Brokeback Cowboy

Midnight Cowboy is a fantastic film following the exploits of young Joe Buck, a Texan looking to make it in the Big Apple as a hustler. Throughout the film we see Joe as the epitome of man: he's young, strong, tall, handsome, polite, and sexually charged. This view of Joe is given to reinforce his decision to screw his way through life, but it also serves to show another side of him. Joe is a naive man, thinking he is a sex god and every woman he meets is longing to be with him. From very early in the film we see that every encounter Joe has with women is unpleasant and usually at a detriment to him. His first foray into the world of New York women left him with disdainful looks and cold shoulders, and once he finally got into bed with one she manipulated him into paying her instead. These awful experiences with the women of the city are mirrored by Joe's experiences with the men. Desperate for money, Joe resorted to performing homosexual acts on more than one occasion. These are coupled with the numerous flashbacks to joe's sexual past. We see Joe and a woman, revealed to be "Crazy" Annie, making love in both a bedroom and later a car. Joe uses these memories to help "perform" during a scene in which Joe allows a young man to perform oral sex upon him in a movie theater for money. At first he is not able to stand at attention, but after thinking back to his time with Annie, Joe is able to go through with it. As these flashbacks progress we see that they are not all sweet and loving, but also filled with terror. Annie was the town bicycle, but renounced her loose ways after she fell in love with Joe. The other men in town did not like that, so they captured Joe and Annie while theyw ere in the middle of the act and proceeded to gang rape the both of them. This is an emotionally scarring event, one that can completely change a person's world view. The fact that Joe thinks back to this moment while being with both men and women tells the viewer that there may be more to this man than just being a stud. We are given even more insight into Joe's potential latent homosexual feelings when a woman goads him into sex after he is unable to perform by accusing him of being homosexual. This throws Joe into a rage that gives him the ability to seal the deal. Probably the most telling aspect of the story comes from the least sexual part of it. Joe eventually finds happiness at the end of his journey with Rico "Ratso" Rizzo, the man he has been living with throughout his foray into New York's sex scene. Eventually, Joe takes Ratso to Florida, Rizzo's dream place, forsaking everything he had and everything he could be just to make his sick friend happy. Eventually Joe realizes that the life of a hustler is not for him, and he comes to this realization out of love for Rizzo. Though Joe Buck sure is one hell of a stud, there is more to him than meets the eye.