Posted on by 1000filmsblog

#383 Midnight Cowboy

Watched: May 10 2026

Director: John Schlesinger

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles, John McGiver, Brenda Vaccaro, Barnard Hughes, Ruth White, Jennifer Salt

Year: 1969

Runtime: 1h 53min

Joe Buck (Voight) is coming east to be a prostitute! The naive (and a bit simple) cowboy tries to establish a career as a “hustler” but is ridiculously bad at the business side of things. Then he meets Ratso/Rizzo (Hoffman) who offers to set him up with a pimp for a cut of the proceeds. What could possibly go wrong?

“Oh my God! I’m GORGEOUS!” (IYKYK)

This could be the setup for either a comedy or a tragedy. Fortunately for the movie, but unfortunately for our mental states, it definitely lands in the latter category. Finding rich women willing to pay for sex is a harder job than Joe imagined. but at least he develops an unlikely but kind of beautiful relationship with the equally weird and lonely outsider Rizzo, who dreams of going to sunny Florida.

But for now, he’s busy walkin’ here

Joe’s past seems a Cimmerian cocktail of childhood abuse, religious trauma, sexual trauma and isolation. Homeless Rizzo is a tragic character as well, squatting in squalor (that’s fun to say ten times fast!) and trying to survive by any means necessary in an inhospitable city.

“So, I see a suave cowboy hustler.” “No, no, this is definitely a bachelor. Confirmed.”

We loved their relationship, the flashbacks and mysteries of Joe’s past, the dream sequences and the fantasies. Hansel and Gretel’s party seemed to us the quintessential ’60s New York party, and that whole sequence was exciting. Also, there’s a not-so-secret homosexual subtext here that’s really great. But we loved a lot of that in the worst way possible – this movie is just incredibly sad. That being said – it’s a classic for very good reasons and we would recommend it to everyone.

“Well Deborah, I’m not gonna pay him to lick my FACE!”

Again though Edgar, why do you make us watch these emotionally devastating movies? There have been three in a row that have gradually chipped away at our will to live. Reality is bad enough right now – we don’t need our entertainment to make things even worse…

Oh, all right, we forgive you. Mostly because these heartbreaking and depressing movies have all been very good. But also partly because you’re not actually forcing us to do this and we kind of brought it on ourselves…

What we learned: We need Jesus! More specifically, we each need a flashing Jesus statue in our bathroom.

MVP: Repression? Imagination? Friendship?

Next time: Sweet Charity (1969)

Posted on by 1000filmsblog

#298 The Graduate

Watched: January 31 2021

Director: Mike Nichols

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross, William Daniels, Murray Hamilton, Elizabeth Wilson

Year: 1967

Runtime: 1h 46min

Surprise motherfuckers! We’re not dead. We just got to summer and realised we were completely exhausted by work and pandemics and generally being alive, so we needed a proper break. No work, no writing, no responsibilities! Sorry ’bout it. But we are now rested and rejuvenated and ready to dive back in with a fun, lighthearted romp through depression, existential crises, borderline abuse, doomed relationships and rape allegations… Oh. Oh damn.

Source

Well, the plot of The Graduate is pretty well known. Ben (Hoffman) comes home from college, all disillusioned and emo. His parents’ generation is totes old fashioned and lame, and all Ben knows is he certainly doesn’t want to become like them (spoiler alert: he probably will). Then the ultimate cougar seduces him.

The ancient crone Anne Bancroft, 36 years old at the time of filming. Fuck, we’re old.

Ben’s domestic claustrophobia and feeling of alienation on his return home are probably familiar to most people – we know we’ve been there. Being a young adult is hard, man! Luckily, he deals with his emotions in a mature manner – by floating around in the pool and fucking his parents’ friend.

“They just don’t understand, AquariumMan!”

Things get more complicated once Ben falls in love with Mrs Robinson’s daughter Elaine (Ross). Whether out of jealousy or because she thinks her daughter could do better than her boy toy, Mrs Robinson does everything she can to break the two up – including falsely accusing Ben of rape.

“I get that you’re mad at me, but the trope of women falsely crying rape in popular culture is very detrimental to feminism in general and to actual victims specifically. Because while statistically false accusations are rare and unreported assaults are much more common, a lot of people will use the few examples that exist in order to undermine the victims who do come forward. See – I did learn some things in college!”

As is tradition, let’s go through what we liked and didn’t like about The Graduate. We loved the stress, depression and claustrophobia experienced by Ben, the clown painting, the portrayal of ennui and alienation, Simon and Garfunkel, and the last shot when the two crazy kids realize they may have just made a huge mistake.

Well fuck

What we didn’t like… Well… Let’s face it: Elaine is a non-person. The only semi-intelligent thing she does is leave him on that first, disasterous date. Then after that, she sort of just exists to be an object of obsession for her new stalker who’s secretly banging her mom. And also to show him if you just stalk and bother her enough, she’ll eventually fall in love with you. #lifehack

There’s nothing more charming than a man who follows you to a date with another guy. Harrassment means he cares!

That being said, Ben’s malaise is relatable for people of several generations. The ’60s was not the last decade where the youth had trouble relating to their parents, and while we came around a long time later (we’re still young dammit!), we’ve been in the same boat. Luckily, we avoided being seduced by the neighbourhood cougar. Phew!

What we learned: A relationship is the solution to all your problems! Also, stalking is super romantic.

Next time: The President’s Analyst (1967)