Flesh is the first in a trilogy of films made by Andy Warhol at the Factory with Paul Morissey as writer/director and starring a then unknown actor, Joe Dallesandro. Flesh was followed by Trash in 1970 and Heat in 1972. Interestingly, there were no scripts for these films, the actors were simply given an outline of the plot and action and left to improvise their lines. Perhaps as a result of the gritty realism this approach achieved, Rolling Stone magazine rated it more highly than Midnight Cowboy, released the same year, which won the Academy Award for Best Film.