MIDNIGHT COWBOY, 1969. director-John Schlesinger. writer-Waldo Salt (screenplay) and James Leo Herlihy (novel). starring-Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman. Won 3 Oscars, including Best Director, Best Screenplay from previosuly published materials, and Best Picture. Was originally an X-rated film, and the only one in the history of Hollywood to receive a nomination for (and win) Best Picture. In 1971 it was changed to an R-rating, as X-ratings were to be associated with pornography. One studio executive sent director John Schlesinger a memo stating, "If we could clean this up and add a few songs, it could be a great vehicle for Elvis Presley." Thankfully, that never occured, as the film stands as one of the landmarks of, not only New Hollywood cinema, but of American cinema in general. *****
Cowhand by the name of Woodsy Niles.
Massive amounts of stuff. For example: Radiohead, Tortoise, Mercury Program, Mogwai, TV on the Radio, Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, Fugazi, Sonic Youth, Iron and Wine, Califone, New Ruins, Built to Spill, Elvis Costello, Gnarls Barkley, Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins, Deftones, Hot Water Music, Refused, Elliot Smith, Flaming Lips, David Bowie, Modest Mouse, Beck, Tom Waits, Islands, Pixies, Pavement, Tapes N' Tapes, Man Man, FatLip, American Football, Joan of Arc, OWEN, Capn' Jazz, Engine Down, June of 44, Mars Volta, At the Drive-In, Descendents, Avail, My Morning Jacket, Holopaw, Ugly Casanova, Sufjan Stevens, Joanna Newsom, The Shins, Loose Fur, Animal Collective, Death from Above 1979, Slint, The Minutemen, Stereolab, Wilco, Sunny Day Real Estate, Oblivion, Les Say Fav, Spoon, Wolf Parade, Band of Horses, Mountain Goats, Sigur Ros, Karate, Devendra Banhart, Mastadon, Nick Drake, YES, Outkast, FiveStyle, White Stripes, Neutral Milk Hotel, Make Up, Beastie Boys, Strikeforce Diablo, Motor City Devils, Bright Eyes, Leonard Cohen, WIRE, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Robert Johnson, Bjork, DBT, The Benny & Rusty Duo, Sun Kil Moon, King Geedorah, Kings of Leon, Kings of Convenience, Bonnie Prince Billy, The Raconteurs, The Saps, Deerhoof, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Gang of Four, Smoking Popes, Arcade Fire, Centro*Matic, South San Gabriel, Portishead, Braid, Jawbreaker, Velvet Underground, Shellac, Fiery Furnaces, Neil Young, Leo Kottke, Mini-Bosses, OWLS, Euphone, The Sea and Cake, and Godspeed You Black Emporer. I listen to more, and I bet you do too.
Oh boy. Well, I enjoy the films of Werner Herzog, David Chronenberg, Michel Gondry, Harmony Korine, Federico Fellini, Orson Welles, Terry Gilliam, Andrei Tarkofsky, Stan Brakhage, Steven Soderbergh, Roman Polanski, Wes Anderson, David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, Hal Ashby, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Peter Jackson, The Coen Brothers, Paul Thomas Anderson, John Carpenter, David Gordon Green, Neil LeBute, Darren Aronofsky, Takashi Miike, Lucio Fulci, Dario Argento, George A. Romero, Clive Barker, Sam Raimi, Woody Allen, Michael Moore, Todd Solondz, Nicholas Roeg, Jean-Luc Godard, John Sayles, Ingmar Bergman, Robert Bresson, Peter Bogdanovich, and Albert & David Maysles. IN ADDITION to the works of these fine, fine autors, I also find these films rather enjoyable::::: Midnight Cowboy, The Graduate, 400 Blows, M, L'Avventura, Straw Dogs, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Easy Rider, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, Capturing the Friedman's, Planet of the Apes (1968), American Splendor, Adaptation, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast, Old Boy, Ravenous, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1975), The Exorcist, Jaws, American Werewolf in London, Last House on the Left, Young Frankenstein, Thumbsucker, Little Miss Sunshine, Badlands, Bonnie and Clyde, Black Narcissus, Man Bites Dog, Fat Girl, A Woman Under the Influence, A Face in the Crowd, Freaks, Chopper, May, Arizona Dream, Corndog Man, Wisconsin Death Trip, Highway, Chuck and Buck, Buffalo '66, Nosferatu (1922), Sin City, Princess Bride, Gremlins, Return to OZ, Legend, The Muppet Movie, The Squid and the Whale, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Mystery Train, Stranger Than Paradise, Wet Hot American Summer, and The Dancing Outlaw. RECENT VIEWINGS INCLUDE: Grey Gardens, V for Vendetta, An Inconvenient Truth, Day of the Animals, TETSUO:The Iron Man, The Young Poisoners Handbook, and Pan's Labryinth.
HUGE fan of MST3K; I have all the episodes minus 20-some. In addition to being a dork about that, I love Kids in the Hall, Six Feet Under, Deadwood, Freaks and Geeks, Space Ghost, Sealab 2021, Home Movies, Family Guy, Futurama, Muppet Show, Twin Peaks, Norhtern Exposure, classic Looney Tunes, Lost, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Reno:911, The Daily Show, and Jeopardy rounds out my list. There's more, but you'll make fun, so I'll leave it out.
HS Thompson, Kurt Vonnegut, Michael Moore, Irvine Welsch, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty, Dirty White Boys by Stephen Hunter, the works of HD Thoreau and RW Emerson, any film books on any of the above mentioned filmmakers, MAUS by Art Spiegelman, Black Hole by Charles Burns, Cerebus by Dave Sim, BONE by Jeff Smith, Stray Bullets by David Lapham, Watchmen by Alan Moore, Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, and Pride of Baghdad, all by Brian K. Vaughn, Uncle Sam by Steve Darnell & Alex Ross, Fables by Mark Willingham, Preacher by Garth Enis, Our Cancer Year by Harvey Pekar, Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis, as well as monthly works by Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, and Mark Millar.
HST, Herzog, Romero, Bill Hicks, and Richard Pryor.