After Midnight: Reflecting on a Classic 35 Years Later (2006) Online

This retrospective documentary covers a lot of interesting and illuminating ground on the making of the controversial "Midnight Cowboy." Screenwriter Waldo Salt was specifically hired to write the script because he had the right staccato style for the project and put more emphasis on shaping a scene than on dialogue. Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight discuss at length how they did a lot of improvisations and pushed each other to go as high as they could with their characters. Sylvia Miles talks about how her brief, but memorable six minute role launched her whole career. Cinematographer Adam Holender goes into detail about giving New York City a gritty look. Among the other things we learn are that Ratso's crummy apartment was built in a studio, the rehearsal period lasted three to four weeks, and director John Schlesinger saw aspects of American culture that are generally overlooked by people who are born and raised in America. Worth a watch for fans of the film.

After Midnight: Reflecting on the Classic 35 Years Later (2006)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Very good but all too short look back at the making of the classic MIDNIGHT COWBOY. Stars Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman are joined by producer Jerome Hellman, Jennifer Salt (Waldo's daughter), Sylvia Miles, composer John Barry and several others. For the most part this is a very entertaining documentary that covers the entire production from how the director got involved in the picture, how the two leads were discovered and what the production was like as they all knew they were doing some daring and original. Hoffman and Voight tell some great stories about how they came up with their characters and how they practiced for a month trying to get everything right. There are stories about Salt recording their conversations so that he could turn it into scenes that would eventually be in the movie. At just under 30-minutes that's obviously not enough time to dig deep into the production but I think for what this documentary is it does do a good job. You'll certainly have a better idea of how important everyone thought the film was going to be and it's clear that they're all still very proud of it.