MovieChat Forums > Midnight Cowboy (1969) Discussion > The flashback.

The flashback.

posted 3 years ago by TheMan18 (13184)
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At several points in the film, you have a flashback to where both Joe Buck and his girlfriend (?) are apparently attacked and sexually assaulted (or the r word indeed) but was that really something that happened to both of them at some point in his life or was it somehow in his imagination or fears due to some condition of his, sort of how for example in the film "Tracks" (1976) Dennis Hopper's character imagined that rape taking place on a train but it never actually happened? Or was it all for real? Including the abuse he suffered at the hands of his grandmother etc?

And if it was real or however it was, was it therefore done to establish Joe Buck's character as a troubled and miserable soul and that this is partially why he decided to choose the career of male prostitution in order to survive and make a living?

[–] whynotwriteme (7815) 3 years ago

Joe was a very naive person. He had few if any real friends and never had a girlfriend. He stumbled into a relationship with "Crazy Annie", who was basically the town pump who put out for all the local boys. The other boys resented Joe because Annie only wanted Joe after that, cutting off the other guys. Also the boys had contempt for Joe for loving a girl they saw as a disposable object.

One night they caught Joe and Annie making love in Joe's car and to "punish them" they dragged them out and raped them both. Annie ran off to a nearby deserted house, and eventually police were called. When the cops questioned Annie, she was now quite out of her mind and said "Joe's the only one", implying Joe was the only one who had raped her. They took Annie off to an institution and presumably Joe endured some sort of punishment, although not enough of a criminal record to keep him out of the army.

The only success Joe had ever experienced in life was pleasing his Grandmother by being a cute little boy, and later, pleasing Annie sexually. He imagined that made him the ultimate Ladies' Man and fancied he could make a career as a gigolo. He was also probably compensating for the male rape he had experienced by adopting such an overtly heterosexual persona.

This theory is based upon careful viewing of the flashbacks and a reading of the novel, that while different from the book, still goes into a lot of background on Annie. (In the book, though, Joe is raped by a gay Indian under different circumstances not involving Annie.)