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Midnight Cowboy (1969)

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Director: John Schlesinger Writers: Waldo Salt, based on the novel by James Leo Herlihy Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles, John McGiver, Brenda Vaccaro, Barnard Hughes, Ruth White, Jennifer Salt, Gilman Rankin A would-be male prostitute (Jon Voight) and a homeless street hustler (Dustin Hoffman) try to get by on the hard streets of New York.  Joe Buck, naive and not too bright, gets a hard lesson in disillusionment as he learns that his good looks and sexual prowess do not provide the easy avenue to riches that he expected.  Ratso Rizzo’s tough exterior masks his terror that his poor health will leave him vulnerable.  Despite an occasional interlude that distracts us from the central plight of these two lost souls, such as an unlikely visit to an Andy Warhol type party, bravura performances from Voight and Hoffman never let us lose focus for long.  The mutually caring relationship that grows between these two characters provides respite from the relentl...
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Von Ryan’s Express (Von Ryan #1) (1964)

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  by David Westheimer This is a very good adventure novel, but there is more going on beneath the surface.  During World War II, a strict American officer takes command of Allied prisoners in an Italian prison camp, and his insistence on discipline makes him deeply unpopular with the men, but they gradually come to respect him as he leads their escape.   The qualities that initially make Ryan hated—his stubbornness, attention to detail, and insistence on discipline—are largely the same qualities that make the escape possible.  Author David Westheimer also makes an interesting case that self-discipline and even basic self-care help create the frame of mind in which people can accomplish things that otherwise seem impossible.  David Westheimer Once the escape gets underway, roughly a thousand prisoners seize the train that is transporting them, converting an instrument of their captivity into the means of their liberation.  Westheimer then piles one practical...
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