Overview

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.

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9781799970484

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Reviews

Midnight Cowboy [is] a film particularly resonant for the taboos it broke and its surprising success at a transitional moment in our cultural history. All the backstories provide rich reading, unearthing little-known facts that illuminate whole careers. -- Molly Haskell, author of Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films A rare cinema book that is as mesmerizing as its subject. -- Kirkus Reviews Frankel has done that rare, great thing: shown us a world within a world of literary, filmic, and human longing and linked singular gems of history into a fresh and truthful mosaic. -- Sheila Weller, New York Times bestselling author Frankel illuminates the cultural forces that fed the creation of an iconic 1960s classic. This perceptive work elegantly captures how a movie can embody a moment in time. -- Julie Salamon, New York Times bestselling author Frankel provides us with the context we need to fully appreciate the film as a vivid snapshot of a specific time and place in American history. -- Booklist (starred review) This enthralling account of a boundary-breaking film is catnip for film buffs. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) Through the prism of a compassionate, taboo-busting movie, Glenn Frankel has given us a master class in filmmaking that doubles as a rich cultural history of a tumultuous epoch...a consistently entertaining tour full of vibrant, indelible characters. -- Margaret Talbot, author of The Entertainer

""Midnight Cowboy [is] a film particularly resonant for the taboos it broke and its surprising success at a transitional moment in our cultural history. All the backstories provide rich reading, unearthing little-known facts that illuminate whole careers."" -- ""Molly Haskell, author of Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films"" ""A rare cinema book that is as mesmerizing as its subject."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews"" ""Frankel has done that rare, great thing: shown us a world within a world of literary, filmic, and human longing and linked singular gems of history into a fresh and truthful mosaic."" -- ""Sheila Weller, New York Times bestselling author"" ""Frankel illuminates the cultural forces that fed the creation of an iconic 1960s classic. This perceptive work elegantly captures how a movie can embody a moment in time."" -- ""Julie Salamon, New York Times bestselling author"" ""Frankel provides us with the context we need to fully appreciate the film as a vivid snapshot of a specific time and place in American history."" -- ""Booklist (starred review)"" ""This enthralling account of a boundary-breaking film is catnip for film buffs."" -- ""Publishers Weekly (starred review)"" ""Through the prism of a compassionate, taboo-busting movie, Glenn Frankel has given us a master class in filmmaking that doubles as a rich cultural history of a tumultuous epoch...a consistently entertaining tour full of vibrant, indelible characters."" -- ""Margaret Talbot, author of The Entertainer""

"""Midnight Cowboy [is] a film particularly resonant for the taboos it broke and its surprising success at a transitional moment in our cultural history. All the backstories provide rich reading, unearthing little-known facts that illuminate whole careers."" -- ""Molly Haskell, author of Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films"" ""A rare cinema book that is as mesmerizing as its subject."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews"" ""Frankel has done that rare, great thing: shown us a world within a world of literary, filmic, and human longing and linked singular gems of history into a fresh and truthful mosaic."" -- ""Sheila Weller, New York Times bestselling author"" ""Frankel illuminates the cultural forces that fed the creation of an iconic 1960s classic. This perceptive work elegantly captures how a movie can embody a moment in time."" -- ""Julie Salamon, New York Times bestselling author"" ""Frankel provides us with the context we need to fully appreciate the film as a vivid snapshot of a specific time and place in American history."" -- ""Booklist (starred review)"" ""This enthralling account of a boundary-breaking film is catnip for film buffs."" -- ""Publishers Weekly (starred review)"" ""Through the prism of a compassionate, taboo-busting movie, Glenn Frankel has given us a master class in filmmaking that doubles as a rich cultural history of a tumultuous epoch...a consistently entertaining tour full of vibrant, indelible characters."" -- ""Margaret Talbot, author of The Entertainer"""

Author Information

Glenn Frankel worked for many years at the Washington Post, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1989. He has taught journalism at Stanford University and the University of Texas at Austin, where he directed the School of Journalism. He has won a National Jewish Book Award, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and is a Motion Picture Academy Film Scholar. He is the bestselling author of The Searchers and High Noon, and lives in Arlington, Virginia. Visit his website at GlennFrankel.com. John Pruden is a professional voice actor who, through his company, Voice Acting With Character, records audiobooks as well as corporate and online training narrations, animation and video game characters, and radio and TV commercials. His exposure to many people, places, and experiences throughout his life--from his many jobs while a young man; to his Army service as a UH-60 Black Hawk assault helicopter pilot; to his travels through forty-four US states, South America, Europe, and Asia; to his experience in professional improvisation and singing--provides a solid creative foundation from which to draw for his intelligent audiobook narration and talented vocal characterizations. His audiobook narration of The Killing of Crazy Horse by Thomas Powers was chosen by the Washington Post as a Best Audiobook of 2010.

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