Savannah Book Festival 2022: 'Midnight Cowboy' revisited by film author Glenn Frankel

'I think 'Midnight Cowboy' (has) been a little bit out of mainstream. The movie itself is well respected, but it's maybe because the director, John Schlesinger, is not considered in the pantheon of great New Hollywood directors," said Glenn Frankel, who will be in town this week to promote his book "Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic" at this year's Savannah Book Festival.

"You don't hear him mentioned with (Martin) Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, (Peter) Bogdanovich (or) Robert Altman... Schlesinger has been a little left behind. And so 'Midnight Cowboy,' while it's well-respected, it just hasn't gotten that same kind of attention (as those other directors' films from the era)."

Credit: Courtesy of Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Credit: Courtesy of Farrar, Straus and Giroux

In his book, "Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic," Frankel examines the film as a key artifact of the shifting dynamics of Old Hollywood to New Hollywood.

"I didn't even realize how pivotal a movie it was. We talk about New Hollywood as a sort of breakthrough time in American culture where movies get more serious and they get more edgy and sexier and all that, and all the great movies of that era are really interesting," Frankel said.

"'Midnight Cowboy,' in a way, it's the biggest breakthrough, I would argue in terms of being a modern, different kind of movie and also one of the most influential and successful."

The film also holds cache as an important cultural touchstone of New York City in the late 1960s as gay rights became a more paramount cause following the Stonewall riots, which happened weeks after the initial release of the film.

"We're really at a pivotal time in cultural history, not just for queer history, but sex is becoming an acceptable subject, if you will, in movies," Frankel said as films such as 1967's interracial "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," violent "Bonnie and Clyde" and 1969's swinger hit "Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice" begin to push the envelope for mainstream cinema.

"The movies themselves are undergoing so much transition because the old production code system and censorship has just been scrapped and the new rating system, which we're still living under, was designed by the studio heads to allow for a bit more freedom of expression and to show more both more realistic and sexier movies."

Schlesinger himself identified as gay, but as Frankel points out, never would label himself as a gay film director so while the subtext of homosexuality persists in the film organically, it wasn't an explicit goal of the director or screenwriter, another gay man.

"(Schlesinger) didn't see it as a gay movie at all, or he wasn't making that case. But there certainly is a gay subtext to it and gay iconography to it," Frankel said.

"Some people saw that the way it was, and felt that it was great to have gay characters in a movie without an overemphasis on who they were; that wasn't all they were. But at the same time, others said, well, this is pretty raw and the gay men, the gay customers, who the protagonist, Joe Buck (Voight), ends up servicing are a pretty pathetic crew. And those scenes of you know, between them are pretty raw. So I think both gay and straight people could could take an exception to the movie. Schlesinger felt that he was trying to make a compassionate, but realistic film, and I think that's how it goes down."

Credit: JEROME HELLMAN, UNITED ARTIST

Credit: JEROME HELLMAN, UNITED ARTIST

While unlikely that a film to the same degree of "Midnight Cowboy" would be made today, Frankel said the reason has more to do with the nature of the film industry and the movies it puts emphasis on even more than the subject matter being a deterrent.

"'Midnight Cowboy' is still exceptional because to have a story this dark about these kinds of people and to capture it with such spirit. It's hard to do. It was hard to do that. It was unusual, even for its time," Frankel said.

"I'd argue (movies today are) not quite as good as this one, just because it's damn good. I've really come to respect it enormously. It's part of the job description. I know, when you're writing a book about a particular movie, you can't help but watch the movie a lot and to really begin to see how beautifully it's put together. Watching it over and over, and seeing what happens in it, and who does what and what the actor is like, and the writing. (You) gradually come to recognize that, to see it as a great movie."

With the 2022 Savannah Book Festival being a welcome in-person return for many authors, Frankel said he's excited to make it to Savannah because due to the pandemic, he's been unable to have many in-person events for the book.

Credit: Photo provided

Credit: Photo provided

"I've done very few live events. Almost everything's been online and that's been fine. But it's just not the same thing as actually being with a live audience. So, being able to come to Savannah, a place we always wanted to get to, and being able to sit with real people. When they're not masked or whatever, at least see the expressions on their face or get some kind of human response, something I'm really looking forward to."

Frankel will be speaking at the Savannah Book Festival on Saturday at the Savannah Theatre from 10:15 to 11:10 a.m.

Zach Dennis is the editor of the arts and culture section and weekly Do Savannah alt-weekly entertainment publication at the Savannah Morning News and can be reached at zdennis@savannahnow.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah Book Festival 2022: 'Midnight Cowboy' revisited by film author Glenn Frankel