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Still, no amount of obfuscation can obscure the film's vaulting performances. Ratso is so unkempt that he can be smelled, so unredeemed that he can be lamented. From his debut as the open-faced Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate, Hoffman has progressed by stepping backward—to a supporting part. It is an act of rare skill and rarer generosity. No matter how well Ratso is performed, Midnight Cowboy is, after all, the tale of Joe Buck. It is a mark of Voight's intelligence that he works against his role's melodramatic tendencies and toward a central human truth. In the process, he and Hoffman bring to life one of the least likely and most melancholy love stories in the history of the American film.