Flickers in Time

Midnight Cowboy
Directed by John Schlesinger
Written by Waldo Salt from a novel by James Leo Herily
1969/US
IMDb link
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

 

Joe Buck: You know, Cass, that’s a funny thing you mentioning money – ’cause I was just about to ask you for some.

I have always loved this movie.  Somehow I came out of it exhilarated rather than depressed, making it a good Lockdown pick.

The movie’s protagonist is young, strong, handsome Joe Buck (Jon Voigt).  He starts off from a small Texas town.  We learn bits and pieces from his back story via various snippets in flashback.  Though not explicitly stated, it appears that his grandmother, who raised him, is the smothering type while at the same time being a “wicked woman” of some kind.  Joe may have also been accused of a gang rape of his sex partner “Crazy Annie”.  At any rate, his history has caused him to believe that he can make big money as a gigolo/male prostitute in New York City.

Things definitely do not go as planned.  A woman Joe picks up on the street (Sylvia Miles) expects Joe to pay her.  One of the first people Joe meets is scrounger/con artist Enrique “Ratso” Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) who rips him off and sends him to service a religious fanatic (John McGiver) .  Joe discovers for himself that his main attraction is for the gay clientele cruising  42nd Street.  When he meets Ratso again they form an unlikely friendship.  I will stop there.  With Brenda Vacarro as a client.

This movie is certainly of its time.  I think its larger theme is the culture clash back when feelings were running high throughout the country.   It also works perfectly as a character story.  Its filmmaking style is a heady mixture of all things “new”.  Sometime Schleshinger goes overboard but more often he is right on.  There’s a fair amount of black comedy peppering the misery.

The performances of Voigt and Hoffman are a thing of wonder.  The music was the soundtrack of my youth. I’ve seen this several times over the years and it has gone from great, to dated, and back to great in my estimation. Highly Recommended.

Midnight Cowboy won Oscars in the categories of Best Picture; Best Director; and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Actor (Voigt and Hoffman); Best Supporting Actress (Sylvia Miles); and Best Film Editing.  It was the only X-rated film to ever win the Best Picture Oscar.  The film now carries an R rating.

Kes
Directed by Ken Loach
Written by Barry Hines, Tony Garnett and Ken Loach from a novel by Hines
1969/UK
IMDb link
First viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] My heart in hiding/ Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of, the mastery of the thing! – Gerard Manley Hopkins, “The Windover”[/box]

A fine film.  Nevertheless, a bit on the despairing side for Lockdown.

Billy is 15 years old.  He lives with his family in a working-class home in Yorkshire. Everyone speaks in a thick Yorkshire dialect.  His father is not in the picture, his mother works all day and goes out at night, and his older brother is a real bully.  Billy is slight in stature and dreamy in nature and is also bullied mercilessly at school by classmates and even teachers.

But Billy has a special gift with animals.  He spies fledglings in a kestrel nest and steals one he names “Kes” to train.  He steals a book on falconry and seems to be a natural at the sport.  Will this relationship with nature improve his situation in life?

The birder in me loved the scenes with Kes and David Bradley gave an outstanding  performance.  Films that feature intentional cruelty especially to children are a hard watch for me.  There is a lot of bullying to endure in this one.  Recommended if you can take the brutal with the poetic.

Kes

The Wild Bunch
Directed by Sam Peckinpah
Written by Walon Green, Sam Peckinpah, and Roy N. Sickner
1969/US
First viewing/Amazon Instant
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Pike Bishop: We’re not gonna get rid of anybody! We’re gonna stick together, just like it used to be! When you side with a man, you stay with him! And if you can’t do that, you’re like some animal, you’re finished! *We’re* finished! All of us![/box]

This bloody, violent Western holds out little hope for humanity.  Maybe not the thing for the disgusted during Lockdown.

The year is 1913.  The place is somewhere near the Mexican border.  Pike (William Holden) leads a gang of railroad and bank bandits.  The most prominent members of the gang are played by Ben Johnson, Warren Oates, Ernest Borgnine and an unrecognizable Edmund O’Brien who steals every scene he is in.  After a botched attempt to “do one last” job on a train, they take off for Mexico with Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan) and his gang of bounty hunters hot on their trail.  Their plan is to hijack a train carrying guns and ammunition and sell the loot to a corrupt revolutionary general’s army.

Pike and his men have nothing but trouble in Mexico.  Thornton is still after them and the Mexicans they deal with are drunken, whoring, sadists who can’t be trusted.

This movie is famous for its violence.  That it definitely has in spades.  I cannot stand the way Peckinpah shoots massacres in slow-motion.  I wasn’t a fan of the ethic stereotyping either.

Those niggles aside, it is clear why it was an “important” film for its time.  The action is beautifully choreographed.  The film also benefits from its superb cast.  Holden and Ryan showed they were still at the top of their game.  Once is enough for me but I’m glad it is on the List and that I have finally seen it.

The film is usually classified as in the “death of the Old West” category.  In many prior films this is symbolized by encroaching “civilization”- families, farms, churches etc.  In this one, the death of Holden and his gang is caused by corruption and debauchery.  The New West looks a lot worse than the Old West in this version.  I should have waited until after Lockdown.

The Wild Bunch was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Material Not Previously Published or Produced and Best Music, Original Score