Hud (film)

• Release Date: 1963
• Director(s): Martin Ritt
• Writer(s): Harriet Frank; Irving Ravetch
• Principal Actors and Roles: Brandon De Wilde (Lonnie Bannon); Melvyn Douglas (Homer Bannon); Patricia Neal (Alma Brown); Paul Newman (Hud Bannon); Yvette Vickers (Lily Peters)
• Book / Story Film Based On: Horseman, Pass By by Larry McMurtry

The 1963 drama Hud was part of a movement toward realistic, contemporary Westerns. For example, Lonely Are the Brave had been released just a year earlier, likewise adapting the Western genre to the realities of twentieth-century America. But although both movies focus on an individual in the West whose behavior is shaped by a more-modern western society, Hud is not heroic in any way. The character is purely an antihero, an amoral character who is controlled by self-interest alone.

The movie was adapted from Larry McMurtry’s first novel, Horseman, Pass By. In the book, the focus is from the perspective of the youngest character, Lonnie. That point of view is essentially retained in the film. But Hud, the main character of the movie, is not the dominant character in the book.

In the movie, the nasty main character never gains insight or repentance, as was the case with every previous movie antihero. Director Martin Ritt felt he was presenting a character that had not yet appeared in an American movie. Few big-screen stars would have been willing to play such an unremitting wretch. The movie was the first collaboration in a new business partnership Paul Newman had with Ritt.

With powerfully stark black-and-white cinematography, Hud is almost a parable of conflicts between generations, between an idealized honor of the West and unethical modern business interests, and even between the mythologized past of cattle ranching and present-day calculations of profit and loss. It uses three generations of males in the same family to ask a simple question: What is the individual’s obligation to others and the rest of society?

In the process, the movie presents a dark view of how people succeed in American culture. Newman was startled to learn that young audiences admired the despicable character he portrayed. Younger audiences saw him as an attractive character who acted honestly, whereas Newman felt the opposite message was what they had intended. Ritt felt that the cautionary morality tale within the movie had become quaint in the eyes of a jaded, self-interested audience.

Plot

Three generations of Bannons live on a cattle ranch in northern Texas. Teenaged Lonnie deeply respects his principled, honorable grandfather Homer, but he also greatly admires his uncle Hud. The boy wants to emulate his loutish, hell-raising uncle, who roars around in a pink Cadillac. Both Lonnie and Hud are attracted to Alma, the jaded housekeeper. She finds Hud appealing but will not become involved with him—she has already experienced boorish men of his type.

Homer purchased some cattle in Mexico, and they appear to have hoof-and-mouth disease. Hud wants to sell the cattle before they show signs of disease. To Hud’s dismay, Homer sends for the state veterinarian. Homer will not do anything so unethical despite the risk of ruin if their herd must be destroyed. Thus the two are joined in battle over principles—and for Lonnie’s loyalty and love.

Multiple conflicts erupt between Homer and Hud, the emotional dynamic springing from an accident that killed Hud’s brother, Lonnie’s father Norman, but at base stemming from the opposite worldviews of the two men. At one point, Hud challenges his father to explain why "you turned sour on me, not that I give a damn." Homer replies, "That’s just it. You don’t give a damn." In a metaphor for how the West and the whole country is changing, Homer also warns Lonnie, "Little by little the look of the country changes because of the men we admire."

Lonnie’s attitude begins to shift when he has to save Alma from a rape attempt by the drunk Hud. After Lonnie drops Alma at the bus station, he finds Homer on the ground after falling from his horse. Hud arrives soon after, but the two of them are unable to revive the old man. Lonnie leaves the ranch after Homer’s funeral, and Hud is left entirely alone.

Significance

Hud received excellent reviews in 1963 and was a major financial success that year. Patricia Neal won a best actress Oscar for her portrayal of Alma, Melvyn Douglas won best supporting actor as Homer, and James Wong Howe won for the best black-and-white cinematography. The movie was also honored with four additional nominations, for best actor, best director, best adapted screenplay, and best art direction. Douglas and Neal also received awards from the National Board of review, and Neal was named best actress by the New York Film Critics Circle and best foreign actress by the British Academy. The New York Film Critics Circle honored it further with a best screenplay award, and the Writers Guild of America named the script the best written American drama of 1963.

However, Hud’s greatest significance is in its legacy. Along with a few other movies that came out around the same time, Hud represents something of a turning point in American film. Prior to Hud, charismatic, unsympathetic characters typically underwent a transformation of some kind. They usually moved back to the path of righteousness thanks to some outside influence such as a loving partner or a clergyman’s intervention. When such resurrection did not occur, the loathsome character was punished somehow or killed. Hud refuses to reform, but instead of being punished, he ends up with an inheritance. He is alone at the end, but it seems fine with him. Thus a new type of antihero entered the world of American cinema.

When the movie was released, its promotional posters called Hud "the man with the barbed-wire soul." It reflected a cynical view of "rugged individualism" and monetary success that was completely at odds with a typical previous Western. Although deeply flawed characters and unpunished despicable behavior are now commonplace in movies, the presentation of these seeming realities of American life was rare in 1963. In fact, executives at the distributor, Paramount, were so disturbed by Hud’s lack of remorse and the film’s dark tone that they had to be talked into releasing it at all.

Awards and nominations

Won

• Academy Award (1963) Best Actress: Patricia Neal
• Academy Award (1963) Best Supporting Actor: Melvyn Douglas
• Academy Award (1963) Best Cinematography (Black-and-White): James Wong Howe

Nominated

• Academy Award (1963) Best Director: Martin Ritt
• Academy Award (1963) Best Actor: Paul Newman
• Academy Award (1963) Best Screenplay (Adapted): Harriet Frank, Irving Ravetch
• Academy Award (1963) Best Art Direction-Set Direction (Black-and-White)
• Golden Globe (1963) Best Motion Picture (Drama)
• Golden Globe (1963) Best Director: Martin Ritt
• Golden Globe (1963) Best Motion Picture Actor (Drama): Paul Newman
• Golden Globe (1963) Best Supporting Actor: Melvyn Douglas
• Golden Globe (1963) Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Neal

Bibliography

Levy, Shawn. Paul Newman: A Life. New York: Three Rivers, 2010. Electronic.

Miller, Gabriel. The Films of Martin Ritt Interviews. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2000. Print.

Miller, Gabriel, ed. Martin Ritt: Fanfare for the Common Man. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2003. Print.

McMurtry, Larry. Horseman Pass By: Basis for 1963 Film Starring Paul Newman & Patricia Neal. 1961. London: Penguin, 1986. Print.

Schneider, Steven Jay. 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Hauppauge: Barron’s, 2013. Print.

Shearer, Stephen. Patricia Neal: An Unquiet Life. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 2006. Print.

Silver, Alain. James Wong Howe: The Camera Eye—A Career Interview. Seattle: CreateSpace, 2011. Print.