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- 2023
- Zeitgeist Films
- 1 h 41 m
- 2023
- Zeitgeist Films
- 1 h 41 m
Summary Follows the behind-the-scenes odyssey to get Midnight Cowboy produced, as well as the tumultuous era in which the movie was released and embraced.
Directed By: Nancy Buirski
Written By: Glenn Frankel, Nancy Buirski
- 2023
- Zeitgeist Films
- 1 h 41 m
- 2023
- Zeitgeist Films
- 1 h 41 m
Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy
66
User Score
Available after 4 ratings
tbd
Where to Watch
Summary Follows the behind-the-scenes odyssey to get Midnight Cowboy produced, as well as the tumultuous era in which the movie was released and embraced.
Directed By: Nancy Buirski
Written By: Glenn Frankel, Nancy Buirski
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 6 Critic Reviews
66
67% Positive
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
33% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 6 Critic Reviews
66
67% Positive
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
33% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Obliquely but evocatively, “Desperate Souls” ponders the many roles of the cowboy: gay icon, cinematic hero and symbol of American manifest destiny from the Rockies to the Mekong. Yet the documentary acknowledges that neither Schlesinger’s film nor its era could change everything.
“Desperate Souls” convincingly argues that there’s no other time at which Joe Buck (Jon Voight) and Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) could have become enduring movie characters, let alone have the tenderness between them depicted so subtly.
At best, Desperate Souls suggests a series of passionate stories being told by a beloved family member, occasionally sprawling but never anything less than compelling. By the end there’s a sense of sadness that its shaggy pleasures are now in the past, rendering its faults comparatively minor.
It was one of the last moments when the balance between 1940s-style uplift and what became known as cinema’s American New Wave still held; within a few years, boomer culture simply subsumed all else. “Desperate Souls” does a fine job of exploring the tectonics of that shift.
The film takes only a moment to discuss the success of its source material. In fact, it is only at the end of the movie that "Desperate Souls" reveals that "Midnight Cowboy" won three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Instead, the documentary spends too much time looking at the world around Schlesinger's drama.
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Production Company
Augusta Films,
Cineflix Productions,
Foothill Productions
Release Date Jun 1, 2023
Duration 1 h 41 m
Genres
Awards
Venice Film Festival
• 2 Nominations
