I have watched a lot of films, really crappy ones like "Barb Wire" or "Bees!" a made for TV movie and I have seen a lot of brilliant ones like "Citizen Kane" and "Au Revoir Les Enfants". I have watched all these films because I love celluloid art, so much so that I have a degree in film studies, and because I have a degree in film studies at all the parties, or whenever people generally make small talk I am continuously asked what my favorite film is, and there my answer is always the same: "Midnight Cowboy". There is never any hesitation in my voice or consideration for the latest film I've seen, I always answer directly and with conviction "Midnight Cowboy".
It's a combination of the music ("Everybody's Talkin'" starts off this film, Elephant's Memory swells in the middle), the direction (Schlesinger creates an amazing world where dreams and fantasies are allowed to develop and then are made to smash into a million pieces on the cold hard reality of the world), and the acting (Hoffman's brilliance made me want to cross the street to get away from Ratso, then made me love him so much that I get mad at people who don't give him enough respect as to call him Rizzo). There is a brilliance in "Midnight Cowboy" that is so rare in films, everyone must take note of it. Watch this film as though your life depended on your memorizing the script. You will see such an amazing ability coming from all sides that there will be no choice but to hail it as a true work of art rising from an industry which produces so many duds. Watch the film with an open heart, no preconceived notions of what it is trying to say, don't look deliberately for homosexual overtones, and trust me, you will see a glimmer of truth as it relates to you as a person, and you will see a masterpiece.