The New York Times film critic Vincent Canby may not have thought Midnight Cowboy "a film for the ages" when it first appeared in 1969, but the movie represents a particular cultural instance of how Hollywood catered to a new youth market and attempted to bring into the mainstream the underground culture of the late 1960s. A bleak tale made poignant by the tender friendship between a naive Texas stud and the petty con who first hustles him, Midnight Cowboy follows the pair as they struggle to survive the unforgiving streets of New York, dreaming of a better life in Florida.

Directed by British filmmaker John Schlesinger, Midnight Cowboy is based on the novel by James Leo Herlihy and was adapted for the screen by Waldo Salt. While Herlihy's story focuses predominantly on Joe, the rather dim country boy turned big city hustler, Waldo Salt's screenplay draws...