Midnight Cowboy certainly had many enduring images, some that were significant at least in my eyes. Many of them relied upon using Florida at their core, part of Ratso's dream to get their before they died. First is the images of Ratso's fantasy which shows his ultimate goal of getting to Florida. Next, a few minutes later, Joe is listening to the radio, and the song being played keeps repeating "Florida Orange Juice on Ice. " This is significant because it is another mention of Florida but also, at that time, it is very cold and the two guys are poor. Therefore, their dreams of going to Florida are "on ice" and have to wait until things turn around and they have money again. The only way they can get to drink "REAL Florida Orange Juice" is after their situation improves. This, however, is juxtaposed because Joe gives the radio into the pawn shop and the music on the radio and in the film abruptly stops when the shopkeeper shuts it off. Again, it is shutting down their dreams for the moment.
The other image of Florida, is a billboard that Joe and Ratso go by. The billboard advertises "Northeast Yellowbirds from Florida" "Steak for lunch, steak for dinner, steak for everybody." I think that this says that the two boys from the Northeast, as Joe will later say that he is from Florida, are going to "fly" to Florida and start over new where all of the wealth will be at their fingertips. At that time, this is juxtaposed by an image of a man with an odd face, similar to the large face of Kane on the poster during his speech at MSG. The man looks sly and conniving and my first thought was that these dreams could not be realized because a positive image is juxtaposed with a negative image to show that these ideas are just fantasizes.
Finally, the song lyrics of "Everybody's Talkin" which is that the "sun keeps shining through the pouring rain," which can state something about Florida. Some of these ideas may not be relevant but watching the film, I tried to notice mentions of Florida because after Ratso's fantasy, it became a main point of relevance in the film.
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I noticed the song concerning Florida and their abrupted dreams, but I failed to notice the sign they passed. That's a really good observation! Its quite ironic how Ratso never really makes it to his dream. When he gets really sick in his apartment and Joe asks him what can make him feel better, Ratso just answers "just put me on a bus to Florida." In a sense Florida did make him better because once he got there he was relieved from his suffering.
ReplyDeleteYou really patched up all ends of the Florida angle didn't ya? Haha. You didn't leave me anything to talk about in my post. Stop being so diligent!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, really good points. Good job.