Brilliant filmmaking.
Comment
01/01/00
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
90
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:48
Fresh:43
Rotten:5
Average Rating:8.3/10
Consensus: John Schlesinger's gritty, unrelentingly bleak look at the seedy underbelly of urban American life is undeniably disturbing, but Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight's performances make it difficult to turn away.
Synopsis: Joe Buck (Jon Voight), an aspiring male prostitute from Texas, heads to Manhattan where he hopes to find plenty of wealthy women willing to pay for the services of a handsome man. When he arrives,... [More]
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles, Brenda Vaccaro
Director: John Schlesinger
Reviews for Midnight Cowboy
Top CriticClick to read the article
08/18/08
Superb performances and a compelling script have made this film a strange mix of Oscar-winner and Cult Classic.
02/20/08
Top CriticIn this film the scenery is lovely and only the human race is vile.
01/30/08
Top CriticThe movie is locked into a sixties stylistic approach that can feel dated, but Hoffman’s performance can prevent one from ever tiring of the film.
01/30/08
An impressive and enduring evocation of time and place, this is a moving low-life drama built around Oscar-winning writing and performances.
01/30/08
No review available.
02/27/07
Talented Englishman Schlesinger had an unerring eye for capturing the grimy reality of New York, even if his directorial style is more jittery than is really necessary.
12/13/06
Top CriticThe acting, showy and instinctual, is most of the movie; the visual style is too forced and chicly distended to let the drama acquire much natural life of its own.
12/13/06
Great performances from Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman cap this bravest Academy Awards Best Picture choice in history.
12/02/06
No review available.
10/05/06
Outrageously overrated at the cynical end of the Swinging Sixties.
06/24/06
It only takes a movie like Midnight Cowboy to point out the limitations of a rating system: How can a measly four stars convey the magnificence of this acknowledged classic?
03/10/06
Sometimes a time capsule never dates.
02/19/06
Schlesinger's frenzied style and visual pyrotechnicas (New Wave influence) are less impressive than the characters, the central friendship, the awakening of conscience in Joe Buck and Ratso, and Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman's superlative acting.
12/14/05
Drove its spurs into the bucking bronco of 1970s cinema.
08/12/05
No review available.
04/27/05
A classic film that shows a great work has no era...
04/08/05
What has happened to Midnight Cowboy is that we've done our own editing job on it. We've forgotten the excesses and the detours, and remembered the purity of the central characters and the Voight and Hoffman performances.
10/23/04
Top CriticLatest News for Midnight Cowboy
September 17, 2009:
Five Favourite Films with Nick Love
Nick Love isn't known for heart. The film which earned him his "From the director of..." title card, The Football Factory, is nothing if not violent, loud and not particularly... More...
June 22, 2007:
AFI Announces Top 100 Movies of All Time ... Again
Ten years ago the AFI gave us a list of the Top 100 American Films Ever Made -- and when that was done they churned out 15 other lists every few years. And then last night they... More...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Fresh Links
Featured
Why Don't Australians Make Sci-fi? 
The New Matilda's Lynden Barber looks at the recent success of low-budget sci-fi -- and asks the question.
New Moon Portraits
TIME offers us a closer look at the characters from the latest Twilight film.
Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Twitter
Get all the latest movie updates, reviews, interviews and features here.
Competitions
Win Star Wars prizes
Enough Prequel, Original Trilogy and Family Guy DVDs to fill a space cruiser
Win the entire 007 collection
Everything from Dr. No to Quantum of Solace could be yours.
Win Fight Club Special Editions and more
We're giving away the 10th Anniversary Blu-ray, plus Braveheart and the Rocky collection
IGN RSS Feeds