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The movie garnered quite a bit of controversy upon its release, being given an [[UsefulNotes/MediaClassifications "X" rating]] by the [[MoralGuardians MPAA]]--this being when the new "X" rating was meant to signify any kind of film for adults only and hadn't yet become associated with porn. (Its rating was changed to "R" the following year anyway.) However, it won UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s for [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestPicture Best Picture]], [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestDirecting Director]] (Schlesinger), and [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestAdaptedScreenplay Adapted Screenplay]] (Waldo Salt), and is now seen as one of the defining movies of its era.

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The movie garnered quite a bit of controversy upon its release, being given an [[UsefulNotes/MediaClassifications [[MediaNotes/MediaClassifications "X" rating]] by the [[MoralGuardians MPAA]]--this being when the new "X" rating was meant to signify any kind of film for adults only and hadn't yet become associated with porn. (Its rating was changed to "R" the following year anyway.) However, it won UsefulNotes/{{Academy MediaNotes/{{Academy Award}}s for [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestPicture [[MediaNotes/AcademyAwardForBestPicture Best Picture]], [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestDirecting [[MediaNotes/AcademyAwardForBestDirecting Director]] (Schlesinger), and [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestAdaptedScreenplay [[MediaNotes/AcademyAwardForBestAdaptedScreenplay Adapted Screenplay]] (Waldo Salt), and is now seen as one of the defining movies of its era.
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The movie garnered quite a bit of controversy upon its release, being given an [[UsefulNotes/MediaClassifications "X" rating]] by the [[MoralGuardians MPAA]]--this being when the new "X" rating was meant to signify any kind of film for adults only and hadn't yet become associated with porn. (Its rating was changed to "R" the following year anyway). However, it won UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s for Best Picture and Director and for Waldo Salt's adapted screenplay, and is now seen as one of the defining movies of its era.

to:

The movie garnered quite a bit of controversy upon its release, being given an [[UsefulNotes/MediaClassifications "X" rating]] by the [[MoralGuardians MPAA]]--this being when the new "X" rating was meant to signify any kind of film for adults only and hadn't yet become associated with porn. (Its rating was changed to "R" the following year anyway). anyway.) However, it won UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s for [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestPicture Best Picture Picture]], [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestDirecting Director]] (Schlesinger), and Director and for Waldo Salt's adapted screenplay, [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestAdaptedScreenplay Adapted Screenplay]] (Waldo Salt), and is now seen as one of the defining movies of its era.
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*AMFMCharacterization: Joe's transistor radio that serves as his CompanionCube for most of the movie. He realises he's made it to New York City when he gets a local station, and snippets of urban soul music frequently diegetically underscore his adventures in the urban jungle.
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** Perhaps the most notable example of Joe's gigolo career not going to plan is when ''he'' winds up giving money to Cass, the older woman he finally managed to pick up off the street, rather than being paid his services.

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** Perhaps the most notable example of Joe's gigolo career not going to plan is when ''he'' winds up giving money to Cass, the older woman he finally managed to pick up off the street, rather than being paid for his services.
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%%* DontYouDarePityMe

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%%* DontYouDarePityMe* DontYouDarePityMe: Rizzo takes this attitude about his illness and refuses medical help.

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* BittersweetEnding: Joe has lost his only friend and is alone in a new city with no job and no money, suggesting a DownerEnding. On the other hand, his remarks on the bus imply that Joe has matured as a person and finally has a chance to get his act together and live something resembling a normal life rather than continuing on a downward spiral of life as a (usually unsuccessful) male prostitute.



* DownerEnding: Joe and Rizzo take a bus from New York to UsefulNotes/{{Miami}} to fulfill Rizzo's dream of living there. Not far outside Miami, Joe realizes that Rizzo has quietly died in the seat next to him. The movie ends with Joe hugging his dead friend and shedding ManlyTears as the bus continues towards Miami.



* SignatureLine: "I'm walkin' here! I'm walkin' here!"
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* TheBigRottenApple: New York in 1969 looking filthy and dirty and covered with garbage--and of course Joe is associating with various dirtbags and lowlifes of the sort that live in the Big Rotten Apple - petty con men, derelicts, sexual deviants, and prostitutes. Ratso lives in a disgusting condemned building, and dreams of escaping to Florida.

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* TheBigRottenApple: New York in 1969 looking filthy and dirty and covered with garbage--and of course Joe is associating with various dirtbags and lowlifes of the sort that live in the Big Rotten Apple - petty con men, derelicts, sexual deviants, and prostitutes. Meanwhile, he lives with Ratso lives in a disgusting filthy, condemned building, and dreams building in the middle of escaping to Florida.a slum.
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* AmbiguouslyBi: Joe is primarily heterosexual, but doesn't seem to mind having sex with men for money. Presumably, after being raped in his youth, he really doesn't care who he has sex with.

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* AmbiguouslyBi: Joe is primarily heterosexual, but doesn't seem to mind having sex with men for money. Presumably, It's strongly implied that after being raped in his youth, he really doesn't care who he has sex with.

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** The scene where Joe (unconvincingly) tries to intimidate Ratso by saying he's "a truly dangerous man" when it's obvious that Joe is in fact something of an ExtremeDoormat. However, when put in a desperate situation (ironically driven by his desire to help Ratso), Joe does prove that he can be a dangerous man.

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** The scene where Joe (unconvincingly) tries to intimidate Ratso by saying he's "a truly dangerous man" when it's obvious that Joe is in fact something friendly and nice to the point of an ExtremeDoormat. being passive. However, when put in a desperate situation (ironically driven by his desire to help Ratso), Joe does prove that he can be a dangerous man.man.
-->'''Ratso''': (Sarcastically) So you're a killer. I'm impressed.
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** The scene where Joe (unconvincingly) tries to intimidate Ratso by saying he's "a truly dangerous man" when it's obvious that Joe is in fact something of an ExtremeDoormat. However, when put in a desperate situation (ironically driven by his desire to help Ratso), Joe does prove that he can be a dangerous man.


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* NiceGuy: Joe is too nice for his own good, bordering on ExtremeDoormat, practically handing out money to anyone who asks and refusing to take what's his out of pity. Subverted later in his encounter with Towny.
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* OddFriendship: Joe is a naive, friendly, cocky Texan. Ratso is a cynical, seedy, and crippled petty crook from the Bronx. In their first meeting, Ratso cons Joe out of $20 (a substantial amount of money in the late 1960s), yet they later wind up being one another's best and only friends.

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* OddFriendship: Joe is a naive, friendly, and cocky Texan. Ratso is a cynical, seedy, and crippled petty crook from the Bronx. In their first meeting, Ratso cons Joe out of $20 (a substantial amount of money in the late 1960s), yet they later wind up being one another's best and only friends.
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* EveryoneHasStandards: Even social outcast Ratso is repulsed by the freakshow of poseurs, drug-users, and deviants at the Warhol-style party he and Joe attend.
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* OddFriendship: Joe is a naive, friendly, cocky Texan. Ratso is a cynical, seedy, and crippled petty crook from the Bronx. In their first meeting, Ratso cons Joe out of $20 (a substantial amount of money in the late 1960s), yet they later wind up being one another's best and only friends.
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* {Foreshadowing}}: Ratso visiting his father's grave, and commenting on how he died an impoverished nobody. Not long after, Ratso himself dies in even greater poverty and anonymity. It's unlikely that Joe, the only person who knows and cares about him, will be able to afford a gravesite and tombstone.

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* {Foreshadowing}}: {{Foreshadowing}}: Ratso visiting his father's grave, and commenting on how he died an impoverished nobody. Not long after, Ratso himself dies in even greater poverty and anonymity. It's unlikely that Joe, the only person who knows and cares about him, will be able to afford a gravesite and tombstone.
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* Foreshadowing: Ratso visiting his father's grave, and commenting on how he died an impoverished nobody. Not long after, Ratso himself dies in even greater poverty and anonymity. It's unlikely that Joe, the only person who knows and cares about him, will be able to afford a gravesite and tombstone.

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* Foreshadowing: {Foreshadowing}}: Ratso visiting his father's grave, and commenting on how he died an impoverished nobody. Not long after, Ratso himself dies in even greater poverty and anonymity. It's unlikely that Joe, the only person who knows and cares about him, will be able to afford a gravesite and tombstone.
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Added DiffLines:

* Foreshadowing: Ratso visiting his father's grave, and commenting on how he died an impoverished nobody. Not long after, Ratso himself dies in even greater poverty and anonymity. It's unlikely that Joe, the only person who knows and cares about him, will be able to afford a gravesite and tombstone.
-->'''Ratso''': [My father] was even dumber than you. He couldn't even write his own name. "X," that's what it ought to say on that goddamn headstone, one big lousy "X". Just like our dump. Condemned by order of City Hall.

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* ReallyGetsAround: Implied in the film's flashbacks and explicit in the novel about Crazy Annie. She was a very promiscuous girl in high school who took on one boy after another, until she went steady with Joe to the exclusion of other boys. Out of jealous resentment, a gant of the other boys in town beat and raped both her and Joe.

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* ReallyGetsAround: Implied in the film's flashbacks and explicit in the novel about Crazy Annie. She was a very promiscuous girl in high school who took on one boy after another, until she went steady with Joe to the exclusion of other boys. Out of jealous resentment, a gant several of the other boys in town ganged up to beat and raped rape both her Annie and Joe.Joe.
-->'''Annie''': You're the one Joe. You're the only one.
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** Desperate for money, Joe prostitutes himself to a young gay student at a movie theater. The student has no money, and when he starts pleading, Joe feels sorry for him and doesn't even take his cheap watch.


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* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The normally [[NiceGuy good-natured]] Joe (who wouldn't even take the watch of the gay student who stiffed him out of $25) brutally beats and possibly kills Towny when he needs money to fulfill Ratso's dream of going to Florida.
-->'''Joe''': Dammit, I got family!


Added DiffLines:

* ReallyGetsAround: Implied in the film's flashbacks and explicit in the novel about Crazy Annie. She was a very promiscuous girl in high school who took on one boy after another, until she went steady with Joe to the exclusion of other boys. Out of jealous resentment, a gant of the other boys in town beat and raped both her and Joe.


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* VitriolicBestBuds: Joe and Ratso are always arguing over something petty, calling one another names, and generally at each other's throats. They're also one another's best (and only) friends.

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