--- title: "Midnight Cowboy: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/midnight-cowboy/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/midnight-cowboy" critics_score: 81 critics_reviews: 12 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Midnight Cowboy (1969): what the critics said Critics' score 81 from 12 reviews: 10 positive, 2 mixed, 0 negative. Most critics like this, and nearly all of them like it for the same reason. Jon Voight’s Joe Buck and Dustin Hoffman’s Ratso Rizzo are named in almost every review, and the friendship between them, two lonely men in a low-rent New York with no conventional love interest to soften it, is what the reviews return to. The locations draw praise too: Times Square and the city’s shabbier corners are felt to be authentic rather than dressed. Several critics treat the film as a hinge between old Hollywood and the grittier films of the 1970s. The reservations cluster around John Schlesinger’s direction, and specifically the flashbacks. Roger Ebert, writing in 1969, thinks the fashionable tricks undermine the material, and the Los Angeles Times still calls them a flaw a quarter of a century later. Variety is cooler still, seeing shock value more than substance. The pattern is plain: the contemporary reviews are the mixed ones, and the retrospective reviews are almost uniformly warm. ## The Times — Kevin Maher Rating ★★★★★. 13 September 2019. The tone is deceptively playful as novice prostitute Joe Buck arrives in New York with naive dreams. The beauty is the slowly evolving friendship of Buck and Dustin Hoffman’s eccentric Ratso Rizzo; the direction is radical and the lines are to die for. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/midnight-cowboy-1969-review-radical-and-deceptively-playful-r6dwssj9g) ## Time Out — Sophie Monks Kaufman Rating 5/5. 10 September 2019. The critic calls the newly restored film one of the great depictions of the transition to the gritty 1970s and a moving epitaph to its two striving characters and the American dream itself. Strong praise goes to the central performances by Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/midnight-cowboy) ## The AV Club — Noel Murray Rating A-. 7 March 2006. The critic sees the film as a flawed but effective New Hollywood landmark that blends edgy subject matter with pop sensibilities, praising the strong lead performances by Voight and Hoffman, authentic New York and Texas locations, visual wit, and emotional core of loneliness and yearning. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/midnight-cowboy-1798201487) ## The Guardian Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 12 September 2019. Fifty years on, Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman’s squabbling amid the squalor of low-rent New York remains a heartbreaking triumph. The film is about two men finding friendship in the desolate common cause of their loneliness, delivered with potency and force. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/sep/12/midnight-cowboy-review-john-schlesinger-jon-voight-dustin-hoffman) ## Empire — Adam Smith Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 23 March 2006. The review praises the film as a landmark that took risks in the late 1960s, highlighting its outsider perspective on New York and the groundbreaking performances by Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman as its emotional core. It notes the film's Oscar success despite its X rating and calls the mix of Oscar-winner and cult classic a testament to superb performances and a compelling script. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/midnight-cowboy-review/) ## Slant Magazine — Niles Schwartz Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 21 August 2018. The critic presents the film as a key New Hollywood work marking the transition from Old Hollywood, highlighting the central unlikely friendship between the delusional Joe Buck and Ratso Rizzo, the themes of isolation and human connection amid a commodified world, and Schlesinger’s expressive visual style and use of varying film stocks. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/midnight-cowboy/) ## Financial Times — Nigel Andrews Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 11 September 2019. British director John Schlesinger’s first American film remains a startlingly accomplished New York tale. Voight combines rent-boy venality with a dimwitted innocence almost radiant; Hoffman proved his beginner’s virtuosity playing tattered-and-battered Ratso Rizzo. [Read the review](https://www.ft.com/content/fd4b35a6-d4a2-11e9-8367-807ebd53ab77) ## Los Angeles Times Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 20 February 1994. The film's power endures through its lead performances and adventurous spirit from 1969, even as technical excesses like flashbacks remain flaws; it stands as a reminder of bold adult filmmaking from its era. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-02-20-ca-25046-story.html) ## The New York Times — Vincent Canby Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 26 May 1969. The film is a slick but ultimately moving adaptation that excels in its acting, especially Dustin Hoffman's Ratso, and captures the feel of its time and place despite some exploitative elements. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1969/05/26/archives/film-midnight-cowboy-dustin-hoffman-and-jon-voight-are-starred.html) ## Variety — Robert J. Landry Fi1m's normalised score 60/100 (inferred from the text). 14 May 1969. The sordid story of a male hustler should succeed commercially on shock value and the star power of Dustin Hoffman; strong performances from Hoffman and newcomer Jon Voight stand out amid the modern, topical, and sometimes misanthropic tone. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1969/film/reviews/midnight-cowboy-1200421996/) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 5 July 1969. The performances of Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight are outstanding and the Times Square setting feels authentic, but John Schlesinger's direction undermines the material with trendy gimmicks, excessive flashbacks, and fashionable cinematic tricks. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/midnight-cowboy-1969) ## Eye for Film — Jennie Kermode Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 14 September 2019. Festival review. The film stands out for its emotionally honest portrayal of male friendship between two very different men, with no conventional love interest. Schlesinger's direction creates a vivid, intimate portrait of New York City and its outcasts. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/midnight-cowboy-1969-film-review-by-jennie-kermode) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/midnight-cowboy.md