- Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic by Glenn Frankel
by Glenn Frankel
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021 432 pp.; hardcover, $30.00; paper, $21.00; e-book, $14.99
Glenn frankel's shooting "midnight cowboy": Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic bills itself as a biography of Midnight Cowboy, a film Frankel argues was made by people looking for purpose in a time when the cards of society were stacked against them. The 1969 film follows a young Texan who travels to New York City to make his fortune as a male prostitute, where he befriends an ailing con man who helps him with his endeavor. The film explores themes of loneliness and homosexuality, and its realistic story highlights the dirty underbelly of America. The United Artists–produced film made history by being the first X-rated film to win a number of prestigious awards, including the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Today, Midnight Cowboy is not seen as an authentic portrayal of LGBTQ+ experience, yet at the time it was still more direct in its approach than other films of that era. The overall grittiness of the film was at odds with Hollywood's contemporary standards.
Frankel's book is a rich historical account about the lives of those who made the film, including the late James Leo Herlihy, the author of the novel on which the film is based; John Schlesinger, the film's director; Waldo Salt, its screenwriter; Marion Dougherty, its casting director; and Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, its two lead actors. Frankel tells their stories in extensive detail, set against an integral backdrop—the social and financial struggles of 1960s New York City, the New Hollywood era and changing film industry, and the impact of the gay liberation movement—in order to situate Midnight Cowboy's importance within the history of queer representation in Hollywood. These stories are informed by firsthand interviews with individuals who played crucial roles in the production. Frankel also cites primary and [End Page 95] secondary sources, such as early 1970s radio interviews and articles, diary entries, biographies, and nonfiction history books. The book is a comprehensive insider's portrait of this era of film history that touches on media and production studies.
The book covers three chronological eras: the road leading up to the film's production, the shooting of Midnight Cowboy, and the years following the film's release. The first and longest section delves into the personal stories and situations that shaped the film adaptation. These first thirteen chapters chronicle the formative experiences of Frankel's subjects, such as young Herlihy's first meeting with the Paris-born novelist Anaïs Nin during his studies at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Nin helped Herlihy realize what kind of writer he wanted to be: that a part of him "wanted to do something for the world" and a part of him "wanted to understand what it meant to be a fulfilled individual" (13), a lifelong double-mindedness that stuck with him when he wrote Midnight Cowboy.
Several chapters explore New York City in the 1960s and the history of its queer subculture. Frankel references notable figures such as Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, and Marlon Brando, all of whom laid the groundwork for young authors like James Herlihy who were drawn to the city's seedy streets. Frankel also addresses Hollywood's film industry, particularly the rising counterculture among the new generation of filmgoers and rebellious directors such as Mike Nichols and Sidney Lumet, who explored adult themes that clashed with the Production Code.
Chapters 14–19 focus on the production of Midnight Cowboy. Frankel highlights the obstacles encountered over the course of the film's shoots in New York, Florida, and Texas, many times involving Schlesinger, who was always a "mass of insecurities and raw nerve endings during film shoots" and who clashed with everyone, from the actors to the cinematographer Adam Holender (207–8). Frankel adds important details...