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HUD
Directed by Martin Ritt; with Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Patricia
Neal, and Brandon de Wilde.
1963
erious,
dusty, wild -- just like Texas itself. Based on the Larry McMurtry novel
Horseman Pass By, this film takes us to the stark, black-and-white
landscape of a West Texas ranch whose cattle may be infected with hoof
and mouth disease. Melvyn Douglas plays stodgy patriarch Homer Bannon,
an ethical yet rigid old-timer entrenched in the past; while Newman
is the ruggedly-handsome Hud, the old man's no-good, tom cattin', whiskey
drinkin' heir who makes the case for selling off the herd before the
government comes in with a death sentence. Hud's nephew Lon (de Wilde)
is the philosophical fledgling between them -- still possessing a childlike
goodheartedness, but also nurturing a taste for Hud's rakish ways. Patricia
Neal won an Oscar for her role as Alma, the rough-handed housekeeper
who is both attracted to and repulsed by Hud's insensitivity. The film's
bleak Texas setting (cinematographer James Wong Howe also won an Academy
award for his work) brilliantly offsets the rich characterization in
the writing, and though the film comes off as a bit moralizing, the
desperate tensions and passions of a family driven to change evoke the maverick Texas spirit, marking this one a classic.
erious,
dusty, wild -- just like Texas itself. Based on the Larry McMurtry novel
Horseman Pass By, this film takes us to the stark, black-and-white
landscape of a West Texas ranch whose cattle may be infected with hoof
and mouth disease. Melvyn Douglas plays stodgy patriarch Homer Bannon,
an ethical yet rigid old-timer entrenched in the past; while Newman
is the ruggedly-handsome Hud, the old man's no-good, tom cattin', whiskey
drinkin' heir who makes the case for selling off the herd before the
government comes in with a death sentence. Hud's nephew Lon (de Wilde)
is the philosophical fledgling between them -- still possessing a childlike
goodheartedness, but also nurturing a taste for Hud's rakish ways. Patricia
Neal won an Oscar for her role as Alma, the rough-handed housekeeper
who is both attracted to and repulsed by Hud's insensitivity. The film's
bleak Texas setting (cinematographer James Wong Howe also won an Academy
award for his work) brilliantly offsets the rich characterization in
the writing, and though the film comes off as a bit moralizing, the
desperate tensions and passions of a family driven to change evoke the maverick Texas spirit, marking this one a classic.
