“I’m walking here!”

John Schlesinger‘s MIDNIGHT COWBOY in  is a gritty, unrelentingly bleak look at the seedy underbelly of urban American life is undeniably disturbing, and features Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight in standout roles as a con man and a Texas hustler trying to survive on the tough streets of New York. Join us at the Rio Theatre for 50th Anniversary screenings of this daring, controversial film – the only Best Picture Oscar-winner to have received an “X” rating.

Convinced of his irresistible appeal to women, Texas dishwasher Joe Buck (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 (Hoffman). The two form a rough alliance, and together they kick-start Joe’s hustling career just as Ratso’s health begins to deteriorate.

“Midnight Cowboy moves beyond realism into an archetypal tale of the Big City destroying dreamers. Joe and Ratso, like Of Mice and Men’s George and Lenny, are quintessential failed, lower-class, buddy-dreamers.” (Chicago Tribune)

“I cannot recall a more marvelous pair of acting performances in any one film.” (Gene Siskel)

“Strip away everything else and it’s the performances that make Midnight Cowboy what it is.” (Total Film)

“We can identify with them without false sentimentality and it is impossible not to do so.” (The Guardian)

Sunday, May 26
Doors 8:30 pm | Movie 9:00 pm
Advance tickets $10.50 HERE | $12.50 at the door

Thursday, May 30
Doors 6:15 pm | Movie 6:45 pm
Advance tickets $10.50 HERE | $12.50 at the door

*Minors permitted in the balcony. (18A. Mature themes.) Must be 19+ w/ID for bar service and main floor seating.
**Rio Theatre Groupons and passes OK. Please redeem at the door.

MIDNIGHT COWBOY (John Schlessinger, 1969 / 18A / 113 mins) Joe Buck is a wide-eyed hustler from Texas hoping to score big with wealthy New York City women; he finds a companion in Enrico “Ratso” Rizzo, an ailing swindler with a bum leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida.