''PRIDE'' - Before (and amidst) the Fall
MIDNIGHT COWBOY and the WHITEWASHING of GAY IDEOLOGY (Conclusion)
The second act of Herlihy’s novel constitutes what viewers familiar with the 1969 film adaptation will recognize as the source material of the script - conspicuously sanitized and doctored for ideological conformity with the priorities of the second phase of the American cultural revolution (the first being the 1933 New Dealer ascendancy); and exploiting the final extinguishing of the Hayes Code as a permissive (but consistently enforced) censorship regime.
The latter half of the story opens with a spiritually and morally hollowed out Joe Buck having taken to reinventing himself as the Midnight Cowboy. A rigorous exercise regime has hardened and developed his already Adonis-like physique; and Joe has taken to wearing elaborate Westernwear outfits, Stetson hats, and cowboy boots. He imagines himself as his ‘‘father’’ figure (who may or may not have actually existed), Woodsy Niles. He recalls in his daydreams the times when his Grandmother would take him to Church and looking upon icons of Christ - drawing an ill-defined, but deeply felt, parallel between cowboy archetypes and St Michael the Arcangel - or even as two iterations of the same phenomenon.
None of this, obviously puerile and simpleminded, attempt at purification and expiation of moral and physical corruption however proves adequate. Joe Buck’s fragile sense of self has been totally destroyed by the rape at the hands of the monstrous Tombaby and the sadistic Perry in the Hellish lair of the truly malevolent Juanita. Joe Buck finds himself in dialog with the Devil, concomitant with his reflections on God and his ideal, would be father. The monstrous visage of Juanita appears to him when drunk - in mirrors, in his minds’ eye, in dreams. Joe Buck recalls on that fateful night, Juanita having looked upon his exceptional physicality and remarking that if she had a, ‘‘stable’’ of real men like Joe to work for her - in lieu of being burdened by a bizarrely deformed, half-breed faggot son - she could become rich in a place like New York City - where the demand for, ‘‘studs’’ was great. Joe Buck decides to beat the Devil by heeding the Beast’s advice.
Quitting his menial job as a dishwasher, and loading his worldly possessions (Cowboy shirts and boots, pommade, aftershave) into a cowskin suitcase that cost a small fortune, Joe Buck boards a Greyhound Bus having purchased a one way ticket to New York City. Having virtually no money and no experience of city life, he abides and is sustained by an absolute and fervent belief that he can become rich and enjoy his name ringing out throughout the Empire City by hustling on the street - but NOT in the manner of Perry and his doomed brethren. Joe will please lonely women who will in turn pay him lavishly for his services and - more importantly - allow him to be kept in the way he was by his Grandmother Sally Buck; minus of course the drunkenness and emotional and psychic distance that reduced him to the loneliest of prodigals.
Upon arrival, Joe Buck is predictably, and almost immediately, duped by one of the locals who actually is a skilled hustler. Picking up a middle aged, and overweight but heavily made up and well dressed, woman near Park Avenue, they quickly and casually make their way to her hi-rise apartment and do the deed - only for her to demand payment for services rendered before Joe Buck can even broach the topic of his own proffering of ‘‘services’’. The painful awkwardness of the post-coital moment, pride, and the need to salvage what he can from the encounter to fuel his redemption and reclaim his lost manhood, Joe Buck overpays the woman and sheepishly flees under cover of false bravado.
The second act becomes denouement when Joe Buck meets Rico Rizzo in a dive bar where the former has retreated to drown his sorrows. Unlike in the film, where Rico ‘‘Ratso’’ Rizzo is portrayed as the ultimate nebbish by a mature, if youthful, Dustin Hoffman, Rico of the novel is a veritable doppelganger of Joe Buck - albeit a distorted iteration. Rico is (despite his Sicilian heritage) a blonde haired, 21 year old wisp of a youth - crippled by Polio and/or a clubfoot, he limps about the city in constant pain, drifting from one petit con to another, squatting in abandoned tenements.
After Rico cons Joe Buck into believing that a mentally ill, itinerant lay preacher is in fact a Pimp who manages a stable of ‘‘studs’’ and thus procuring a ‘‘finders fee’’ from his dimwitted mark, the latter tracks him down in a rage - yet they rapidly develop an intense, unspoken bond that precludes violence between them. It is revealed that Rico’s short life is no less a personal disaster than Joe Buck’s - Rico’s private Hell is merely that of an immigrant's son with a wrecked body, not a native son Adonis incapable of achieving manhood beyond the most primitive metrics.
Rico is the youngest son of 13-odd children of Italian immigrants. Always sickly, Rico spends his early childhood crawling into a nook beside the kitchen stove to warm himself. One day, he develops a fever of 106 and is rushed to a Sanitarium. He is released months later to learn that his mother has died. Unable, or unwilling, to manage a household or a family, Rico’s father loads the icebox with food once a week and then absences himself - leaving Rico and his remaining brothers and sisters (those who have not died, run away or married and left home) to fight each other for the scraps. Rico recalls for Joe that he was at one time his father’s favorite child - in happier times, when his father was a proud working man, he would take his entire brood to a local spaghetti restaurant and beam over his dozen children.
In contrast, by the end of his life, Rico’s father was reduced to shining shoes on the subway platforms and breathing in the noxious fumes of the polish and the polluted subterranean air; ultimately succumbing to a tubercular respiratory ailment. Rico vows to never shine shoes - although his father taught him the ‘‘trade’’ before dying - thus, Rico cons and steals for his daily bread.
As time goes on, Joe Buck (rapidly destitute having spent his meager savings within days) and Rico come to bunk together in the abandoned tenement building that Rico has been squatting in. As Rico’s health precipitously declines, Joe Buck’s fortunes improve mildly, owing to a combination of diligence borne of desperation and Joe Buck’s basic malleability within his new environment. On the periphery of the burgeoning counter-culture, Joe even secures a paying female client who appears more intrigued by the novelty of the experience than genuinely interested in being serviced by a ‘‘stud’’. This briefly bolsters Joe Buck’s confidence - bringing the proverbial spring back to his cowboy booted step. Rico, by now virtually bedridden, shines Joe’s boots as a show of respect and friendship. These changes in fortune are however painfully short lived.
Rico confides to Joe Buck that he can no longer walk - and he is terrified of being involuntarily committed to a Sanitarium. He tells Joe that he has long dreamed of relocating to Florida - where they will be free of the coming winter and where, in Rico’s imaginings, any con man or hustler can stake out a fortune with minimal effort. Joe Buck resolves to raise the money to procure bus tickets to Florida for the two of them, and sets out to cruise for men willing to rent his body. At the cruising spot, outside a pornographic theatre, he sees another hustler who is a spitting image of Perry - the man gives him a slight nod. Its clear that Joe Buck’s pathetic attempts at redemption have resulted not in him becoming Woodsy Niles - the Midnight Cowboy and Arcangel; he has instead become the full progeny of Perry and Tombaby Barefoot - and the monster’s demoniac mother, Juanita.
Soon after posting up outside the marquee lights, an awkward, bespectacled youth cautiously approaches Joe Buck - who takes the youth by the hand into the cloistered filth and darkness of the movie house. After performing his desired act on Joe Buck to completion, the boy rushes out and vomits. Leading Joe Buck to give chase and demand payment. The youth informs Joe Buck that he has no money, and breathlessly inquires how badly Joe Buck intends to beat him - obviously seeking out authentic, ‘‘rough trade’’. Disgusted with the youth and himself, Joe escapes again into the darkness, depriving the eager, would be victim of his catharsis.
Joe Buck's fortunes appear, briefly, to improve shortly thereafter - as he encounters a wealthy, middle aged businessman in town from Chicago who eagerly invites Joe Buck back to his hotel room. Once there, the man becomes increasingly intoxicated - and subsequently maudlin, self-loathing and ambivalent about the circumstances. Finally, he advises Joe Buck that he must leave - to which Joe responds that the man still must pay him. Flippantly insisting that there is, ‘‘no money’’ to be had, the pitiable John again suggests that Joe Buck leave - at which time Joe strikes the man and robs him of the funds that he and Rico desperately need to escape to Florida. In a kind of ecstatic trance, Joe Buck beats the man over and over and over again - until finally realizing that the man is dead.
Joe Buck returns to Rico - and they board their bus to freedom. Rico confides to Joe Buck that he’s wet his pants - no longer being able to control his bodily functions. Resignedly, Rico confides that he knows he is dying. Joe Buck tells Rico that he will take care of him - the way nobody ever took care of them. Joe Buck promises he will make use of his strong back and work at an honest job - and they will no longer be forced to squat and hide from the proverbial daylight. Rico appreciates the love his friend has for him, but he can no longer pretend that there is any forthcoming redemption. Both men’s thoughts drift to the haunting fact that Joe Buck is now a murderer and very likely a wanted man.
Rico drifts off to sleep and dies soon after. Joe Buck solemnly informs the bus driver who offers his condolences, before suggesting they continue on to Miami - as there is nothing to be done for the decedent. Joe Buck now faces the unknown, totally alone - armed with freshly acquired wisdom born of terrible moral and spiritual trials which however may be for naught owing to the blood on his hands and the continuing corruption of his soul by the Devil’s machinations - and his infernal servants in Juanita, Perry and Tombaby.
So concludes MIDNIGHT COWBOY - a haunting novel by a haunted man, whose homosexuality was a private Hell (as is ALL enslavement to debased passion) and which ultimately killed him. To suggest, PRIDE is warranted in the case of the damned, willfully or not, is as malicious as it is aesthetically despicable.
I've met a few gay guys, one told me that virtually every gay he knew had been abused at a young age. It really seems like a hellscape of dysfunction, demented lust, a kind of will to death.
‘A private Hell -as is all enslavement to a debased passion’ - beautifully put. Thank you for this wonderful analysis of the novel. It’s really the second part of the novel that the 1969 film ‘Midnight Cowboy’ depicts. I’ve always found it interesting that the LGBTQ movement should choose the sin of Pride as their motif. I had a very religious upbringing in Ulster - Pride, Greed and Lust were always on the agenda at church and school. Of these three Deadly Sins, Pride was deemed to be the absolute worst as it was both an affront to God and it placed the soul in irredeemable peril. Schlesinger’s 1969 film was groundbreaking at the time for its homosexual frame of reference. One can only guess at how the novel might be approached by filmmakers in 2024…I truly hope the producers at Netflix don’t try and remake it.