That was the improbable genesis of “Midnight Cowboy,” the 1969 classic of two outcasts who find heartbreak and hope in the kaleidoscopic jungle of New York City. Though Hoffman had just come off his breakout performance in “The Graduate,” neither Hoffman nor Voight was favored by “Midnight Cowboy” director John Schlesinger. Joe’s illusions, Salt concluded, “are in fact the absurd reality of our time.” Thanks in part to Salt, “Midnight Cowboy” is as much a meditation on urban rootlessness as it is on male friendship. While Frankel uses “Midnight Cowboy” to trace broader cultural trends, some digressions are extraneous. Or as Voigt told his disbelieving director while still shooting “Midnight Cowboy,” “We will live the rest of our artistic lives in the shadow of this great masterpiece.”Shooting Midnight CowboyArt, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark ClassicBy Glenn Frankel

Source: Washington Post March 31, 2021 18:11 UTC