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Do IT this week: Layering
Tributes flow for actor, who left a vast legacy. Here's some favorites
By Rich Heldenfels
Beacon Journal popular culture writer
Published on Sunday, Oct 05, 2008
Paul Newman, the pride of Shaker Heights and the beacon for movie fans everywhere, died more than a week ago and the eulogies keep coming.
People magazine has him on its cover, and will issue a 96-page tribute book on Saturday. Turner Classic Movies will devote 24 hours to Newman movies beginning Oct. 12.
You have been reminded of his good works, his political activism, his looks, his style, his sporting life. But let's not forget that all those things became noteworthy because he was a remarkable actor. But his screen appearances have been sporadic in the past decade, and it has been more than 20 years since he finally won his best-actor Oscar (for The Color of Money). So some moviegoers might not know or well remember what he did. Which makes this a good time to pick up some DVDs.
There are some gaps, but Newman's body of work is well represented on DVD, including in recent special editions of landmarks like The Hustler, The Verdict, Cool Hand Luke, The Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, as well as in box sets like The Paul Newman Collection (Harper, The Mackintosh Man, Somebody Up There Likes Me, The Left Handed Gun, Pocket Money, The Drowning Pool and The Young Philadelphians). You can also find some real bargains, with films like Nobody's Fool, The Color of Money and Slap Shot available for about $10.
But if you're wondering where to start, here's a highly personal list of Newman films worth seeing again, all of which are on DVD. If it leans a bit toward his later work, that's because — as good as he was when he was young — he refined his craft even more as he aged. For the most part, I have tried to stick to movies that not only have good Newman performances but are good movies as well; hence the exclusion of Blaze and Twilight, among others.
So here's the list:
Nobody's Fool (1994). Newman plays a construction worker who seems to know everybody in his small town but knows nothing about life; he has been skating by on charm and a larcenous streak. The movie offers him some chances to be a grownup at last, and to see if that changes his luck. One of Newman's best performances ever. With an impressive ensemble including Jessica Tandy, Bruce Willis and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Available as a DVD double-feature package with Newman's Fat Man and Little Boy (1989).
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The Hustler (1961) and The Color of Money (1986). Newman's two appearances as Fast Eddie Felson, a pool hustler who takes a physical and moral beating in the first film, then has to reclaim his soul in the second. The first film is where I really discovered Newman, probably on a late-late show, and he's still powerful, even when working opposite the marvelous Piper Laurie and George C. Scott. (Watch everything that is going on among Newman, Scott and Jackie Gleason in the movie's final scene before it goes too preachy.) The second, of course, finds Newman working with director Martin Scorsese and with Tom Cruise — showing the willingness of both Newman and Cruise to play with the top guys. Newman should have won an Oscar long before The Color of Money, but he's still endlessly watchable in this one.
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Hud (1963), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) and Road to Perdition (2002). Three different decades, three different villains, and every one a beaut. In Hud, he's the selfish ranch hand utterly devoid of the charm that people so often remembered about Newman. (TCM will show Hud at 6 p.m. Oct. 12.)
Hudsucker, an oddball but endearing comedy from the Coen brothers (No Country for Old Men), finds Newman playing nastiness with the sort of relish that makes you think he was having a grand time. The dark, engrossing Road to Perdition really belongs to Tom Hanks, but it works even better because of Newman — and Newman performing with Hanks.
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Cool Hand Luke (1967). The movie gets especially overripe near the end as it hammers home the idea of Newman's Luke as a convict Jesus. But even then it is a defining Newman performance — cool indeed, charming, roguish but with flaws and sadness that make him more than those blue eyes. This is also in the TCM lineup, set for 10 p.m. Oct. 12.
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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973), the vintage buddy pictures with Robert Redford. I am less fond of Butch Cassidy as time passes, because of the deliberately anachronistic dialogue and especially the annoying interlude to Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head. But it's an interesting film for Newman because you can see him pondering his own future by playing a character facing advancing age and mortality. In The Sting, Redford is really the central character, but Newman has his moments, especially in the poker game.
Shaker Square Cinemas in Cleveland will show both films from Friday through Oct. 12; admission is $5. For more information, go to http://www.clevelandcinemas.com.
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Slap Shot (1977) and Harper (1966). As an aging hockey player-coach trying to save his collapsing team, Newman played a none-too-bright guy with a mile-wide streak of cunning and language of spectacular vulgarity. This also pops up on a lot of lists of Newman favorites because it is so thoroughly funny.
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The Verdict (1982). Newman received two special Oscars, one for career achievement and a humanitarian award. He was nominated in competitive categories 10 times. Once was as producer of best-picture nominee Rachel, Rachel (in which he directed wife Joanne Woodward). Nine were as an actor, winning for The Color of Money.
When you look at his other nominations — for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Hustler, Hud, Cool Hand Luke, Absence of Malice, The Verdict, Nobody's Fool and (as supporting actor) Road to Perdition — it should be clear that he was unfairly overlooked. And perhaps no more so than with The Verdict, where his performance as a down-and-almost-out lawyer is the center of a powerful, affecting movie about redemption. It was a competitive Oscar year, with other nominees including Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie and Peter O'Toole in My Favorite Year — and the Oscar going, incomprehensibly, to Ben Kingsley in Gandhi. Newman's next nomination was for Color of Money, and I still think the motion picture academy was trying to make amends for the Verdict oversight.
Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal and in the HeldenFiles Online blog at http://www.ohio.com. He can be reached at 330-996-3582 and rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.
Paul Newman, the pride of Shaker Heights and the beacon for movie fans everywhere, died more than a week ago and the eulogies keep coming.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Akron, OH
Posted 06:28 PM, 10/07/2008
I liked Ghandi
Euclid, OH
Posted 08:53 AM, 10/08/2008
What's incomprehensible about Ben Kingsley winning for Gandhi? He was excellent.
A lot of excellent performances don't win, if it's a year with a lot of them. I still think Liam Neeson should have won for "Schindler's List" over Tom Hanks for "Philadelphia".
