"Midnight Cowboy" (1969)

For many years I confused this movie with "Midnight Express", and I just didn't want to watch a movie about prison and drugs. I couldn't figure out why Jon Voight was dressed like a cowboy on the poster, like no wonder he got caught in Turkey and thrown in jail! He made such an Ugly American spectacle of himself!

But Jon Voight just wanted to be your big-hatted gigolo. "Midnight Cowboy" is funny and sad and oddly sweet and it did something wonderful for me: it made me root for a guy to fulfill his dream of becoming a male prostitute. In that sense, it made my world bigger, didn't it, because it made me sympathize with someone I would normally be quick to judge.

It seemed like a reasonable dream, really. Worse men than him (Federline) have succeeded in this profession, I'm sure (the second-oldest profession? Third?). He was tall, good-looking, kind of doltish and sweet. What's the problem? I think those stuck-up New York ladies were the problem. Just pay the guy to have sex with you for god's sake! Cut his a break?

Maybe it was his being blonde -- it's unusual enough to be a blonde man that I think people subconsciously hold it against them. Brad Pitt is merely the exception that proves the rule.

The actors are pitch perfect, of course, and it turns out to be a story about true love. I believe too many people are terribly lonely at heart, secretly terrified of dying unloved, and this crazy fable illustrates that it needn't be that way.

This movie features one those perfect movie moments I love so much: Joe and Ratso are on the outs. Ratso's in a diner, hunched miserably over a cup of coffee. Lonely Joe wanders by the window and catches sight of Ratso. They both light up with delight and start to wave at each other before they suddenly realize they aren't talking. They freeze, look away, and Joe walks on. I'm embarrassed to say how many times I've been caught in that conundrum of love and hate.