. When I viewed the film for the first time, I could not have been more confused about what was happening. To me, the flashbacks break the movie up; disrupts it. The flashbacks give very little insight into Joe's background. I did not get anything out of them except he was raised by his grandmother, she slept around, she was never there for him, his girlfriend was the town slut, and his grandmother died. That is not much to work with. You almost have to read the book to find out what happened to him while he was growing up to make him the way he is now.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2142
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English