1969 Best Picture:
Midnight Cowboy

Competition:
Anne of a Thousand Days, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Hello Dolly, Z

Other Winners:
Best Actor: John Wayne, True Grit 
Best Actress: Maggie Smith, Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Best Supporting Actor: Gig Young, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Best Supporting Actress: Goldie Hawn, Cactus Flower
Best Director: John Schlesinger, Midnight Cowboy

Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles, Ruth White, Barnard Hughes

Storyline: A naive, small-town boy moves to the big apple with hopes of finding a career as a stud-for-hire to Park Avenue women.  He finds himself in some seedy situations, but manages to find friendship with the least likely of people, a petty con-artist named Ratso.

Did it deserve to win: I'll say it did!  If the previous year's winner, Oliver, was proof that the Academy voters were too conservative, Midnight Cowboy  was proof that the times, they were-a-changin'!

Critique: If ever there was a film that conveyed the mood of its era, Midnight Cowboy is it!  The turbulent sixties were coming to a close, and Midnight Cowboy managed to capture the confusion and chaos that surrounded the American ideal.  

Using quick flashbacks, mixing innocence with decadence, director John Schlesinger captures something remarkable.  Counterculture had become mainstream by this time, and Midnight Cowboy reflects the year very well.  It also heralded a new kind of gritty film making that would become standard fare in the 1970's.  

Harry Nillson's song, Everybody's Talkin', was a key part of the film.  Not much I can say about it, but I felt it had better be mentioned.  It's tragic that it failed to get an Oscar nomination.

Best Scene:  Hello, you goddamned dog! Hoffman may have been the star of the show, but the best scene for me had nothing to do with him.  When Voight's character hooks up with his first trick, a tough talking society gal, played by Sylvia Miles, the film kicks into gear.

Sylvia Miles goes down in history as having the shortest amount of screen time for a Best Supporting Actress nominee.  She was on screen for about six minutes.

Behind the Scenes: Midnight Cowboy takes the dubious honor of being the first and only film with an X-rating, to take the Oscar for Best Picture.  The shock that this picture was even considered for an award, was countered when they awarded the Best Actor statue to John Wayne, for True Grit, instead of  nominees, Dustin Hoffman or Jon Voight.

The film contains very little nudity, only light profanity and practically no violence.  After the film received the Best Picture Oscar, the MPAA changed the rating to an R. 

Dustin Hoffman was already a star before Midnight Cowboy, but it was this performance that demonstrated to the world that he was a solid character actor.   By the way, to make his limp more realistic, he put pebbles in his shoes.  And that "I'm walkin' here" line - a complete improvisation by Hoffman.

Also in 1969:

April 24:  The US launches its deadliest attack on Vietnam, while protests continue back at home.

July 26:  Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first men to land on the moon.

August 9:  Sharon Tate is found brutally murdered in her home.  The culprits would turn out to Charles Manson and his followers.

One day, an up and coming young actress.  The next day, peddling tampons on TV.