Thursday, March 12, 2009
Midnight Cowboy
There were a few scenes from the movie that either bothered me or I found really weird. The first one was when Joe is in the diner sitting across from who you can assume are a mother and her kid. They are rubbing a fake mouse all over each other's faces and hair. I remember thinking as I was watching, "What the hell is going on?" Another part that annoyed me was that even though Ratso and Joe were as good as friends as any two people could be, Joe wouldn't stop calling him Ratso even though he knew Ratso loathed it. He continued to call him Ratso, instead of Rico, for the rest of the movie. The last thing is how nonchalantly everyone on the bus takes Ratso's death. They never checked his pulse to see if he was just unconscious, and nobody called the ambulance. Nobody else besides the busdriver even said a word. They just looked back for a minute while the bus was stopped.
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The first scene you mention was something that the director himself experienced in New YOrk. At least that's what he said in an interview I saw. Just put it in the film to emphasize the weird, sick world that Joe was inhabiting. Also, mirrored his own sick childhood.
ReplyDeleteYour second point in interesting. Joe kind of deserved to call him Ratso, when you think of how he scammed him at first. We can assume, I think that others in the neighborhood also know them and so he is just one of many calling him that. And the last scene on the bus, when Ratso asks him what it will look like if he calls him Ratso in Florida, Joe responds, "It'll look like I know you."
Your last point is good, and I will mention it tomorrow in class. The woman with the glasses was especially annoying. And did you notice that the bus driver asks Joe exactly the same question as the ambulance guy asks Paul when Kat dies in All Quiet?
On an unrelated topic, I wonder if you have a different photograph. You're such a handsome fellow, I can't imagine that that photo is the best we can do? Is there some kind of "gangsta" sensibility at work here? Frankly, I think it does little justice to your good looks. Tell you what... we'll let your mother decide. If she likes it, then it stays. If she agrees with me, post a new one. I apologize in advance for imposing my hopelessly old-fashioned value system upon your blog. But, I am old, after all. And so officious.
ReplyDeleteGood points Rob. The first scene was really creepy and I would not have remained at the table if the lady and her son were doing that in front of me. I don't have too much of a problem with him calling him Ratso. I mean I felt that Ratso just wanted to have a chance with people he didn't know so he didn't want people to think that he was a "rat" or a scoundrel and have a bad opinion of him before they knew him. Your thoughts about the bus and the people was absolutely right, although I forgot about the connection to All Quiet until Mr. Bennett said. Still, it is rather disturbing to be sitting on a bus in front of a dead guy. Nice post Rob.
ReplyDeleteThe rat scene should have been cut it served no point in advancing the movies plot
ReplyDeleteI don't think there was no point to it Billy. I just think that it was another testament to how much of a strange world Joe entered when he got to New York.
ReplyDeleteNick, Right on target. Joe's response, too, shows that he's not part of that world, at least not at heart.
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