Long after the film was aired, it remains one of the few movies that stay in an individual's memory after the others have evaporated. "Midnight Cowboy" is a film about a love story between two drifters; the street-savvy Ratso Rizzo and the naïve Joe Buck, who acts as a reference point to other interesting films across the world. The director uses flashbacks at the beginning of the film, which confirms the viewer's opinion that the film as a whole does not live up to its parts. On the other hand, the rise above the material between the two characters in the film, taking on their authenticity of their own while the script detour into the up-to-the-minute New York demimonde makes it more interesting. "Midnight Cowboy" is a good film with a stunning success inside, struggling to break free. Therefore, the paper seeks to analyze the formal components of the scene-cinematography, editing, mise-en-scene, sound-to-image relationships and a discussion of how the scene at the beginning of "Midnight Cowboy" are representatives of the film's overall formal style.
It is worth noting that the constant use of flashback and editing by the film's director overlaps the images and sounds of the past with the current, which plays a significant role in allowing the viewer to draw parallels between Joe Buck's distressing past experiences and his current self. The importance of this technique is that the viewers can relate what happened to Joe Buck during his traumatic experience. The beginning of the film shows the use of cinematography techniques that changed enormously the speed of the film, technological development, and digitization, which are important aspects that made a tremendous impact in the movie ( Brown, 2013) . For instance, the grainy film and fisheye lenses that were used at the beginning of the film during the flashback were way ahead of their time. In essence, the cameraman borrowed the visual elements in the late '70s and '80s, especially for the music videos. Besides, the cameraman used fast cutting and tricky camera work as the cinematography technique to provide a satirical background at the beginning of the film as an enrichment of the story. Therefore, the use of different camera techniques in the video "Midnight Cowboy" enriched viewers experience by attracting their attention to the storyline.
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Another significant formal component used in the scene at the beginning of "Midnight Cowboy" is the editing technique, particularly where he is on the bus traveling to New York and has flashbacks of his past. The director breaks most of the editing rules of connection by using non-diegetic inserts and intercutting prejudiced flashbacks with real world video recording at the beginning of the film to showcase real-life examples of how viewers should view the world ( Brown, 2013) . Notably, non-diegetic inserts refer to a film technique in which a shot or series of shots are cut into sequences presenting items considered to be outside the film narrative ( Monaco, 2010) . The producer of the film uses the discontinuity editing technique at the beginning of the film to construct complex patterns of images that are calculated to arouse the viewer's emotions, senses, and thinking. As a result, such stimulation often makes the viewers to identify various friendships, their identity, and desire for the familiarity of the characters in the movie ( Brown, 2013) .
Non-diegetic inserts as an editing technique involve cutting away from the scene a figurative or symbolic shot that is not part of the time and space of the narrative. The director of the film capitalizes on the use of this element during Joe Buck's flashback at the beginning of the film to trigger different real-world situations. The viewers are informed, although in fractured scenes making it difficult for them to collectively understand all information at once. For instance, Joe's unaccompanied childhood is flashbacked in many disjointed series of flashbacks about his past life while on his trip to New York from Texas. While on the bus, on his journey to New York, the director employs a non-diegetic editing technique where the voice of his grandmother is heard, and the displayed scenes reveal that he was often cared for by the grandmother while he was at a tender age and even had a couple of cherished moments with the young boy ( Brown, 2013) . The valuable lesson learned from this scene is that women raised Joe through his life because there were no male figures other than the many boyfriends of her grandmother, which is the main contributing factor to him learning homosexuality in the film. Interestingly, the non-diegetic editing technique is evident at the beginning of the film when the bus in which Joe was on board passed a water tower showing for the first time a flashback that contained Annie. During that moment, the director uses both Annie's voice and the water tower that says "Crazy Annie Loves Joe Buck" to demonstrate his editing technique in the film.
During the scene, the director employs the use of mise-en-scene to arrange everything physical in a camera shot, which in this case included the setting, character's costumes, makeup, and the objects. In the scene, the landscape in which the bus travels provides a specialized environment that supports the theme of the film. For instance, the director uses visual information at the beginning of the scene, which enables the viewers to recognize the setting of the film and the character's personality. On the other hand, the makeup and costumes used by the director on Joe Bucks while traveling help the viewers to identify and remember the characters throughout the scene and the film in general. In addition, the use of mise-en-scene in the form of costumes and makeup helps indicate the character's transformation, which in this case is showcased during Joe's flashbacks while traveling to New York reflecting on his past life while staying with the grandmother ( Monaco, 2010) . Moreover, mise-en-scene is represented by objects that appear in a scene. In this case, the director used objects such as the bus to introduce bits of information that helped in advancing the story and further delineating Joe Back as a character in the film. Therefore, the objects in the movie, which are depicted by the camera close-ups in such explicit detail often arouse emotions and communicate meaning to the viewers.
On the other hand, the director of the film employs the use of sound-to-image relationship at the beginning of the film to showcase different types of improvisation acting. In this, improvisation of the scene was spontaneous and conceived on camera, especially when Joe starts flashbacking on his past life. In some instances, the director goes ahead to rehearse the scene with little or no script but just a skeleton of the scene, through the intentions and actions of the scene. Ideally, repeating the scene with no script is an essential aspect in cinematography as it allows the director to identify various changes that can be made to enhance the appearance of the film. The sound is engulfed in the image displayed as many times as necessary until the proper chemistry is found. When this is achieved, the director scripts the sound and shoots on camera.
The use of various cinematic techniques at the beginning of the film such as cinematography, editing, mise-en-scene, and sound-to-image relationships act as a representative of the film's overall formal style. The director introduced the film using such techniques to keep the viewers glued on their seat anticipating what will transpire next. In addition, the method also allowed the director to attract the attention of the viewers towards the film. Such cinematic techniques were, of course, the first batch of the post-new wave of the modern cinema. The film’s director strives to make it an art film in the beginning, through the use of surreal fragments of Joe’s past and mixing the fact and fiction, which was an essential factor during the filming of the movie "Midnight Cowboy." It is quite evident that the director's style and personality significantly contribute to the color and shape of the entire film, as displayed at the beginning of the film ( Monaco, 2010) . In addition, the cinematic techniques used at the beginning of the film significantly contributed to the overall style of the film
Conclusively, the success of "Midnight Cowboy" has significantly inspired other filmmakers to employ the techniques used while filming it. The use of different formal components of the scene at the beginning of the film such as cinematography, sound-to-image relationships, editing, and mise-en-scene significantly influenced how the scene represented the film’s overall formal style. However, the thematic concern of the mainstream American cinema presents youthful disillusioned and disappointed themes, which caters for an audience of disaffected Baby Boomers that remain eager to see characters that represent them. Therefore, the characters in the film correlate to Joe Buck’s frustration over his failed dreams and misunderstanding about adult life. Thus, it is crucial to point out that through the use of the film's formal components, the movie managed to attract a large number of audiences across the world. The film reflects the era of the counterculture movement, but despite its controversial use of language, it is still considered as a masterpiece that helped change cinema forever.
References
Brown, J. P. (2013). John Schlesinger's Bildungsfilm: Midnight Cowboy and the Problem of Youth. MFS Modern Fiction Studies , 59 (3), 649-667.
Monaco, P. (2010). A history of American movies: a film-by-film look at the art, craft, and business of cinema . Scarecrow Press.
