★★★1/2

In 1969, Midnight Cowboy was the cinematic bad boy - an X-rated film about a male sex worker, Joe Buck (Jon Voight), trying to make a living in New York City as he befriends a con man and hustler, brandishing the nickname of “Ratso” (Dustin Hoffman). The film concluded a tumultuous political decade and seemed to possess a distinctive swagger and bravado, while also putting vulnerability and uncertainty in front of audiences. Midnight Cowboy is the rare film to actually have characters who are, at once, arrogant and stubborn, while also frightened and emotionally wounded beyond repair.

Voight and Hoffman’s pairing not only earned them each an Oscar nomination for Best Actor at the 42nd Academy Awards, but helped pace Midnight Cowboy to three Academy Award wins, including Best Picture. One year after a G-rated film won the Academy’s highest honor (Oliver!), an X-rated film followed suit.

Director Nancy Buirski looks at the legacy of the film in Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy, which contextualizes not only the impact the film had on audiences, but the culture the film existed in. Buirski’s summative view of history positions Midnight Cowboy as something of a battle cry that demanded we acknowledge that things are not alright in America and many, many people are left to try to fend for themselves in any way they can. Though the film is unflinching, it never judges its subjects and juxtaposes the image of a traditional “cowboy,” a calling card of that year’s ever-so-ironic Oscar winner for Best Actor, John Wayne (for True Grit), with that of the hustler, the proverbial desperate soul, simply trying to get from Point A to Point B and scrambling to do so by any means necessary.

Shooting her subjects in tight facial closeup, we are compelled to listen to the stories told by Voight and co-stars Brenda Vaccaro, Bob Balaban, and Jennifer Salt, among others. Salt’s father, Waldo Salt, won an Oscar for adapting the screenplay from James Leo Herlihy’s book, and Buirski infuses audio from previous interviews with the late director John Schlesinger (who won an Oscar for directing the film) and Salt himself.

All in all, Desperate Souls… is an interesting film, full of tidbits, stories, and facts that underscore the lasting legacy of the film some 54 years after its release. Notable however is what is not here. Hoffman is absent, for reasons which prove merely speculative in nature. The significance (and unnecessary silliness) of the film’s X rating and the film’s acceptance by the Academy is never truly explored. The underdog nature of the film’s awards trajectory is acknowledged, but we have no true understanding of how a movie this raw, this scrappy, and this unconventional has now overcome the test of time and remains embedded in the lore of the greatest films of all time.

Buirski seems content to weave Midnight Cowboy into the cultural conversation of the time period. And personally, not being alive at the time the film was released allows me to defer to the many arguments, essays, and documentaries which have made a similar case.

And yet, for all the interesting anecdotes shared, you just wish Desperate Souls… was slightly more complete. The first time I saw Midnight Cowboy (in college, as part of a film appreciation class, no less), I was uncomfortable, uneasy and mesmerized by what was happening on screen. Though Buirski may not capture that rush of anxiousness the film forces audiences to reconcile, those interested will still have plenty of moments to pore through as they reflect on the most unlikely of Oscar-winning cowboys.

Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy was screened as part of the 49th Seattle International Film Festival and is screening on May 14 and May 18, 2023.

Midnight Cowboy will be featured as an archival presentation at the 49th Seattle International Film Festival, screening on May 15, 2023.