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Midnight Cowboy

1969 · TMDB 7.5

Directed by John Schlesinger

Joe Buck is a wide-eyed hustler from Texas hoping to score big with wealthy New York City women; he finds a companion in Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo, an ailing swindler with a bum leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida.

Why it matters

Joe Buck, a naive Texan, heads to New York to become a hustler for rich women, but ends up forming an unlikely partnership with the sickly con man Ratso Rizzo. Theirs is a transaction of survival that grows into a profound, aching friendship.

From When Money Buys Trouble

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