The Finest Performances of the Late, Great Paul Newman
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In honor of the late actor, director, producer, activist, and philanthropist who passed away on September 26, 2008, I hereby present my Top Ten Paul Newman Movies. For any of you out there who only know him as the guy whose face is on bottles of salad dressing, do yourself a favor and add these movies to your Netflix queue:
1. Cool Hand Luke (1967): "What we've got here is a failure to communicate..." Newman is brilliant as the title character, a non-conformist, hard-luck chain gang prisoner/Christ figure whose desire for freedom leads to savage retribution from the man. In another Oscar-nominated performance, he lost out to Rod Steiger for In the Heat of the Night, but his co-star George Kennedy won for best supporting actor. With Strother Martin, Dennis Hopper, and J.D. Cannon. Warner Home Video.
2. Hud (1963): Another epic performance, as charming but irredeemable shit-heel Hud Bannon, a rebel without a cause, unless selfish pleasure-seeking and the pursuit of married women can be seen as a cause. He is a thorn in the side of his father, Homer (the great Melvyn Douglas), idolized by his nephew Lon (Brandon DeWilde), and rightfully mistrusted by their housekeeper Alma (Patricia Neal): "I done my time with one cold-blooded bastard," she tells him. "I'm not looking for another." Directed by Martin Ritt, from Larry McMurtry's novel. Also one of my Top Ten Texas Movies.
3.The Hustler (1963) and The Color of Money (1986): In The Hustler, Newman stars as "Fast Eddie" Felson in the best film ever made about billiards, and one of the greatest sports movies of all time. Stellar support from George C. Scott as his sleazy manager and Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats. Directed by Robert Rossen, adapted from the novel by Walter Tevis. Martin Scorcese resurrected Fast Eddie for a sequel, The Color of Money, in 1986, teaming Paul with an out-of-his-league Tom Cruise, and gaining Newman his only Oscar. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
4. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973): George Roy Hill directed both of these money-making genre films starring Newman and Robert Redford. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a comedy-western about the legendary outlaws, re-imagined by screenwriter William Goldman as a pair of lovable rogues. Co-starring the lovely Katharine Ross (The Graduate) as Etta Place, with an Oscar-winning score by Burt Bacharach. (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment). Four years later, Newman and Redford re-teamed for The Sting, as a pair of grifters who pull a long con on gangster Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). Again, the music is great, with Marvin Hamlisch adapting the ragtime tunes of Scott Joplin (Universal Home Entertainment).
5. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Long, Hot Summer (1958): Newman shines in adapations of Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner, respectively, set in the deep South, with great ensemble casts. In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, he is Brick, the tortured, impotent, alcoholic ex-football star (also a latent homosexual, but that was whitewashed for the movies) married to Maggie the Cat (Elizabeth Taylor), and son of Big Daddy, wonderfully palyed by Burl Ives. (MGM Home Video). In The Long, Hot Summer, he is Ben Quick, another lovable rogue, who courts Clara Varner (Joanne Woodward, whom he would marry shortly thereafter), the daughter of Will Varner (Orson Welles). While not exactly faithful to the source material, it is no less enjoyable. (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment).
6. The Verdict (1982): Newman is in top form as ambulance-chasing shyster Frank Galvin, who gains salvation when he takes on a seemingly unwinnable case. With James Mason, Charlotte Rampling, and Jack Warden. Directed by Sidney Lumet from a screenplay by David Mamet. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
7. Harper (1966): Adapted from Ross McDonald's novel The Moving Target, changing the main character's name from Lew Archer to Lew Harper, but retaining the essence of the novel and its laconic, private eye protagonist. Newman is, naturally, the essence of cool, as he bounces around L.A. trying to solve a murder, encountering various suspects and Hollywood types, embodied by a stellar cast including Lauren Bacall, Janet Leigh, Robert Wagner, Shelley Winters, and the delectable Pamela Tiffin. Warner Home Video.
8. Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956): In his first starring role, Newman plays petty criminal turned boxer Rocky Graziano, replacing the recently departed James Dean, and he's much better suited to the role. He captures the Rock's "Dese, dem, and dose" speech patterns, and acquits himself admirably in the boxing sequences. With Pier Angeli as his long-suffering love interest. Directed by Robert Wise. MGM Home Video.
9. Slap Shot (1977): Another great sports movie, in which Newman stars as Reg Dunlop, the player-coach of a minor league hockey team. Not only is the movie incredibly funny, and true to life, but it has something to say as well, although it says it using mostly four-letter words. Growing up in a hockey town in the Northeast, this movie resonated with me big time. Directed by George Roy Hill, from an original screenplay by Nancy Dowd. Universal Home Entertainment.
10. Nobody's Fool (1994): Adapted from Richard Russo's novel by writer-director Robert Benton, Nobody's Fool offered Newman the best role he'd had in years, as Sully, an old scoundrel with a bum knee and a talent for misbehavior. Just when he's ready to take a worker' comp payoff and take it easy, everything changes, and he's forced to deal with several different challenges. He would go on to play a similar character in the HBO adaptation of Russo's Empire Falls in 2005. Paramount Home Video.
Honorable Mention:
The Left-Handed Gun (1958)
Exodus (1960)
Paris Blues (1961)
The Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)
Torn Curtain (1966)
Hombre (1967)
Winning (1969)
WUSA (1970)
Sometimes a Great Notion (1971)
The Drowning Pool (1975)
Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981)
Abscence of Malice (1981)
Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990)
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
Road to Perdition (2002)
Empire Falls (2005)
Cars (2006)
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Last edited on Oct 18, 2008
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