Joe Buck is a wide-eyed hustler from Texas hoping to score big with wealthy New York City women; he finds a companion in Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo, an ailing swindler with a bum leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida.
Acting
Hoffman's physical transformation is devastating
Direction
Schlesinger's flashbacks still feel experimental
Editing
The party sequence is pure anxiety cinema
Director
John Schlesinger
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 'I'm walkin' here!' scene was improvised when a real taxi nearly hit Hoffman.
Its X rating (later reduced to R) came from homosexual content, not violence — revealing 1969's priorities.
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