“Midnight Cowboy”

Joe, a naive young man from Texas, heads to New York hoping to make a fortune as a male prostitute catering to wealthy married women, only to be confronted with the harsh reality of the city the moment he arrives. Amidst this, he meets Rico, a poor young man with a crippled leg. Realizing that his “cowboy dream” was nothing more than an illusion and left penniless, Joe moves into Rico’s apartment. Under Rico’s management, the two—undeterred—begin working as hustlers, but one day Rico falls ill. Joe eventually resorts to violence against a gay client, robbing him of his money. Hoping to fulfill Rico’s long-held wish to live in Florida, the pair board a long-distance bus bound for the state, but… When I saw the film in a theater over fifty years ago, I remember hearing people sobbing during the final scene. I, too, found myself unable to stop my nose from running and couldn’t bring myself to leave the theater right away. The theme song, “Everybody’s Talkin'”, was also a huge hit back then.