“A BIOGRAPHY OF A FILM”

By Raymond Benson

Lately there has been a new trend in film books that are more like biographies than simply non-fiction treatises on the making of a movie. A “biography of a film,” as critic Molly Haskell calls it, treats a particular motion picture in the same way a researcher would examine a person’s life—from the inception to its lasting influence and impact today, meticulously illustrating each step and examining the personnel involved along the way. The recent Space Odyssey by Michael Benson (a “biography” of 2001: A Space Odyssey) is a fine example.

Glenn Frankel’s Shooting Midnight Cowboy—Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic is one such biography of a film, and it is a magnificent tome. Besides dissecting the all-important sociological milieu that was in the background while Cowboy was being made, the book is an excellent lesson in the filmmaking process.

The film, Midnight Cowboy, was released in 1969 and went on to become the first and only X-rated movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture (as well as a trophy for director John Schlesinger, and one for the Adapted Screenplay by Waldo Salt). It was, at the time, a cause célèbre. Controversial, shocking, and undeniably powerful, the picture was a prime example of “New Hollywood” and how the trend was taking hold of the industry. Once the Production Code collapsed in 1966-67, and the new ratings system was instituted in 1968, Hollywood studios began to look toward the younger, “hip” filmmakers to deliver product that would appeal to a younger, hip audience. More adult fare was acceptable. There was indeed a liberation in terms of sex and violence that could be shown on the screen.

Frankel’s book begins, as it should, with novelist James Leo Herlihy. Tall and handsome, Herlihy in many ways was a more intelligent and sophisticated version of his character, Joe Buck, although Herlihy was not from Texas. Novelist, playwright, and actor, Herlihy was also a gay man in a time and place in which one must remain closeted—although he was anything but. His early work, which included more plays for the stage than novels, had subtle homosexual themes and characters. His novel Midnight Cowboy was published in 1965. It did fairly well, but it didn’t take the literary world by storm. Luckily, the book landed in the hands of British filmmaker John Schlesinger, another gay man who struggled with his sexual identity in public.

John Schlesinger was coming off the success of his 1965 “swinging London” eye-opener, Darling, which had garnered Oscar nominations of Picture and Director, and had awarded Julie Christie with Best Actress. As he embarked on making his period adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd, he teamed up with producer Jerome Hellman to make Cowboy after that.

It was a rough road for both the producer and director, especially when Madding Crowd (1967) bombed at the box office. Luckily, the duo found an ally in David Picker, an executive at United Artists. UA was known for its liberal policies of allowing filmmakers to do their thing without interference, as long as they stuck to an agreed upon budget. Picker’s instincts were canny—he knew that Schlesinger would deliver a work of art, so he convinced his colleagues to go with Midnight Cowboy.

Casting the film was a challenge. Dustin Hoffman was an early contender for the role of Rico “Ratso” Rizzo, even before the release of his star-making vehicle, The Graduate (1967). Hoffman had to convince Schlesinger he could do the part after The Graduate came out by improvising a costume and showing up in character for a meeting on the streets of New York for a “meeting.” The pivotal protagonist role of Joe Buck was more problematic. Schlesinger had his eye on Michael Sarrazin, but newcomer Jon Voight was also in the wings hoping for a chance. The casting director, Marion Dougherty (whose contribution to the film is duly emphasized in Frankel’s book), fought for Voight. When Sarrazin’s agent asked for more money than what was originally agreed upon, both Hellman and Schlesinger decided to go with Voight. While Sarrazin might have performed in the role quite well, the choice of Voight was a significant move.

And then there is screenwriter Waldo Salt, formerly blacklisted during the HUAC witch hunts, who brought another set of baggage to the production.

The book also provides the reader with a history of the Times Square area of New York City, and how it changed in the 1950s and 60s to the sleazy hunting grounds for hustlers that we see in the film (and it would get worse in the 70s—witness Taxi Driver!). All of this is vitally important to how Midnight Cowboy was conceived and shot, and the background is fascinating.

One of the most surprising revelations about Shooting Midnight Cowboy is the story of its X-rating. The book tells us that the movie ratings board initially rated the movie R for Restricted Audiences! It was Arthur Krim, the head of United Artists, who on the advice of a psychiatrist friend, insisted that the picture be rated X because of its depiction of homosexuality. Later, after the film won the Best Picture Oscar, UA went back to the ratings board and asked that the movie be re-rated to R. The board, befuddled by the request (“hey, that’s what we originally rated it!”), did so… and to this day, Midnight Cowboy is still rated R without any cuts.

Glenn Frankel’s Shooting Midnight Cowboy delivers a filmmaking lesson, a history lesson, a candid portrait of all the personages involved (complete with interviews with Hoffman, Voight, and others who are still alive to talk about it), and a snapshot of one of the greatest American films—seen through the eyes of a British director—ever made.

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