
“Not Brando in Streetcar, not Dean in Rebel, not Clift in Place in the Sun , it was Newman in Hud who redefined the American cinema protagonist. It’s the first time a bad guy has been presented without excuse or remorse. He has no apology or change of heart. And you can’t take your eyes off him. You think he’s the coolest thing you’ve ever seen.” Paul Schrader
In this landmark modern western adapted from Larry McMurtry’s first novel, Brandon de Wile — the kid from Shane — gets an unsentimental education for worshipping the wrong hero: his uncle, Paul Newman’s eponymous heel. More than any of his peers, the young Newman was willing to alienate our affections. In The Hustler and Hud he wasn’t really misunderstood so much as misjudged. He was venal, callous and craven. His looks were his trump card; he was a man women hated to love but couldn’t resist. Even in these boorish, brazen bastards he finds shards of innocence. “My mama loved me but then she died,” Hud Bannon says, and Newman’s bluntness buries the self-pity. Melvyn Douglas’s stern patriarch has a great speech about the evils of swapping farming for oil and the b&w photography by James Wong Howe is as good as it gets.
Hud as a character of his time embodied a new ethos (right or wrong) longing to break free from old norms and seeking acceptance. As a film, it marked the entry of a new type of Western, one that was more intimate, more cynical, and more authentic than those before it.
Roger Ebert
Martin Ritt
Paul Newman, Patricia Neal, Melvin Douglas
USA
1963
English
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Screenwriter
Irving Ravetch, Harriet Frank Jr.
Cinematography
James Wong Howe
Editor
Frank Bracht
Original Music
Elmer Bernstein
Art Director
Tambi Larsen, Hal Pereira
Also in This Series
Getting Real charts the evolution of screen acting in American film from 1945-1980, diving into the psychological realism which took audiences somewhere deeper and more authentic than ever before.
The Heiress
Olivia de Havilland won the Oscar for playing Catherine, a shy and insecure young woman who blossoms under the courtship of handsome gentleman caller Morris (Montgomery Clift). Her wealthy father, Ralph Richardson, looks on with severe skepticism.
A Place in the Sun
George (Montgomery Clift) takes a job in his uncle's firm. But before he can break into the family's charmed inner circle and fall in love with socialite Angela (Elizabeth Taylor), he becomes embroiled with a factory girl (Shelley Winters).
A Streetcar Named Desire
"I don't want realism. I want magic!" declares Blanche du Bois, the tragic heroine who meets her nemesis in her sister's husband, Stanley Kowalski, in Tennessee Williams' great play. Brando's performance as Stanley is a turning point in American acting.
On the Waterfront
Marlon Brando's definitive performance as Terry Malloy, a New York dockworker (and once a promising boxer) who loses faith in his union and his smarter but corrupt older brother Charlie (Rod Steiger) after a whistleblower is murdered.
East of Eden
Salinas, 1917. Cal Trask's forlorn attempts to win the affection of his self-righteous father (Raymond Massey) represented James Dean's first leading role in the cinema, and his emotionally raw performance ennobled misunderstood youth everywhere.
Rebel Without a Cause
Kids turned bad in the 1950s -- and their newly comfortable middle-class parents couldn't understand why. Ray points the finger right back at them: "You're tearing me apart!" rails Jim Stark (James Dean), speaking for his generation.
Giant
This was the Yellowstone of its time: a big, sweeping modern Western built around an imposing ranch and family dynamics -- except Giant is much more subversive. James Dean strikes it rich as Jett Rink, much to the disgust of his former boss, Rock Hudson.
The Fugitive Kind
Sidney Lumet's movie brings together two of the greatest actors of the period, Brando and Anna Magnani, reason enough to check out this underrated poetical drama about a handsome musician who washes up in a small southern town.
Hud
Landmark modern western with Brandon de Wilde from Shane worshipping the wrong hero, Paul Newman’s eponymous heel. According to Paul Schrader, this movie marks the birth of the cynical (anti-)hero in American cinema.