Shooting Midnight Cowboy, Glenn Frankel

Glenn Frankel, building on his success writing fascinating books about great American movies, does it again in this penetrating look at Midnight Cowboy, the 1969 film directed by John Schlesinger and starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman. The first and only X-rated movie to win the Oscar for best picture, the film was raw and taboo-breaking and told the story of a Texas hustler trying to survive on the streets of New York. It pushed boundaries, addressing homosexuality, prostitution, and sexual assault, and Frankel not only goes behind-the-scenes into how the movie got made, but places it in the context of its times—the social upheaval of the 1960s, New York City’s grittiness, and Hollywood in transition.