Midnight Cowboy Page #8

STILL PHOTOGRAPH

Joe staring in the mirror. O.S. static over his love theme.

EXT. SIXTH AVENUE - NIGHT

By work-light, the tarrier in metal helmet leans on a jack

hammer, beyond the sign DIG WE MUST, drowning out Joe's

radio.

STILL PHOTOGRAPH

Joe flexing his muscles in his jockey shorts while -- LIVE ON

TV SCREEN -- a physical culture personality finishes push-ups

and starts pitching his own extra protein bread.

EXT. TIMES SQUARE PANCAKE HOUSE - DAY

Joe's radio continues the super-break commercial while a fry

cook flips flapjacks in the window.

But Joe's eyes are on a sign DISHWASHER WANTED. Joe looks up

and his eyes meet those of the young man scraping garbage

behind the counter. It's Joe.

JOE:

Shee-it.

STILL PHOTOGRAPH

Joe sits in the hotel lobby, staring out at the street,

unable to concentrate on his comic book. On two-way radio, a

woman's voice giggles as she speaks, "When I can't sleep,

well, I just dial the time and listen to those old seconds

clicking by like, you know, counting sheep?"

EXT. SIDEWALK CAFE - COCKTAIL HOUR

Joe watches a young man hold a taxi door for an older lady,

at the same corner where Ratso waved to another young man.

The woman's predatory eyes linger momentarily on Joe before

she leads the young man into the Cafe. The two-way radio

continues over, "... that's what I do about insomnia."

JOE:

Well, now, ma'am, next time you got

that feeling coming on, you dial

Joe Buck. I'll show you what to

do...

STILL PHOTOGRAPH

Joe straddles a chair, staring at a blank TV screen.

SINGING COMMERCIAL

Need a little easy money? It's E-Z.

Want a little easy cash? It's E-Z.

E-Z LOAN COMMERCIAL

As the jingle continues, we follow Joe and his radio into the

loan office, the depressing reality photographed and edited

in the style of a TV commercial:

JINGLE:

Easy locations to get to

Easy ladies to greet you

Easy chairs to seat you

Easy payments to meet

Let E-Z set you

On Easy Street

Joe arrives confident

Harassed E-Z receptionist

Lines of uneasy customers

Desperate, angry faces

Reams of E-Z forms to fill

Clerk's sneer, says

Joe has to be kidding

INT. TIMES SQUARE PALACE LOBBY - NIGHT

Joe's image frozen -- as if another still photograph -

standing at the desk, waiting for his key.

JOE'S VOICE

Key to 1014...

Action continues as the DESK CLERK hands Joe a folded paper

instead of a key. Joe opens it, deeply perplexed.

DESK CLERK:

Looks like you been locked out of

your room, buddy. Till you pick up

your tab.

JOE:

Uh, what about my things'n all?

DESK CLERK:

We keep them nice and safe till you

get this straightened out.

INTERCUT:

Room 1014 warm and inviting, Joe's suitcase on the bed.

JOE:

Listen, tell you what, you can keep

all the rest of the goddam junk if

you let me have just the suitcase.

That suitcase means a lot to me.

INTERCUT:

The postcard photograph marked X -- THIS IS ME.

DESK CLERK:

We keep everything. House rules.

EXT. TIMES SQUARE - NIGHT

Joe stands outside the hotel, stunned, seeing the bright

colored lights turn suddenly grey. The film continues in

black and white as Joe walks into the crowd.

EXT. SALLY BUCK'S BEAUTY SALON - DAY

The FOR RENT sign flapping in the wind.

INT. BAR - DAY

Joe nurses a short beer, like the regulars. He looks up as a

crippled panhandler approaches, vaguely reminiscent of Ratso.

JOE:

Screw off.

INT. ROOM 1014 - NIGHT

The bed turned back, clean sheets, a soft night light.

INT. BUS DEPOT - NIGHT

Joe is stretched on a bench, his Stetson over his eyes. A

loud speaker announces a bus "departing for Texas" but Joe

does not move. A policeman taps Joe's boots with his night

stick. Joe rises and starts away with mixed anger and

apprehension.

INT. PUBLIC MEN'S ROOM - DAY

Two matching Ivy Leaguers exchange a glance as they see Joe

washing his feet in the basin. Joe stares back with a

belligerent grin.

JOE:

Any objection, gentlemen?

INT. ALL NIGHT CAFETERIA - NIGHT

Joe balances a cup of coffee, walking past the other solitary

night people, avoiding each other's eyes. Joe spots what he's

looking for and seats himself next to a gaunt woman and her

ten year old son, both freaked out, erratically touching

things, themselves, each other in a futile effort to make

contact with reality. But Joe is only concerned with the

plastic-wrapped crackers left by their empty soup bowls.

JOB:

Y'ain't gonna eat them?

The woman stares at Joe blankly. The boy runs a toy mouse

across the table, up his mother's arm and around her face.

With a polite nod, Joe opens the crackers and squirts one

with ketchup. Joe upsets his chair as a great gob of ketchup

spills onto his pants...

JOE:

Shee-it.

... glancing around with an embarrassed laugh, but the only

one looking is a cop, scratching his calf with a night stick.

Joe keeps his back to the customers as he moves to the water

dispenser, wets a paper napkin and tries to wipe away the

stain. But the water has only spread the stain across his

pants and down his leg. He blushes as a blonde young

streetwalker giggles.

SALLY BUCK'S VOICE

Wet your britches, lover boy?

INT. SUBWAY ARCADE - NIGHT

Joe tries to hide the stain with his jacket as he checks the

coin boxes of vending machines, wary as he passes a burly

policeman, abstractedly snapping his handcuffs in front of a

bakery window display of bride-and-groom wedding cakes. Joe

barely glances at a confused MIDDLE-AGE LADY.

MIDDLE-AGE LADY

How do I get to Grand Central?

JOE:

Shuttle. Follow the green light.

Automatically,checking the trough of a gum vending machine,

Joe unexpectedly faces himself in the mirror, the eyes

staring at him tired and hopeless. His hand reaches

unconsciously for a cigarette, The package is empty. He

crumples it in his fist but holds it.

JOE (CONT'D)

Alright, cowboy. Enough of this

shee-it. You know what you got to

do?

(nods)

Then go do it.

EXT. FORTY-SECOND STREET - NIGHT

Joe hurls the crumpled package into a DON'T BE A LITTERBUG

basket as he emerges from the subway, his radio at his ear.

The torchy voice belts his love song, merging with street

noises crying danger -- an ambulance, a burglar alarm, a

policeman's whistle -- the lights flashing lurid color for

the first time since Joe was locked out, no longer promising

but threatening, clashing, warning as...

... from a high angle, across the street, Joe joins the other

midnight cowboys, offering himself to all comers. His figure

is momentarily obliterated by traffic then...

... zooming in, we see Joe self-consciously trying to hide

the stain on his pants, embarrassed as a large sedan slows

then moves on to stop in front of a motorcycle freak. Joe is

briefly obliterated again by a passing police car...

... the receding flash of its turret light revealing Joe in

close conversation with a frightened young FAT BOY, whose

eyes plead for reassurance as Joe scowls.

INT. ROOM 1014 - DAY

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