All language subtitles for Controversy and Acclaim
Afrikaans
Albanian
Amharic
Arabic
Armenian
Azerbaijani
Basque
Belarusian
Bengali
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Catalan
Cebuano
Chichewa
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Corsican
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
Esperanto
Estonian
Filipino
Finnish
French
Frisian
Galician
Georgian
German
Gujarati
Haitian Creole
Hausa
Hawaiian
Hebrew
Hindi
Hmong
Hungarian
Icelandic
Igbo
Indonesian
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Javanese
Kannada
Kazakh
Khmer
Korean
Kurdish (Kurmanji)
Kyrgyz
Lao
Latin
Latvian
Lithuanian
Luxembourgish
Macedonian
Malagasy
Malay
Malayalam
Maltese
Maori
Marathi
Mongolian
Myanmar (Burmese)
Nepali
Norwegian
Pashto
Persian
Polish
Punjabi
Romanian
Russian
Samoan
Scots Gaelic
Serbian
Sesotho
Shona
Sindhi
Sinhala
Slovak
Slovenian
Somali
Spanish
Sundanese
Swahili
Swedish
Tajik
Tamil
Telugu
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Urdu
Uzbek
Vietnamese
Welsh
Xhosa
Yiddish
Yoruba
Zulu
Odia (Oriya)
Kinyarwanda
Turkmen
Tatar
Uyghur
Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated:
1
00:00:13,302 --> 00:00:17,006
[soft music plays]
2
00:00:20,976 --> 00:00:25,080
As we went on, again and again,
John and I were making choices--
3
00:00:25,214 --> 00:00:28,183
And he was making choices
with the actors.
4
00:00:28,317 --> 00:00:32,688
--That we felt-- This may sound
archaic by today's standards.
5
00:00:32,821 --> 00:00:36,125
We felt it wasn't a film
for children anyway.
6
00:00:36,258 --> 00:00:38,894
And we chose to go ahead
and do what we were gonna do.
7
00:00:39,028 --> 00:00:43,165
I never paid any attention to...
8
00:00:43,832 --> 00:00:47,670
...the ratings of the film
or controversy over its subject matter.
9
00:00:47,803 --> 00:00:51,040
It was a good screenplay
with wonderful human story.
10
00:00:51,173 --> 00:00:55,277
It didn't occur to me that
we are breaking social barriers...
11
00:00:55,411 --> 00:01:00,583
...or upsetting Establishment values.
12
00:01:00,716 --> 00:01:02,851
The outrageous balcony sequence...
13
00:01:02,985 --> 00:01:05,187
...with Jon Voight and Bob Balaban...
14
00:01:05,321 --> 00:01:07,957
...that broke a lot of taboos
in its time.
15
00:01:08,090 --> 00:01:11,393
But, you know, it wasn't anything that
wasn't happening on 42nd Street...
16
00:01:11,527 --> 00:01:13,762
...you know,
at any time of day or night.
17
00:01:13,896 --> 00:01:15,864
[horn honking]
18
00:01:15,998 --> 00:01:19,068
L was such a newcomer
when I did this movie.
19
00:01:19,201 --> 00:01:21,236
I was in college at the time.
20
00:01:21,370 --> 00:01:24,907
It didn't occur to me that there was
anything dangerous, weird...
21
00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:28,043
...maybe my career would be injured.
I didn't have a career.
22
00:01:28,177 --> 00:01:30,346
So I really had
very little to worry about.
23
00:01:30,479 --> 00:01:36,151
The film was finished, and I think UA
must have shown a print to the MPAA.
24
00:01:36,285 --> 00:01:40,189
And they came back and they said,
"Well, unless they'll make cuts...
25
00:01:40,322 --> 00:01:42,558
...we're gonna--
It's gonna have to be an X."
26
00:01:42,691 --> 00:01:46,195
Which meant, just so you understand
the significance of that at that time...
27
00:01:46,328 --> 00:01:49,264
...there were markets in which
it couldn't play...
28
00:01:49,398 --> 00:01:52,067
...and you couldn't get any
advertising on television.
29
00:01:52,201 --> 00:01:53,702
And so we went out
as an X.
30
00:01:53,836 --> 00:01:55,437
[Childers] We'd seen the film and said:
31
00:01:55,571 --> 00:01:59,642
"Hm. This is wild film.
It's pretty good.
32
00:01:59,775 --> 00:02:03,345
But is anyone gonna like it or are
people gonna walk out in droves?"
33
00:02:03,479 --> 00:02:07,049
And at that screening,
on 7th Avenue, New York...
34
00:02:07,182 --> 00:02:09,385
...it was electrifying at the end.
35
00:02:09,518 --> 00:02:14,123
People were sobbing,
in tears, applauding.
36
00:02:14,256 --> 00:02:15,724
It was amazing.
37
00:02:15,858 --> 00:02:20,029
First of all, no one
had any expectations for the film.
38
00:02:20,162 --> 00:02:22,231
That film was being done...
39
00:02:22,364 --> 00:02:25,934
...in a climate of the so-called
golden age...
40
00:02:26,068 --> 00:02:28,237
...of, you just try to do good work.
41
00:02:28,370 --> 00:02:34,076
I never anticipated it
was going to be
as successful
as it became.
42
00:02:34,209 --> 00:02:37,946
Then there were Oscar nominations,
and then there were Oscars.
43
00:02:38,080 --> 00:02:40,549
And everybody's lives changed.
44
00:02:40,683 --> 00:02:43,185
[woman] I said to my dad,
"I got nominated."
45
00:02:43,318 --> 00:02:47,389
He said, "Yes, and all my friends said
that you've got nominated...
46
00:02:47,523 --> 00:02:50,559
...and you're playing a hooker."
[laughs]
47
00:02:50,693 --> 00:02:53,195
I said,
"Yeah, but I'm only playing it."
48
00:02:53,328 --> 00:02:55,431
It had never happened
in the history of the industry...
49
00:02:55,564 --> 00:02:59,334
...that an X-rated film
was voted the Best Picture.
50
00:02:59,468 --> 00:03:02,705
We never, ever thought
that this could win an Oscar.
51
00:03:03,005 --> 00:03:06,942
Because in those days,
the Academy vote was really old...
52
00:03:07,076 --> 00:03:08,510
...and really conservative.
53
00:03:08,644 --> 00:03:11,647
I went to the Academy Awards,
and there was that divide:
54
00:03:11,780 --> 00:03:13,949
The old school and the new guys.
55
00:03:14,083 --> 00:03:15,384
I was part of the new guys.
56
00:03:15,517 --> 00:03:17,553
We were actually in London...
57
00:03:17,686 --> 00:03:20,355
...filming Sunday Bloody Sunday.
58
00:03:20,489 --> 00:03:26,395
And John's quite modest, and said,
"I don't think I wanna go to Hollywood.
59
00:03:26,528 --> 00:03:29,665
We're the dark horse
but we're probably not going to win.
60
00:03:29,798 --> 00:03:32,034
And besides, I'd look like a fool."
61
00:03:33,001 --> 00:03:34,303
Being very British.
62
00:03:34,436 --> 00:03:36,338
"L'd look like a fool if I went
to Hollywood...
63
00:03:36,472 --> 00:03:37,873
...and came home empty-handed."
64
00:03:38,006 --> 00:03:40,976
So we stayed in London
shooting
Sunday Bloody Sunday.
65
00:03:41,110 --> 00:03:44,646
And John's
secretary
on
Midnight Cowboy...
66
00:03:44,780 --> 00:03:47,616
...was the production secretary
on the Oscar show.
67
00:03:47,750 --> 00:03:51,487
She was backstage on a telephone--
We're at 4:00 in the morning in London.
68
00:03:51,620 --> 00:03:55,357
--Announcing, you know,
"Waldo Salt."
69
00:03:55,491 --> 00:03:58,160
And then there was,
you know, the next award.
70
00:03:59,061 --> 00:04:04,533
And "John Schlesinger, Best Director."
And we're jumping. It was wonderful.
71
00:04:04,666 --> 00:04:06,869
And then, finally,
the Best Picture of the Year.
72
00:04:08,170 --> 00:04:09,338
It was really exciting.
73
00:04:09,471 --> 00:04:11,774
[Voight] It was an interesting night,
in that we won the awards.
74
00:04:11,907 --> 00:04:14,777
I thought it was deserving,
you know.
75
00:04:15,077 --> 00:04:16,979
That it was a great picture.
76
00:04:17,780 --> 00:04:21,350
[Hellman] After the film won an Oscar
the ratings board came back.
77
00:04:21,483 --> 00:04:26,188
And they said, "Look, if you will let us
cut one frame out of the movie...
78
00:04:26,321 --> 00:04:30,492
...so we can say it was re-cut,
we'll change the rating."
79
00:04:30,626 --> 00:04:32,427
John and I said, "Absolutely not.
80
00:04:32,561 --> 00:04:35,230
We're not taking a frame
out of the movie.
81
00:04:35,364 --> 00:04:37,332
We don't care what you do."
82
00:04:37,466 --> 00:04:40,903
And the guys at UA
absolutely supported that.
83
00:04:41,036 --> 00:04:44,706
They said, "N-O.
Picture doesn't get cut."
84
00:04:44,840 --> 00:04:47,709
So I guess when you get the
stamp of approval of the Academy...
85
00:04:47,843 --> 00:04:50,813
...you get to be a little more risqué.
86
00:04:51,580 --> 00:04:54,316
But it was sort of a dubious
distinction, I thought, for a while...
87
00:04:54,449 --> 00:04:57,753
...that I got to be the X rating
of a movie, you know, for five minutes.
88
00:04:57,886 --> 00:04:58,887
[tires screech]
89
00:04:59,021 --> 00:05:00,589
Hey, what's the matter?
I'm walking here!
90
00:05:00,722 --> 00:05:02,758
- [horn honking]
- I'm walking here!
91
00:05:02,891 --> 00:05:04,393
Up yours, you son of a bitch.
92
00:05:04,526 --> 00:05:06,995
You don't talk to me that way!
Get out of here!
93
00:05:07,129 --> 00:05:08,797
[Miles] It really holds up very well.
94
00:05:08,931 --> 00:05:11,366
And everybody seeing it
for the first time...
95
00:05:11,500 --> 00:05:14,703
...has the very same response to it.
96
00:05:14,837 --> 00:05:18,807
When a young person sees it,
it's
as meaningful.
97
00:05:18,941 --> 00:05:21,677
Even though there's been
the sexual revolution...
98
00:05:21,977 --> 00:05:26,248
...and this and that and whatever
and a couple of wars in between...
99
00:05:26,381 --> 00:05:28,317
...it has never failed...
100
00:05:28,450 --> 00:05:33,522
...to really shake up a young person.
101
00:05:33,655 --> 00:05:36,859
Because it's almost like an initiation.
102
00:05:36,992 --> 00:05:39,962
I think it's a classic story
of redemption.
103
00:05:40,095 --> 00:05:43,832
I think it's really about people...
104
00:05:43,966 --> 00:05:47,069
...redeeming themselves
in some major way.
105
00:05:47,202 --> 00:05:49,304
And the journey is--
106
00:05:49,438 --> 00:05:52,774
Even though in the movie it's a tiny
little journey, it's a bus ride...
107
00:05:53,609 --> 00:05:55,077
...it's massive.
108
00:05:55,210 --> 00:05:57,145
It's about a certain way of life
in New York...
109
00:05:57,279 --> 00:06:00,349
...and it's about a very rarefied
section of society.
110
00:06:00,482 --> 00:06:02,251
I mean, after all,
the lead is a hustler.
111
00:06:02,384 --> 00:06:05,554
[Salt] These kind of characters
were not thought of as heroes.
112
00:06:05,687 --> 00:06:10,459
And those were the people that,
if you walked down 42nd Street...
113
00:06:10,592 --> 00:06:15,230
...and you were one of us,
you averted your eyes.
114
00:06:15,364 --> 00:06:19,067
They were not people
that you knew about...
115
00:06:19,201 --> 00:06:20,769
...that you wanted to understand.
116
00:06:20,903 --> 00:06:23,505
They were people that you avoided.
117
00:06:23,639 --> 00:06:26,575
And the movie forced you
to see them...
118
00:06:26,708 --> 00:06:29,811
...as one of you. One of us.
119
00:06:29,945 --> 00:06:33,315
We're all out there
selling our souls, basically.
120
00:06:33,448 --> 00:06:36,585
He was selling his body with his soul.
We don't all sell our bodies with them.
121
00:06:36,718 --> 00:06:38,287
But we are all out there...
122
00:06:38,420 --> 00:06:42,457
...in a very dangerous,
difficult world, mostly.
123
00:06:42,591 --> 00:06:44,760
And yet we're all looking
for the same thing, you know.
124
00:06:44,893 --> 00:06:47,629
We're all looking for love
and acceptance and friendship.
125
00:06:47,763 --> 00:06:50,265
And I think that
Ratso Rizzo's dream...
126
00:06:50,399 --> 00:06:51,967
...you know,
to go where it was warm...
127
00:06:52,100 --> 00:06:54,870
...you know, to be in Florida...
128
00:06:55,003 --> 00:06:56,405
That's where everybody goes,
isn't it?
129
00:06:56,538 --> 00:07:00,008
I think the reason audiences
still respond the way they do...
130
00:07:00,142 --> 00:07:04,313
...is because the fundamental
aspects of the story are timeless.
131
00:07:04,446 --> 00:07:06,381
I mean, it is--
No matter how you slice it...
132
00:07:06,515 --> 00:07:09,318
...or how strange the characters
may be, or the environment...
133
00:07:09,451 --> 00:07:11,887
...it's a love story.
134
00:07:12,020 --> 00:07:14,122
And, you know,
two people who ultimately...
135
00:07:14,256 --> 00:07:15,824
...make a commitment
to one another...
136
00:07:15,958 --> 00:07:19,361
...irrespective of, you know,
what their backgrounds...
137
00:07:19,494 --> 00:07:22,064
...or the level of their intelligence
or anything else.
138
00:07:22,197 --> 00:07:23,398
I'll just tell them:
139
00:07:23,532 --> 00:07:27,002
"You want me, I don't go nowhere
without my buddy here."
140
00:07:29,104 --> 00:07:33,141
I don't think either of them had
ever had an intimate relationship.
141
00:07:33,275 --> 00:07:38,447
I don't think they had ever really
known what it was to be loved...
142
00:07:38,580 --> 00:07:40,515
...much less to love.
143
00:07:40,649 --> 00:07:44,119
And I think that's
what the film expresses...
144
00:07:44,252 --> 00:07:47,055
...because that's what John
wanted it to express...
145
00:07:47,189 --> 00:07:51,693
...more than any other
emotional element.
146
00:07:51,994 --> 00:07:54,029
That connection, and his ability...
147
00:07:54,162 --> 00:07:58,500
...to rise to the obligation
of that connection...
148
00:07:58,633 --> 00:08:02,938
...to rise to the obligation
of being a friend...
149
00:08:03,071 --> 00:08:05,907
...of being family to someone...
150
00:08:06,041 --> 00:08:10,879
...is what made-- You know, what makes
him a man instead ofa freak.
151
00:08:11,013 --> 00:08:16,218
And it's what allows him
to reach over and close his eyes.
152
00:08:17,219 --> 00:08:20,455
And those are the two moments
that my dad always talked about...
153
00:08:20,589 --> 00:08:25,394
...being the big moments for Joe Buck,
were the eye-closing in the bus...
154
00:08:25,527 --> 00:08:28,230
...and then
the tossing of his clothes.
155
00:08:29,097 --> 00:08:31,900
In his little, um...
156
00:08:32,034 --> 00:08:34,569
In his little goofy
short-sleeved shirt...
157
00:08:34,703 --> 00:08:37,606
...throwing away the cowboy boots
and the hat and everything...
158
00:08:37,739 --> 00:08:40,208
...and just being a guy.
159
00:08:40,776 --> 00:08:43,979
Throwing away the bullshit dream...
160
00:08:44,112 --> 00:08:47,182
...and becoming a man.
161
00:08:47,315 --> 00:08:50,585
When Jon Voight holds Dustin
in his arms on the bus...
162
00:08:50,719 --> 00:08:53,255
...it's really beautiful.
163
00:08:59,428 --> 00:09:01,329
The grace of the film...
164
00:09:05,300 --> 00:09:08,370
...was in the vision
of human compassion.
165
00:09:10,672 --> 00:09:14,342
God bless John
for making this movie.
14162