Shooting Midnight Cowboy

Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic

By: Glenn Frankel

Narrated by: John Pruden

A history of the controversial Oscar-winning film that signaled a dramatic shift in American popular culture

The director John Schlesinger’s Darling was nominated for five Academy Awards and introduced the world to the transcendently talented Julie Christie. Suddenly the toast of Hollywood, Schlesinger used his newfound clout to film an expensive Eastmancolor adaptation of Far from the Madding Crowd. Expectations were huge, making the movie’s complete critical and commercial failure even more devastating, and Schlesinger suddenly found himself persona non grata in the Hollywood circles he had hoped to join.

Given his recent travails, Schlesinger’s next project seemed doubly daring, bordering on foolish. James Leo Herlihy’s novel Midnight Cowboy, about a Texas hustler trying to survive on the mean streets of 1960s New York, was dark and transgressive. Perhaps something about the book’s unsparing portrait of cultural alienation resonated with him. His decision to film it began one of the unlikelier convergences in cinematic history, centered around a city that seemed, at first glance, as unwelcoming as Herlihy’s novel itself.

Glenn Frankel’s Shooting Midnight Cowboy tells the story of a modern classic that, by all accounts, should never have become one in the first place. The film’s boundary-pushing subject matter - homosexuality, prostitution, sexual assault - earned it an X rating when it first appeared in cinemas in 1969. For Midnight Cowboy, Schlesinger - who had never made a film in the United States - enlisted Jerome Hellman, a producer smarting from a failed marriage, and Waldo Salt, a formerly blacklisted screenwriter with a tortured past. The decision to shoot on location in New York, at a time when the city was approaching its gritty nadir, backfired when a sanitation strike filled Manhattan with garbage fires and fears of dysentery.

Much more than a history of Schlesinger’s film, Shooting Midnight Cowboy is an arresting glimpse into the world from which it emerged: a troubled city that nurtured the talents and ambitions of the pioneering Polish cinematographer Adam Holender and the legendary casting director Marion Dougherty, who discovered both Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight and supported them for the roles of Ratso Rizzo and Joe Buck - leading to one of the most intensely moving joint performances ever to appear on screen. We follow Herlihy himself as he moves from the experimental confines of Black Mountain College to the theaters of Broadway, influenced by close relationships with Tennessee Williams and Anaïs Nin, and yet unable to find lasting literary success. By turns madcap and serious, and enriched by interviews with Hoffman, Voight, and others, Shooting Midnight Cowboy is not only the definitive account of the film that unleashed a new wave of innovation in American cinema but also the story of a country (and an industry) beginning to break free from decades of cultural and sexual repression.

©2021 Glenn Frankel (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Extraordinary Movie/Joyful Time !!!!!

Spent Hours Reflecting Life’s Journey. Brilliant, Real Performances By Dustin & Jon. A Final Special Joy, Having Studied Acting With Jon From Sanford Meisner 60+ Years Ago. Zack Norman

a mixed bag made worthy by the narrator

The reader of this audible piece is what makes the book and helps wallpaper over the cracks. Authoritative, alive, conversational and deliberate, the narrator keeps the story going along, even when on paper much of it feels misdirected, long-winded or irrelevant. This is a shame. The book is unsure as to whether it wants to deal with the making of the film or a history of LGBT issues in cinema. It tries to do both. And perhaps only succeeds in the directly related midnight cowboy segments. This gives off a feeling of having to dig for the gold. And that is not a good feeling.

That said, the success of the book is certainly the feat it accomplishes in conveying two inspiring points: the day-to-day labor and luck it takes to create a masterpiece and all its attendant risk. Secondly, that Schlesinger for all his initial insecurities is one of the treasures of modern Cinema. Despite my quibbles, the book was ultimately worth it. And those minor concerns could be remedied with a better framing of what the book entails by the publisher / author before you dive in.

Fantastic!

Everything you want in an audiobook about a great movie. Well edited & performed. Highly recommended.

Brilliant Work

Thoroughly enjoyed listening to this read! not only a fine documentary of the making of my favorite movie, but also a vivid and informative history lesson about the industry, society and our world at Large. as a writer, I also have been informed about the Great lengths and passion it takes to turn dreams into art into reality. bravo!

Incredible

thank God for mavericks like John Schlesinger.

If your a film fan this books is a must.