In 1969, an unforgettable film starring John Voight and Dustin Hoffman was released. The story of an unexpected friendship between two New York adventurers in the film Midnight Cowboy has since become a cult classic, and Harry Nilsson’s famous song, which plays at the beginning and end of the film, remains popular to this day. But can we say that this film is free of mistakes and bloopers? Not at all. Let’s take a closer look.
Warning! This article contains spoilers.
In 1969, film fans around the world witnessed the birth of a new star. A young Jon Voight landed the role of Joe Buck and starred alongside the already established actor Dustin Hoffman, who played Rats in the film Midnight Cowboy.
The film is set in New York, and at the heart of the story lies the strange yet touching friendship between two hustlers. John Voight’s character earns a living as a gigolo, whilst Hoffman’s Ratsho is simply trying to survive by any means necessary.
The film was nominated for seven Oscars and won three: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
In addition, Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman were both nominated for Best Actor, whilst actress Sylvia Miles received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
This gritty film is not merely a heart-warming tale of an unlikely friendship between two strangers. It also offers an honest, unvarnished portrayal of the hardships of city life, the struggle against loneliness, and the quest to achieve the American dream.
The legendary taxi scene in ‘Midnight Cowboy’
There are many classic scenes in ‘Midnight Cowboy’. But the most famous is probably the iconic scene featuring the line ‘I’m coming!’, in which Dustin Hoffman appears.
In this scene, Voight and Hoffman are walking through the streets of New York when, suddenly, a taxi appears out of nowhere, nearly knocking the actors over. Although this scene looks like a brilliantly staged moment highlighting the characters’ differing attitudes towards city life, it wasn’t in the script.
In reality, things happened quite differently: the New York taxi driver had grown tired of waiting and simply decided to drive straight through the film set. In an interview with Jake’s Takes, Jon Voight recounted how this legendary scene from Midnight Cowboy actually came about.
‘Someone was supposed to stop the taxi while we crossed the street, but it turned out that a man tried to hold the driver back, and he said something like: “To hell with it, I’m off.” He’d been standing there for ten minutes while we faffed about, and he needed to get on with his work. He got angry. He was a New York taxi driver; he couldn’t have cared less that a film was being shot here,” recalled Jon Voight.
‘And then he dashed across the street, and Dusty spotted him and banged on the car, shouting: “I’m coming, I’m coming!” He played the moment to the full, and as I watched it all, I kept telling myself just one thing: “Don’t break character, don’t ruin the scene—this is it, the moment.” And then he added a line like: ‘That’s how you get insurance,’ or something along those lines. And I realised that this line had been sitting there in his mind for a long time, waiting to be spoken in the film one day, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Film bloopers and mistakes in Midnight Cowboy
Woit went on to say: “He did it instinctively, and we just carried on acting, and I kept telling myself: ‘Stay in the scene, stay in character.’ It’s not my scene, this is no time for jokes, just don’t break character. And we shot it, and then they told us: ‘We’ve got that take.’ I replied: ‘Yes, we’ve got it!’ I was so happy.”
Although Midnight Cowboy won the Oscar for Best Picture, like most films, it was not without its bloopers.
Viewers spotted several inconsistencies, including a scene where Joe Buck’s shirt changes colour from one frame to the next. At one point he’s wearing a red cowboy-style shirt, then without any explanation it turns purple, and later he throws it away on the bus on his way to Florida.
Another such moment can be seen at the start of the film, when Joe is walking through New York: as the camera cuts, his hat shifts from the back of his head to the top.
Dustin Hoffman was cast as Rats in the wake of the success of The Graduate. It is said that he was so keen to land the part that he asked a film executive to meet him on a street corner, having dressed himself up as a beggar and begging for small change.
The executive did not recognise the actor until Hoffman revealed who he was, and it was this that finally convinced everyone that he was the right man for the role of Rats.
A pebble in his boot
Hoffman’s character, Ratsho, had a limp, and Dustin Hoffman had a clever way of making this gait as convincing as possible. He became famous for putting a pebble in his boot so that the limp remained consistent in every take.
Although Dustin Hoffman was nominated for an Oscar for his role as Rats, the ending of Midnight Cowboy left some viewers with a very different impression.
Some noticed that after his character’s death, he appears to be breathing ever so slightly — his chest is clearly still moving. And in the scene on the bus, when Joe closes Rats’s eyes, you can see his left eye twitching slightly.
But whatever the mistakes and accidental slip-ups in this film, Midnight Cowboy remains a classic that you’ll want to watch again and again. Share this article with your friends on Facebook if you love this film too!
