While some lines are meticulously conceived and written to last forever, others just pop out of nowhere—like a taxi that almost ran Dustin Hoffman over.It’s now a known fact that Waldo Salt didn’t write this iconic line for the most well-known scene in Midnight Cowboy (1969). It came out spontaneously while filming in New York, when the city itself chose to improvise with the actors.More than fifty years later, the phrase “I’m Walking Here!” that emerged from that instant continues to reverberate throughout popular culture. Its unscripted nature is what makes it so brilliant. Raw, genuine, and entirely in character—not honed, practiced, or conceived during a brainstorming session in the studio. That single shout, as if, stopped time and encapsulated not only Ratso Rizzo’s annoyance but also the essence of a movie about surviving in a cold society that constantly tries to push you out of its way.Setting the SceneFilming in New York’s Wild Streets in the 1960sToday, you might know New York as an—almost—sterile playground of tourists, finance bros, and other spiffy professionals. Back in the '60s, however, it was kind of dirty, raw, and unpredictable. In addition to traffic, the production had to deal with curious onlookers and wary residents. Hoffman and Voigt frequently acted in scenes while actual people watched, sometimes not even realizing they were in a movie.And that’s exactly what the makers of Midnight Cowboy had set out to capture. The movie’s gritty realism came from that unpredictable nature. The sound of honking horns, the...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Today