MIDNIGHT COWBOY A United Artists Release. With Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman; screenplay by Waldo Salt; based on the novel by James Leo Herlihy; cinematography by Adam Holender; music supervised by John Barry; directed by John Schlesinger.

MIDNIGHT COWBOY is an ugly picture, and experience that can be likened only to having one’s nose rubbed in the proverbial “it.” Yet it’s an ultimately beautiful film on many levels — outstanding performances by Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, superb direction by John Schlesinger, and a theme which powerfully comes across, despite the ugliness of some of the plot incidents.

MIDNIGHT COWBOY is the story of human debris, flotsam and jetsam that has been cast ashore in the seamier sections of Fun City. Its hero, Joe Buck (Voight), is a small town stud who fancies himself up in a cowboy outfit and takes off for New York, intending to sell his stud service to rich women who have to buy whatever sex they get because “all the men back East are tuttifruitti.” But Joe proves woefully inept as a hustler--he’s too sensitive, and so hopelessly naive.