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Hud Thoughts

As long as I can remember Paul Newman has been a star mainly due to movies that I've never seen. I recently netflix'd Hud-Newnan plays the titular Texas cowboy. By the time Newman made Hud (1963) he was on hitting on all cylinders, following up Oscar noms in Cat of a Hot Tin Roof and The Hustler.

Newman got another Oscar nom for Hud, not surprisingly. Newman commands both the movie and the role of Hud with an actor's craftsmanship and a moviestar's panache. Newman is clearly in antihero territory here--a scene of sexual assault is jarring in it's depiction, especially since attitudes have changed greatly in some 50 years.

Director Martin Ritt and cinematographer James Wong Howe mixed both classic western and film noir imagery to capture the Texascape and the darker tone of Hud's world. The black-and-white film show the best that can be done with lighting and negative space--a good example of how less (color) can be more.

After watching Hud it's easy to understand how Newman because a star. And as a preview of things to come, Newman's Hud remarks "Oil should only be used on salads!"

posted by J.T. Campbell, Jr. @ 7:18 AM