10 Problems That Made Movies Better
4. Lack Of Money To Shut Down Street Leads To Cinematic Gold - Midnight Cowboy
Shooting on a rather tiny budget in comparison to some of the bigger spectaculars of the time, John Schlesinger had to regularly improvise in order to pull off a number of the scenes that go down in 1969 drama Midnight Cowboy.
But he was brilliantly able to do exactly that, and arguably the film's most iconic moment was actually born out of the fact the production couldn't afford to shut down an entire street whilst shooting. So, this meant that the crew had to capture the scene involving Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman strutting down a New York City street as genuine traffic went zooming on by.
However, as the pair were immersed in their characters and locked into a conversation about women who pay for sex, a very real taxi almost collided with the actors as it attempted to beat the light.
Without skipping a beat, Hoffman slammed his hand onto the bonnet and very nearly uttered the phrase "Hey! We're filming a movie here!". But instead, the in-character performer yelled "Hey, I'm walking here!", infusing a piece of cinematic history into the feature in the process.