Midnight Cowboy Page #17

Synopsis: Convinced of his irresistible appeal to women, Texas dishwasher Joe Buck (Jon Voight) quits his job and heads for New York City, thinking he'll latch on to some rich dowager. New York, however, is not as hospitable as he imagined, and Joe soon finds himself living in an abandoned building with a Dickensian layabout named Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman). The two form a rough alliance, and together they kick-start Joe's hustling career just as Ratso's health begins to deteriorate.
Genre: Drama
Production: United Artists
  Won 3 Oscars. Another 24 wins & 15 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.9
Metacritic:
79
Rotten Tomatoes:
90%
R
Year:
1969
113 min
Website
618 Views


INT. PHONE BOOTH - DAY

Joe strikes a match with his thumbnail and watches it curl

away while he waits, hearing a phone ring. Then the phone is

answered by a woman's voice.

JOE:

Hey, Shirley... Miss who? Oh, yeah,

well, when will Missus Gardner be

home? ... I'm a friend of hers, a

goddam good friend... Shee-it, I

can't wait till then...

Joe hangs up while the answering service's voice is still

talking. The match has burned out. Joe flips it away.

INSERT:

Headline -- WALTER P. BOX TAKES NEW YORK BY SURPRISE.

EXT. TIMES SQUARE - DUSK

Joe loiters outside a gag headline print shop, his eyes

following a man in homburg and chesterfield.

EXT./INT. METROPOLE - DUSK

Joe lingers momentarily, identifying with the violence in a

jazz drummer, his eyes searching for a pickup.

INT. ARCADE - DUSK

Joe tests his skills in a shoot-down with a large metal

cowboy and kills him, a recorded voice sneaks, "Got me!" as

the cowboy slumps. Joe glances off as he hears polite

applause...

TOWNY'S VOICE

Bravo...

... TOWNY -- a stout, round-faced man -- clasps Joe's hand

between both of his own, like an old friend.

TOWNY:

How are you?

(more quietly)

Townsend P. Locke, from Chicago.

Call me Towny. I'm here to attend a

paper manufacturers' convention

and, frankly, to have a little fun,

dammit...

Towny grips Joe's elbow, almost forcibly leading him away.

EXT. SIDE STREET WEST OF BROADWAY - DUSK

Towny's face appears huge at Joe's shoulder.

TOWNY:

This is my first night in town and

I'll consider it a ghastly omen

clouding my entire ten days, if you

don't consent to have dinner with

me. Anywhere you like...

Towny's mouth continues speaking at an incredible rate, but

his words are drowned out momentarily by the grinder of a

sanitation truck, chewing up a discarded Christmas tree with

tinsel clinging to it. Towny is still talking when they've

passed the truck.

TOWNY (CONT'D)

... never mind how you're dressed.

They know me. I'll say you're with

the rodeo. There's always a rodeo

in New York, dammit. Besides, you

look very elegant...

EXT. STREET CORNER - NIGHT

Joe hardly notices O'Daniel on a far cornet, his whining

scarcely audible.

"Ye are the salt of the earth, Jesus said, but if the salt

hath lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted?"

TOWNY:

But, dammit all, I just remembered,

we'll have to eat in my room

because I have this phone call

coming at nine-thirty...

INT. TOWNY'S HOTEL ELEVATOR - NIGHT

An ancient open cage lift.

TOWNY:

What I like about you, you're such

a wonderful conversationalist. So

won't that be nice to have dinner

sent up?

INT. TOWNY'S HOTEL CORRIDOR - NIGHT

A threadbare, carpeted but spacious hallway.

TOWNY:

Fifty years ago this was the only

hotel in Manhattan. My mother

always calls me at her bedtime, so

I've got to be there.

INT. TOWNY'S BEDROOM-SITTING ROOM - NIGHT

The room has little to recommend it except its size and large

French window, through which -- ignored by Joe -- the Mutual

tower flashes MONY. Towny waves Joe toward the couch, quickly

slipping several physical culture magazines from the coffee

table onto a shelf beneath.

TOWNY:

A drink? I've got some nice gin. If

you'd prefer something else,

they'll send it up...

JOE:

Gin's okay.

TOWNY:

It's so exciting. New York. The mad

forward thrust of everything. My

sense of time here is completely

altered.

INT. TENEMENT STAIRS - DAY

Joe carries Ratso down the stairs, wrapped in a blanket.

INT. TOWNY'S BEDROOM-SITTING ROOM - NIGHT

The coffee table is littered with empty cartons of Chinese

food, soaked through with brown sauce. Joe finds the last egg

roll and eats it as Towny's voice drones on.

TOWNY:

Sometimes it seems to me time

stopped twenty years ago. There was

this war, there was this handsome

young man with quite black hair and

he was supposed to die. But he

didn't. Isn't that amusing?

JOE:

What?

Towny's dialogue moves out of sync. Towny's eyes seem to look

into camera -- from Joe's viewpoint -- but slightly past it.

The quality of the scene grows increasingly disjointed as Joe

glances around the room, looking for something to steal,

losing personal contact with Towny, viewing him as an object

to be used for a specific purpose.

TOWNY:

Enough about me. I'm through

talking for the evening. Now I want

to hear about conditions in the

West. The romance of the West holds

a tremendous power over me. Mother

was actually a pioneer woman, can

you believe it? When she calls,

I'll introduce you and she'll be so

thrilled.

EXT. TENEMENT NEIGHBORHOOD - DAY

Ratso sits an a stoop while Joe hails a cab.

INT. TOWNY'S BATHROOM - NIGHT

Towny's voice is only a shrill monotone from here, Joe

searches with increasing desperation for something of value.

An old electric razor is too bulky for Joe's pocket, probably

worthless anyhow. Towny's array of medicines merely recalls

Joe's purpose.

TOWNY'S VOICE

Mama, a coincidence. Guess who was

being discussed. Discussed. Not

disgusted. Discussed! Do you have

that thing turned up? Why aren't

you wearing it! This is impossible!

EXT. GREYHOUND BUS TERMINAL - DAY

Joe lifts Ratso from the taxi and carries him inside.

JOE'S VOICE

Listen, Towny, did I mention I got

a sick kid?

INT. TOWNY'S BATHROOM - NIGHT

Joe is rehearsing the speech in the bathroom mirror.

JOE:

Well, he is, he's sicker'n shee-it.

And I've gotta get him South quick

as I can...

INT. GREYHOUND BUS TERMINAL - DAY

Joe stands in a long line, glancing impatiently at the clock

while Ratso waits on a bench, wrapped in his blanket.

INT. TOWNY'S BEDROOM-SITTING ROOM - NIGHT

Towny is stretched out on the couch, staring morosely.

TOWNY:

I was so childish with her.

Joe moves into frame past camera, standing in front of him,

so that we can see the scene from behind Joe's waist.

JOE:

What d'you want?

TOWNY:

What?

JOE:

What you got me up here for?

TOWNY:

Oh, difficult, it's so difficult.

You're a nice person, Joe -- I

should never have asked you up -- a

lovely person. Oh, how I loathe

life. I loathe it. Please go.

Please.

JOE:

You want me to leave?

TOWNY:

No, yes. No, I mean yes please go.

Help me to be good. Come back

tomorrow. Promise.

JOE:

I'm going to Florida.

TOWNY:

This is terrible. I meet someone

who -- then -- wait, I want to give

you a present. For your trip.

You'll let me please...

INT. GREYHOUND BUS TERMINAL - DAY

Joe's face is expectant, next in line at the ticket window.

He nods reassuringly toward Ratso.

INT. TOWNY'S BEDROOM-SITTING ROOM - NIGHT

Joe's face is puzzled then angry as Towny takes a Saint

Christopher medal from his sack and hands it to Joe. His eyes

are looking past Joe, his speech out of sync.

TOWNY:

Please take it. You don't have to

be Catholic. Saint Christopher is

the patron saint of all travelers.

I want you to have it. For helping

me be good.

INT. GREYHOUND BUS TERMINAL - DAY

It's Joe's turn. The clerk looks at him expectantly.

INT. TOWNY'S BEDROOM-SITTING ROOM - NIGHT

Rate this script:3.0 / 2 votes

Waldo Salt

Waldo Miller Salt was an American screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses during the era of McCarthyism. He later won Academy Awards for Midnight Cowboy and Coming Home. more…

All Waldo Salt scripts | Waldo Salt Scripts

0 fans

Submitted by aviv on October 30, 2016

Discuss this script with the community:

0 Comments

    Translation

    Translate and read this script in other languages:

    Select another language:

    • - Select -
    • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
    • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
    • Español (Spanish)
    • Esperanto (Esperanto)
    • 日本語 (Japanese)
    • Português (Portuguese)
    • Deutsch (German)
    • العربية (Arabic)
    • Français (French)
    • Русский (Russian)
    • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
    • 한국어 (Korean)
    • עברית (Hebrew)
    • Gaeilge (Irish)
    • Українська (Ukrainian)
    • اردو (Urdu)
    • Magyar (Hungarian)
    • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
    • Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Italiano (Italian)
    • தமிழ் (Tamil)
    • Türkçe (Turkish)
    • తెలుగు (Telugu)
    • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
    • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
    • Čeština (Czech)
    • Polski (Polish)
    • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Românește (Romanian)
    • Nederlands (Dutch)
    • Ελληνικά (Greek)
    • Latinum (Latin)
    • Svenska (Swedish)
    • Dansk (Danish)
    • Suomi (Finnish)
    • فارسی (Persian)
    • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
    • հայերեն (Armenian)
    • Norsk (Norwegian)
    • English (English)

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this screenplay to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "Midnight Cowboy" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 23 Jan. 2025. <https://www.scripts.com/script/midnight_cowboy_327>.

    We need you!

    Help us build the largest writers community and scripts collection on the web!

    Watch the movie trailer

    Midnight Cowboy

    The Studio:

    ScreenWriting Tool

    Write your screenplay and focus on the story with many helpful features.


    Quiz

    Are you a screenwriting master?

    »
    Which actor plays the character Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
    A Tom Hiddleston
    B Chris Evans
    C Mark Ruffalo
    D Chris Hemsworth