Hud

Paul Newman is unscrupulous, unrepentant and magnetic as Hud, in this story of generational tension and rugged individualism gone sour on a small-town cattle ranch, screening to mark Newman’s centenary.

  • Director

    Martin Ritt

  • With

    Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Brandon deWilde, Patricia Neal

  • USA 1963. 112min

  • 35mm

  • Certificate

    12A

The Texas of Hud isn’t the mythic West of John Ford. It’s Dr Pepper signs, cheap paperbacks and canned beer. In this cattle-country rendering of a Greek tragedy, Douglas’ stoic rancher Homer Bannon bristles against Hud’s modern, cynical rot, with deWilde’s young Lon caught between them. Like Lon, we hold out hope for Hud, perhaps because of Newman’s charisma and beauty. But he’s a rattlesnake. On the edge of this filial tinderbox is wry housekeeper Alma (a stunning Neal), who goes toe-to-toe with Hud until she can’t. Shot by the legendary James Wong Howe, who won an Oscar (as did Douglas and Neal) for his work, the radiant contrast on this 1992 print shows the beauty of black and white, as lean cowboys and austere landscapes yawn across the screen.

Kitty Robertson