Midnight Cowboy

Hoffman plays Enrico Salvatore “Ratso” Rizzo, a small-time con artist, in this drama directed by John Schlesinger from the novel by James Leo Herlihy. Ratso meets Joe Buck (Jon Voight) by offering to introduce him to a pimp. That turns out to be a con but Ratso and Joe end up hustling together even as Ratso dreams of moving to Miami. Co-starring Sylvia Miles and Brenda Vaccaro. On the famous “walking” scene:

You gotta have money to pay for a scene that includes a bunch of people on the street in midtown Manhattan. So Jon Voight and I were walking in regular traffic and being filmed by a camera hidden in a van across the street. That’s a stolen shot. That was a cab that almost hit us. In my brain, I wanted to say, “We’re making a movie here, asshole!” But your brain knows that would ruin the take. So I’m walking here! really means We’re shooting a film here!