Original subtitles

[soft music plays]

As we went on, again and again, John and I were making choices--

And he was making choices with the actors.

--That we felt-- This may sound archaic by today's standards.

We felt it wasn't a film for children anyway.

And we chose to go ahead and do what we were gonna do.

I never paid any attention to...

...the ratings of the film or controversy over its subject matter.

It was a good screenplay with wonderful human story.

It didn't occur to me that we are breaking social barriers...

...or upsetting Establishment values.

The outrageous balcony sequence...

...with Jon Voight and Bob Balaban...

...that broke a lot of taboos in its time.

But, you know, it wasn't anything that wasn't happening on 42nd Street...

...you know, at any time of day or night.

[horn honking]

L was such a newcomer when I did this movie.

I was in college at the time.

It didn't occur to me that there was anything dangerous, weird...

...maybe my career would be injured. I didn't have a career.

So I really had very little to worry about.

The film was finished, and I think UA must have shown a print to the MPAA.

And they came back and they said, "Well, unless they'll make cuts...

...we're gonna-- It's gonna have to be an X."

Which meant, just so you understand the significance of that at that time...

...there were markets in which it couldn't play...

...and you couldn't get any advertising on television.

And so we went out as an X.

[Childers] We'd seen the film and said:

"Hm. This is wild film. It's pretty good.

But is anyone gonna like it or are people gonna walk out in droves?"

And at that screening, on 7th Avenue, New York...

...it was electrifying at the end.

People were sobbing, in tears, applauding.

It was amazing.

First of all, no one had any expectations for the film.

That film was being done...

...in a climate of the so-called golden age...

...of, you just try to do good work.

I never anticipated it was going to be as successful as it became.

Then there were Oscar nominations, and then there were Oscars.

And everybody's lives changed.

[woman] I said to my dad, "I got nominated."

He said, "Yes, and all my friends said that you've got nominated...

...and you're playing a hooker." [laughs]

I said, "Yeah, but I'm only playing it."

It had never happened in the history of the industry...

...that an X-rated film was voted the Best Picture.

We never, ever thought that this could win an Oscar.

Because in those days, the Academy vote was really old...

...and really conservative.

I went to the Academy Awards, and there was that divide:

The old school and the new guys.

I was part of the new guys.

We were actually in London...

...filming Sunday Bloody Sunday.

And John's quite modest, and said, "I don't think I wanna go to Hollywood.

We're the dark horse but we're probably not going to win.

And besides, I'd look like a fool."

Being very British.

"L'd look like a fool if I went to Hollywood...

...and came home empty-handed."

So we stayed in London shooting Sunday Bloody Sunday.

And John's secretary on Midnight Cowboy...

...was the production secretary on the Oscar show.

She was backstage on a telephone-- We're at 4:00 in the morning in London.

--Announcing, you know, "Waldo Salt."

And then there was, you know, the next award.

And "John Schlesinger, Best Director." And we're jumping. It was wonderful.

And then, finally, the Best Picture of the Year.

It was really exciting.

[Voight] It was an interesting night, in that we won the awards.

I thought it was deserving, you know.

That it was a great picture.

[Hellman] After the film won an Oscar the ratings board came back.

And they said, "Look, if you will let us cut one frame out of the movie...

...so we can say it was re-cut, we'll change the rating."

John and I said, "Absolutely not.

We're not taking a frame out of the movie.

We don't care what you do."

And the guys at UA absolutely supported that.

They said, "N-O. Picture doesn't get cut."

So I guess when you get the stamp of approval of the Academy...

...you get to be a little more risqué.

But it was sort of a dubious distinction, I thought, for a while...

...that I got to be the X rating of a movie, you know, for five minutes.

[tires screech]

Hey, what's the matter? I'm walking here!

- [horn honking] - I'm walking here!

Up yours, you son of a bitch.

You don't talk to me that way! Get out of here!

[Miles] It really holds up very well.

And everybody seeing it for the first time...

...has the very same response to it.

When a young person sees it, it's as meaningful.

Even though there's been the sexual revolution...

...and this and that and whatever and a couple of wars in between...

...it has never failed...

...to really shake up a young person.

Because it's almost like an initiation.

I think it's a classic story of redemption.

I think it's really about people...

...redeeming themselves in some major way.

And the journey is--

Even though in the movie it's a tiny little journey, it's a bus ride...

...it's massive.

It's about a certain way of life in New York...

...and it's about a very rarefied section of society.

I mean, after all, the lead is a hustler.

[Salt] These kind of characters were not thought of as heroes.

And those were the people that, if you walked down 42nd Street...

...and you were one of us, you averted your eyes.

They were not people that you knew about...

...that you wanted to understand.

They were people that you avoided.

And the movie forced you to see them...

...as one of you. One of us.

We're all out there selling our souls, basically.

He was selling his body with his soul. We don't all sell our bodies with them.

But we are all out there...

...in a very dangerous, difficult world, mostly.

And yet we're all looking for the same thing, you know.

We're all looking for love and acceptance and friendship.

And I think that Ratso Rizzo's dream...

...you know, to go where it was warm...

...you know, to be in Florida...

That's where everybody goes, isn't it?

I think the reason audiences still respond the way they do...

...is because the fundamental aspects of the story are timeless.

I mean, it is-- No matter how you slice it...

...or how strange the characters may be, or the environment...

...it's a love story.

And, you know, two people who ultimately...

...make a commitment to one another...

...irrespective of, you know, what their backgrounds...

...or the level of their intelligence or anything else.

I'll just tell them:

"You want me, I don't go nowhere without my buddy here."

I don't think either of them had ever had an intimate relationship.

I don't think they had ever really known what it was to be loved...

...much less to love.

And I think that's what the film expresses...

...because that's what John wanted it to express...

...more than any other emotional element.

That connection, and his ability...

...to rise to the obligation of that connection...

...to rise to the obligation of being a friend...

...of being family to someone...

...is what made-- You know, what makes him a man instead ofa freak.

And it's what allows him to reach over and close his eyes.

And those are the two moments that my dad always talked about...

...being the big moments for Joe Buck, were the eye-closing in the bus...

...and then the tossing of his clothes.

In his little, um...

In his little goofy short-sleeved shirt...

...throwing away the cowboy boots and the hat and everything...

...and just being a guy.

Throwing away the bullshit dream...

...and becoming a man.

When Jon Voight holds Dustin in his arms on the bus...

...it's really beautiful.

The grace of the film...

...was in the vision of human compassion.

God bless John for making this movie.