“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.

The difficult path from original work to film adaptation

British director John Schlesinger entered the film industry after making documentaries for the BBC, and was praised for his human dramas such as ``A Certain Kind of Love'' (1962) and `` Darlings '' (1965). In Britain in the 1960s, a new wave of youth culture was born with the emergence of The Beatles and miniskirts, and ``Darling'' is a drama about a model with a free-spirited personality who symbolized this era. - Thanks in part to Christie's fresh charm, it became one of the most representative films of its time (Schlesinger was nominated for an Oscar for Best Director, and Christie won Best Actress).

In response to this film's acclaim, Schlesinger was looking for a new subject set in America, and upon the recommendation of a painter friend, he read the novel ``Midnight Cowboy'' and began thinking about making it into a film. First, I approached Joe Gianni, a producer I know, but he seemed to be reluctant to read the original book, which featured homosexuality and male prostitution.

However, Schlesinger could not give up and consulted another producer, Jerome Hellman. Hellman said he had an instinct that ``it would make a good movie if it depicted the relationship between two men.'' "It's not going to be a hit movie, but I still wanted to make it," Hellman said (via the site Cinephilia & Beyond ). When I approached United Artists, they gave the go- Signs for production on the condition that it be kept within budget.

"Midnight Cowboy" (c)Photofest / Getty Images

It was not easy to decide on the scriptwriter. When I first consulted with writer Gore Vidal (original author of Michael Sarne's Myra (1970)), he told me that he wanted to include a story he had written himself in the film, so I gave up on using him. Ta. Next, he had playwright Jack Gilber write a scenario, but this was rejected.

The person who decided to do this was Waldo Salt. He was blacklisted during Hollywood's Red Scare in the 1950s, and thereafter wrote screenplays for television and other projects anonymously. In his personal life, he experienced a divorce, lived in a cheap hotel in New York, and realized the emptiness of writing anonymous screenplays. He was in his fifties at the time and thought there was no future for him.

Then came the work on ``Midnight Cowboy.'' The completed script pleased the producers, and Salt won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Jennifer Salt (Waldo's daughter), who plays Annie, the main character's hometown girlfriend in the film, looks back on her father: ``At that moment, my father rose from the ashes like a phoenix.'' (From the BD interview for this work).

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He has since gone on to produce such masterpieces as `` Serpico '' (1973) starring Al Pacino and `` Homecoming '' (1978) starring Jon Voight, for which he was awarded the Laurel Award (Achievement Award) by the Writers Guild of Hollywood. ``Midnight Cowboy'' is a story about the protagonists who live a life on the bottom but harbor a secret hope, and Salt, who was down on his luck, may have written it while identifying with the protagonists.

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