Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic [Paperback]

Much more than a page-turner. Its the first essential work of cultural history of the new decade. Charles Kaiser,The Guardian

The Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist andNew York Timesbestselling author of the behind-the-scenes explorations of the classic American WesternsHigh NoonandThe Searchersnow reveals the history of the controversial 1969 Oscar-winning film that signaled a dramatic shift in American popular culture.

Director John SchlesingersDarlingwas nominated for five Academy Awards, and introduced the world to the transcendently talented Julie Christie. Suddenly the toast of Hollywood, Schlesinger used his newfound clout to film an expensive, Panavision adaptation ofFar from the Madding Crowd. Expectations were huge, making the movies complete critical and commercial failure even more devastating, and Schlesinger suddenly found himself persona non grata in the Hollywood circles he had hoped to conquer.

Given his recent travails, Schlesingers next project seemed doubly daring, bordering on foolish. James Leo Herlihys novelMidnight Cowboy, about a Texas hustler trying to survive on the mean streets of 1960s New York, was dark and transgressive. Perhaps something about the books unsparing portrait of cultural alienation resonated with Schlesinger. His decision to film it began one of the unlikelier stories in cinematic history, centered on a city that seemed, at first glance, as unwelcoming as Herlihys novel itself.

Glenn FrankelsShooting Midnight Cowboytells the story of a modern classic that, by all accounts, should never have become one in the first place. The films boundary-pushing subject matterhomosexuality, prostitution, sexual assaultearned it an X rating when it first appeared in cinemas in 1969. ForMidnight Cowboy, Schlesingerwho had never made a film in the United Statesenlisted Jerome Hellman, a producer coming off his own relc5