Midnight Cowboy
One of the British New Wave’s most versatile directors, John Schlesinger came to New York in the late 1960s to make Midnight Cowboy, a picaresque story of friendship that captured a city in crisis and sparked a new era of Hollywood movies. Jon Voight delivers a career-making performance as Joe Buck, a wide-eyed hustler from Texas hoping to score big with wealthy city women; he finds a companion in Enrico “Ratso” Rizzo, an ailing swindler with a bum leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida, played by Dustin Hoffman in a radical departure from his breakthrough in The Graduate. A critical and commercial success despite controversy over what the MPAA termed its “homosexual frame of reference,” Midnight Cowboy became the first X-rated film to receive the best picture Oscar, and decades on, its influence still reverberates through cinema.
Special Features
- New 4K digital restoration, approved by cinematographer Adam Holender, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Alternate 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- Audio commentary from 1991 featuring director John Schlesinger and producer Jerome Hellman
- New video essay with commentary by Holender
- New photo gallery with commentary by photographer Michael Childers
- The Crowd Around the Cowboy, a 1969 short film made on location for Midnight Cowboy
- Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter’s Journey, an Academy Award–nominated documentary from 1990 by Eugene Corr and Robert Hillmann
- Two short documentaries from 2004 on the making and release of Midnight Cowboy
- Interview with actor Jon Voight on The David Frost Show from 1970
- Voight’s original screen test
- Interview from 2000 with Schlesinger for BAFTA Los Angeles
- Excerpts from the 2002 BAFTA Los Angeles tribute to Schlesinger
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Mark Harris
New cover by Jay Shaw
Special Features
- New 4K digital restoration, approved by cinematographer Adam Holender, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Alternate 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- Audio commentary from 1991 featuring director John Schlesinger and producer Jerome Hellman
- New video essay with commentary by Holender
- New photo gallery with commentary by photographer Michael Childers
- The Crowd Around the Cowboy, a 1969 short film made on location for Midnight Cowboy
- Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter’s Journey, an Academy Award–nominated documentary from 1990 by Eugene Corr and Robert Hillmann
- Two short documentaries from 2004 on the making and release of Midnight Cowboy
- Interview with actor Jon Voight on The David Frost Show from 1970
- Voight’s original screen test
- Interview from 2000 with Schlesinger for BAFTA Los Angeles
- Excerpts from the 2002 BAFTA Los Angeles tribute to Schlesinger
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Mark Harris
New cover by Jay Shaw
Cast
- Dustin Hoffman
- Ratso
- Jon Voight
- Joe Buck
- Sylvia Miles
- Cass
- John McGiver
- Mr. O’Daniel
- Brenda Vaccaro
- Shirley
- Barnard Hughes
- Towny
- Ruth White
- Sally Buck
- Jennifer Salt
- Annie
- Bob Balaban
- The young student
Credits
- Director
- John Schlesinger
- Producer
- Jerome Hellman
- Screenplay
- Waldo Salt
- Based on the novel by
- James Leo Herlihy
- Musical supervision
- John Barry
- Director of photography
- Adam Holender
- Production designer
- John Robert Lloyd
- Film editor
- Hugh A. Robertson
- Graphic effects
- Pablo Ferro
- Creative consultant
- Jim Clark
- Costume designer
- Ann Roth
- Casting by
- Marion Dougherty
Trailer for Midnight Cowboy
