the ending of Midnight Cowboy

I think that the ending of Midnight Cowboy was meant to show that the outlandish dreams that Rico and Joe Buck lived for were never possible. Their dreams and each other were really the only reasons they had to live. Rico thinks constantly about Florida, and asks Joe to take him there when he really should be seeing a doctor. Everything about his fantasy of Miama and his future their are destroyed. Rico dreams of running alongside Joe Buck, but loses his ability to walk. He dreams of all these women calling to him, but none of the women on the bus even notice him until they realize that he has died and that they must ride the bus with his dead body until they reach Miami. Joe, on the other hand, abandons his wild dream and realizes what a more realistic goal would be. He becomes more happy than the audience sees him after he is swindled by the woman in New York. Joe's epiphany gives him hope for future happiness, and Rico's persistance condemns him.

This idea that fantastic dreams that will never come true, and the realization of this, is one of the more predominant themes of Midnight Cowboy in my opinion. Throughout the movie, Joe has several fantasies about what is going on or what he wants to happen. These things rarely are carried out as his mind imagines them, but they are his most desirable outcome. This leads me to believe that the film is trying to show us that the best possible thing will rarely happen, and that refusing to give up on our wildest dreams will only hurt us in the end. Rico never gave up, and probably died because he refused to see a doctor and insisted on going to Florida. Joe realized that his dream of becoming a New York cowboy/hustler would never work out, and his life probably ended much better than Rico's.