joe buck ( jon voight ) decide he go to leave his small life in texas and make it big in the big city . the woman be there for the asking and the men be mainly tutti fruttis . wide eyed and he come to new york city and not prepare for the series of humiliate misadventure he experience and one bad than the other . in the middle of that chaos and he meet and befriend rico ratso rizzo ( dustin hoffmann ) and a homeless look man who live in an apparently condemn building . there isn not much of a story a midnight cowboy be a series of vignette destine to bring forth not only joe buck plight in the city and but also inter cut to his past and show u in shock cut and semi psychedelic dream sequence snippet of his past represent his fail relationship with his girlfriend annie ( jennifer salt ) who be gang rap and his abandonment by his mother and and his apparent abuse by his grandmother and who also have a habit of hustle men for money . an air of pessimism dominate the film almost from the wistful beginning a nilsson play throughout the opening credit his deceptively flowery everybody talk while we feel that even while we want joe to eventually make his mark in the city and the odds be high he would not and will end up work for penny in a dead end job show in a masterful shot from his outside point of view later in the film a he watch a man work a a dishwasher in a soup kitchen through a window and see himself . we know from the look in his eye he do not want to end like this . a dark story of dashed hope and john schlesinger create haunt image of lose soul at the end of the 60 and and at the center and the prevail friendship between two men a they struggle to make some sort of mean to their life amidst the elusive comfort of a dignified life . there be the implied notion that they may have be lover ratso reach out to hug joe in the party scene and their the final embrace at the end certainly point at this but this be essentially a buddy film and one that manage to survive and literally and to the death and and bring some form of hope to joe who at the end in florida seem much change and old and wiser .