Midnight Cowboy

The events of Buck's life are told in mostly chronological order, interspersed by flashbacks or daydream sequences which hint at Buck's back-story. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. They form a friendship, none too soon for Rizzo, who becomes increasingly dependent upon Buck as health problems make it increasingly harder for Rizzo to cope with his situation. The romance theme was later given words and became better known as the song "Smile" ("Smile though your heart is breaking...") and covered by such artists as Judy Garland, Liberace and Nat King Cole. Over the course of the rest of the film the two deal with the realities of all-but-homeless street life, suspended briefly by a foray into a Warhol-like party scene (with some of the Warhol superstars in cameo appearances). The music score was composed by Chaplin himself. He meets the lame, scraggly Rico "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), who first cons him out of $20, but after they cross paths a second time, they begin a partnership, with Rizzo working as Buck's "manager". As the police break up the protest they arrest the flag-waving Tramp as the protest leader.

He is soon forced to hustle for a meager living as a "midnight cowboy" with a clientele that's the opposite (in gender and affluence) of what he originally set out to attract. Meanwhile, he fails to notice that a parade of labor protesters have come up behind him. His naïveté becomes evident as quickly as his cash disappears. Another has the Tramp picking up a warning flag that fell off the back of a truck and waving it to attract the driver's attention. He heads to New York City in the hope of leading the life of a kept man. In one memorable scene, Chaplin's character looks for a bolt to tighten while he is being pulled through the gears of an enormous machine. The film follows the story of a young Texan named Joe Buck (Jon Voight) who dresses like a rodeo cowboy. Chaplin created the effect deliberately.

The song "He Quit Me" was also on the soundtrack; it was written by Warren Zevon, who also included it (as "She Quit Me") on his debut album Wanted Dead or Alive. Most of the film was shot at "silent speed", 18 frames per second, which when projected at "sound speed", 24 frames per second, made the slapstick action appear even more frenetic. The film featured the song "Everybody's Talkin'", sung by Harry Nilsson, which won a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance; Schlesinger chose that song over "I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City", which Nilsson had written specifically for the film. Near the end of the film the Little Tramp's voice is heard for the first time as he ad-libs pseudo-French and Italian gibberish to the tune of Léo Daniderff's popular song, Je cherche après Titine. John Barry, who supervised the music for the film, won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Theme. Modern Times was one of the last silent films made, although it does include sound effects, music, singers, and voices coming from radios and loudspeakers. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. The factory where the Tramp works has a futuristic look and may have been influenced by Fritz Lang's Metropolis. People who saw both Modern Times and the the earlier À nous la liberté usually (at least according to IMDB comments) think that Chaplin got inspiration from it, but Chaplin denied it.

The re-released version of the film was identical to the original. The Tramp attempts multiple jobs but quickly, and comically, loses them. This time the board granted it an "R" rating. The movie follows the Tramp and a young woman, which he rescues from the authorities who want to put her in an orphanage, as they try to overcome their impoverished street life. In 1971 the film was re-submitted to the MPAA ratings board in anticipation of a re-release. It was written and directed by Chaplin. For Hoffman, the role enabled him to avoid any typecasting due to his previous role in The Graduate and began his reputation as a actor of considerable dramatic range. The movie stars Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman, Stanley Sandford and Chester Conklin.

Both Hoffman and Voight were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, a situation which split the vote for fans of the film and helped John Wayne receive his only Oscar for his role in True Grit. Conditions created, in Chaplin's view, by the efficiencies of modern industrialization. The film is the only X-rated film to win the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director. The film is a comment on the desperate employment and fiscal conditions many people faced during the Great Depression. An assortment of much smaller roles are filled by Sylvia Miles, John McGiver, Brenda Vaccaro, Barnard Hughes, Ruth White, Jennifer Salt (the screenwriter's daughter), and Bob Balaban. Modern Times is a 1936 film by Charlie Chaplin that has his famous Little Tramp character struggling to survive in the modern, industrialized world. It stars Dustin Hoffman and newcomer Jon Voight in the title role.

Midnight Cowboy is a 1969 film written by Waldo Salt based on the novel by James Leo Herlihy, and directed by John Schlesinger. Rizzo the Rat, a street-wise but pesky Muppet, was named by Frank Oz after Hoffman's character (according to Steve Whitmire the puppeteer behind his performances).