PAUL NEWMAN FILMS
PAUL NEWMAN — ALWAYS ahead of the curve.
With so many white male idiots making us all look like turkeys with their head in the sand, I started thinking about Paul Newman.
I remember the first time I saw The Hustler. It stands revisiting. “I mean, that ever happened to you? When all of a sudden y’feel like you can’t miss...?” The cockiness, the wit, the humanity... Piper Laurie’s limp. Some people love James Dean, some people love Brando, but Newman was real. Emotion didn’t come easy. It cost something. He didn’t manipulate. He just told the truth even if the truth is ugly and hard.
Then I saw Cool Hand Luke. It was my first experience with a ‘cops suck, the system is screwed, to hell with the man, find your own sense of pride, honour among thieves’ kinda picture. I dare you not to love Luke. “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate!”
As a child of Texas — Larry Mcmurtry’s
Hud is a classic. The photography, the landscape and Paul! Treat yourself. This movie is trouble — in a good way.
Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid. Yeah, it’s Hollywood. But there’s a reason Hollywood is famous.
Buffalo Bill And The Indians, Or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson. This is a major work of art. Robert Altman is firing on all cylinders. Made right after Nashville. This movie is a badass, fierce indictment of the white American male — and his unbelievable strength, courage and particular genius at lying to himself and others. The movie was released in 1976 — the Bicentennial. Guess what? Everyone hated it (everyone in America that is... it won Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival). The scene between President Cleveland and Sitting Bull is staggering.
The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean.
This is John Huston and Paul Newman’s F*CK YOU to the phoniness of the Hollywood Western and even Paul’s movie-star image. It’s full-blown nuts. Have a six-pack, Facetime a pal, and laugh your ass off. Watch Newman get hammered with a bear! I’m glad to live in a world where someone once had the guts to make a film this nuts. Watch out for Stacy Keach as Bad Bob.
Slap Shot, written by Nancy Dowd — a feminist tirade about the utter selfishness of men and their chronic stupidity. It’s funny, stupid, arrogant, brash, pig-headed and kinda brilliant. Along with Buffalo Bill and Roy Bean, Slap Shot is a film Paul used to crack the ‘Paul Newman’ mask.
Nobody’s Fool is Newman’s grace note. It’s a ravishing kiss good-bye.
So many films worth revisiting. Paris Blues with Sidney Poitier (with whom in 1969 he would start a production company). Newman and Forest Whitaker in Scorsese’s
Color Of Money is one of the best scenes ever.
Shit, I forgot
The Verdict. There are too many to mention.