“Midnight Cowboy” is a story of young people living at the bottom, which won an Academy Award even though it was rated as an adult.

A film adaptation of the novel by James Leo Herlihy, who was highly anticipated for his talent.

The main characters of the story are two men living in New York in the 1960s. One is Joe Buck, a simple young man from Texas who is proud of his body. The other one is Rico, a con artist known as Ratso (Nez Lord). Joe, who wants to make some money by becoming a male prostitute for the upper-class ladies of New York, meets Ratso, a con artist, at a bar. Suspicious. Although he is a man, Joe can no longer pay the hotel bill and begins living with Ratso in a deserted room. Through their life at the bottom, a mysterious bond develops between the two. Joe tries to make Ratso's dream of going to Florida come true. However, an unexpected tragedy awaited...

The original story was written by American author James Leo Herlihy, and the book was published in 1965 (when the author was 38 years old). His first novel, ``All Fall Down,'' published in 1960, was made into a film directed by John Frankenheimer in 1962, starring Warren Beatty. The novel, which deals with the theme of family disintegration, has received high praise.

One of his supporters was the playwright Tennessee Williams, and his friendship with him seems to be reflected in his second novel, Midnight Cowboy (published in Japan by Hayakawa Shobo, translated by Teruo Uno). . Herlihy, who was gay, may have identified himself as a sexual minority with Joe Buck, a young Outsider who set off to New York to pursue his dreams.

The original story is divided into three parts, with the first chapter depicting Joe's past in Texas. Joe, who has no parents, first lives with three prostitutes, but eventually is taken in by his grandmother, a hairdresser. She has several boyfriends, and Joe secretly admires Woodsy Niles, a man who looks like a cowboy and has eyes for her. Joe has a girlfriend, Annie, but she also has affairs with other men and ends up in a mental hospital. Joe joins the military, but after his grandmother dies in a horse accident, he loses his home and ends up washing dishes at a restaurant. She had a strange relationship with a man named Perry and also tried drugs, but at the age of 27 she left for the East.

The first chapter, which depicts the boy's growth, appears briefly in the film as a flashback, while the second and third chapters, which depict his relationship with Ratso in New York, form the core of the story. The novel also briefly describes Ratso as a boy, and we learn that he has been living as a vagrant in the Bronx since he was 17 (though he has had a difficult life and has the skills to survive on the streets). Ratso is said to be around 21 or 22 years old when he meets Joe.

In making the film, the episodes between the two have been recreated quite faithfully to the original story. The original work is interesting, but it is said that the movie was so good that it overshadowed the original work.

“Four Friends” preview

Herlihio was also active as an actor, co-starring with Jean Seberg in `` In the French Style '' (1963) and also appearing in Arthur Penn's ``Four Friends'' (1981), but he committed suicide in 1993. are doing. He passed away at the age of 66. A ``memorial article'' published in the New York Times that year states that ``he was praised for his superb portrayal of characters and praised for his quality of dialogue,'' but there were many changes made from the original work in the film adaptation. An impressive line is quoted.

The difficult path from original work to film adaptation