Hud (film)

Hud
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Martin Ritt
Produced by	Irving Ravetch Martin Ritt
Screenplay by	Irving Ravetch Harriet Frank, Jr.
Based on	Horseman, Pass By by Larry McMurtry
Starring	Paul Newman Melvyn Douglas Patricia Neal Brandon deWilde
Music by	Elmer Bernstein
Cinematography	James Wong Howe
Editing by	Frank Bracht
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	May 28, 1963 (1963-05-28)
Running time	112 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2.5 million[1]
Box office	$10,000,000[2]

Hud is a 1963 western film directed by Martin Ritt and starring Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas and Patricia Neal. The film was produced by Ritt and Newman's recently founded company Salem Productions and was their first film for Paramount Pictures. It was filmed on location on the Texas Panhandle and in Claude, Texas. The screenplay was written by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr., based on Larry McMurtry's 1961 novel Horseman, Pass By. The film's title character Hud Bannon was a minor character in the original screenplay but was reworked to become the leading role. With the main role conceived as an anti-hero, the film was later as well described as an anti-western.

The film's narrative centers on the ongoing conflict between principled patriarch Homer Bannon and his unscrupulous and arrogant son Hud, which occurs during an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, which puts the family's cattle ranch at risk. Lonnie, Homer's grandson and Hud's nephew, is caught in the middle of the conflict and is forced to choose which character to follow as his role model.

Hud premiered at the Venice International Film Festival and became a critical and commercial success upon its wide release. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four; Patricia Neal won Best Actress, Melvyn Douglas won Best Supporting Actor and James Wong Howe the Academy Award for Best Black and White Cinematography.

Plot

Hud Bannon (Paul Newman) is an ambitious and self-centered man, the opposite side to his old fashion rancher father, Homer (Melvyn Douglas), a deeply principled man. Living at the Bannon Ranch is also Hud's teenage nephew, Lonnie (Brandon deWilde), who looks up to both men, but is deeply impressed by Hud.

After the sudden death of a cow on the ranch without an apparent cause, Homer sends Lonnie to town and bring Hud to the ranch to get his opinion.

Hud is annoyed by the decision of his father to call the state veterinarian to find the cause of death. Hud proposes instead to sell the animals to other ranchers before the news spread and tells his father the government agents will kill all of their cattle, depriving the Bannons of their livelihood, and Hud's years of hard labor and inheritance will be nothing. Hud also blames his father for not realizing that the cheap Mexican cattle was sick before he bought them. Firm to his principles, Homer ignores Hud's idea and waits for the veterinarian. Upon his arrival, the state veterinarian immediately issues a legally binding State Livestock Transfer Order. The order directs that the Bannon ranch be quarantined for a possible infection of foot-and-mouth disease. This action freezes all movement of all livestock of whatever kind, to or from the Bannon ranch while they wait for the diagnosis.

Hud "courts" Alma

Lonnie and Hud are both attracted to the Bannons' middle-aged housekeeper, Alma (Patricia Neal). Hud is crude and insulting to her, while Lonnie is protective. Although there is a mutual attraction with Hud, Alma keeps her distance due to her past relations with other men with the same behaviour.

After the test results of the tests revealed positive for the disease, the veterinarian orders the entire herd be killed and buried on the ranch under state supervision, to quarantine the infection there and to keep it from spreading. Although the bankruptcy risk for the Bannon ranch, Homer complies. Hud, infuriated by his eroded inheritance, attempts to have Homer declared legally incompetent, so that he can take the control of the ranch.

One night, Hud takes Lonnie out for a night on the town. They get drunk and triumph in a barroom brawl. Afterwards, back on the ranch, Hud begins to reflect on the past, when he and Lonnie's father used to do the same thing. He reveals his feelings toward his brother, Norman's untimely death, and his father's coldness towards him. As they come into the ranch house, Homer confronts Hud. He accuses his son of trying to corrupt Lonnie. Most angering of all to Homer is that fact that he clearly sees the cunning, ulterior motive of Hud in his show of personal attention and feigned affection toward Lonnie, in that Hud is trying to use this attraction to gain Lonnie's support in his moves against Homer. An argument between father and son starts; Hud who accuses Homer of hypocrisy, and nursing a hatred for him over Norman's death. Homer reveals that his disappointment towards him started before the accident, telling Hud that he cares about no one but himself, and remarking that he is "not fit to live with." Hurt and angry, Hud tells his father "my mama loved me but she died" as he walks away. Lonnie tells Homer that he was too harsh on Hud and that other people act like him, Homer tells Lonnie that one day he is going to have to decide for himself what is right and wrong.

Homer confronts Hud while Lonnie looks on

After learning from Lonnie that Hud is trying to take control of the ranch Homer confronts Hud and tells him that he will lose. Homer admits that he was too hard on Hud growing up and that he made mistakes but Hud says that his father had a "shape up or ship out" policy. Homer asks how a man like Hud can be his son as he storms off to his room. Hud goes outside and in a drunken rage forces himself upon Alma, and Lonnie comes to her aid. She promptly flees the ranch, disgusted and demoralized at Hud's brutishness. After Lonnie drops her off at the bus station, Hud happens by as she is waiting. He apologizes for his drunken assault, but not for his attraction to her. Driving back to the ranch, Lonnie spots his grandfather at the roadside. Homer has fallen from his horse during a survey of the Bannon ranch. Hud pulls up behind Lonnie, and both try to help Homer, but he does not survive.

Lonnie is repelled by his uncle's treatment of Homer and Alma. After Homer's funeral, Lonnie leaves the ranch, not sure if he will ever return. He tells Hud to put his half of their inheritance in the bank, then walks off. Hud tells Lonnie that he has come to see him as Homer saw him and dismisses him then goes back into the Bannon house alone; the final fade-out shows the window shade's pull-ring, swaying.

Cast

• Paul Newman as Hud Bannon, the arrogant and self-centered son of rancher Homer Bannon. To prepare for the role, Newman worked for ten days on a ranch in Texas, sleeping in a bunkhouse.^[3]

• Melvyn Douglas as Homer Bannon, Hud's father, Lonnie's grandfather and owner of the Bannon ranch.^[4] Paramount was initially doubtful about casting him due to his heart condition. Douglas was cast after Ritt insisted that the was the right person to play the role.^[5]

• Brandon De Wilde as Lonnie Bannon, Hud's teenage nephew who idolizes him as a role model. De Wilde, a former child actor, was best known at the time for his award-winning role in Shane.^[6]

• Patricia Neal as Alma Brown, the Bannon's housekeeper. Martin Ritt decided to cast Neal after he saw her appearance on the television series The Untouchables chapter "The Maggie Storm Story". Ritt, who previously met her on the Actors Studio, was impressed by her performance and wanted her to portray Alma. She signed for the role for a fee of US$30,000.^[4]

Production

After working together in other projects, director Martin Ritt and Paul Newman co-founded Salem Productions. The newly created company made a deal for three movies with Paramount Studios.^[7] For the first film, "Hud", the company hired scriptwriters Harriet Frank, Jr. and Irving Ravetch, who had worked with Ritt and Newman on The Long Hot Summer. Frank and Ravetch adapted Larry McMurtry's novel Horseman, Pass By. ^[8] While the novel focuses on his nephew Donnie Bannon, the writers expanded the character of Hud and turned him into the leading role.^[4] Ritt asked that Hud be depicted as an anti-hero character who did not regret his actions at the end of the film.^[8] Ritt also requested that the character of the housekeeper—originally a black woman called Halmea—be renamed Alma and played by a white actress, since he thought that a relationship between Hud and a black woman would not work.^[9]

The production was shot over four weeks in and around the Texas Panhandle town and of Claude, Texas as a setting.^[10][4] Filming began on May 21, 1962, and the rest of the scenes were finished by the second week of June. The interior scenes were filmed at the Paramount sound stages in Hollywood, California, starting in the first week of July. The film was completed on August 1, 1962.^[11] Martin Racking, the president of Paramount Pictures, was not convinced by the movie's ending and asked Ritt to change it, but Ritt and Newman kept the original, unchanged ending.^[12]

Release and reception

Hud was acclaimed during its premiere at the 24th Venice International Film Festival.^[12] Upon its wide release on May 29, 1963, the movie grossed $10 million at the domestic box office,^[2] earning $5 million in theatrical rentals.^[13] It was the 19th highest grossing film of the year. Life called the film an "arresting—almost great—movie", and praised Paul Newman's acting, describing it as "faultless."^[14] Outlook wrote that the four main cast members acted "splendidly." The review said that Newman "speaks at times with an unpleasant nasal twang, but is clearly suited to the part." It described Melvyn Douglas' performance as "impeccable"; Brandon de Wilde's as "[successful] in looking earnest unsure of himself"; and praised the expressiveness of Patricia Neal.^[15] Time called the performances "splendid", and said that James Wong Howe's photography "brings the Texas panhandle to dusty, sweaty life."^[16] The New York Times gave a favorable review, said Ritt's direction had "[a] powerfully realistic style" and described Ravetch and Frank Jr's work as "[an] excellent screenplay." The newspaper called Newman's acting "tremendous", Douglas' "magnificent", de Wilde's "eloquent of clean, modern youth" and Patricia Neal's "brilliant." The review also praised the "excellent" camerawork by James Wong Howe and the "poignant" score by Elmer Bernstein.^[17] Variety published a negative review calling the film "a near miss" and saying that the screenplay fails to "filter its meaning and theme lucidly through its characters and story", although the publication called the acting by the four leading actors "excellent."^[18]

Originally planned to be an anti-hero, the audiences liked the self-centered character of Hud Bannon

Although the role of Hud was planned to be an anti-hero, audiences interpreted the character as a hero.^[19] Ritt and Newman intended to show the corruption of modern capitalism and the pitfalls of admiring an individual blindly without observing his character.^[20] Life's review said the character was "likable, smart, and [had] the potential to measure up to his tough, honorable father."^[14] Saturday Review called him a "charming, raffish monster".^[21] Outlook said, "Hud Bannon is a mean, unscrupulous man who never has even a momentary twinge of conscience or change of heart." Regarding the end scene, the publication stated that Hud "[p]ulls down the shade on the world of goodness and decency."^[15] The film has been originally described by critic Pauline Kael as an "anti-western." Kael felt that "Hud" was an "Anti-american film", that was "so astutely made and yet such a mess that it (was) redeemed by its fundamental dishonesty."^[22]

Paul Newman stated, "We thought [the] last thing people would do was accept Hud as a heroic character ... His amorality just went over [the audience's] head; all they saw was this western, heroic individual." Martin Ritt later attributed the wrong interpretation of the character to the counterculture of the 1960s that "changed the values" in the young audiences that ultimately perceived Luke as a hero.^[23]

Awards and nominations

Hud won three out of seven Academy Award nominations at the 36th Annual Academy Awards (1963).^[24]

Source: "Hud". IMDb. Retrieved 4 February 2014. 

Footnotes

References

• Borden, Marian Edelman (2010). Paul Newman: A Biography. ABC - CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-38310-6. 
• Brunzel, Peter (1963). "Western Non-hero named Hud". Life (Time, Inc.) 55 (1). ISSN 0024-3019. 
• Buhle, Paul (2005). Hide in Plain Sight: The Hollywood Blacklistees in Film and Television, 1950–2002. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-6684-1. 
• Crowther, Bosley (1963). "Hud". New York Times (The New York Times Company). Retrieved September 4, 2013. 
• Guttmacher, Peter (1995). Legendary Westerns. MetroBooks. ISBN 978-1-56799-172-7. 
• Jackson, Carlton (1994). Picking Up the Tab: The Life and Movies of Martin Ritt. Popular Press. ISBN 978-0-87972-672-0. 
• Miller, Gabriel (2000). The Films of Martin Ritt: Fanfare for the Common Man. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-61703-496-1. 
• NYtimes.com (2008). "Hud". New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved September 4, 2013. 
• Shearer, Stephen (2006). Patricia Neal: an Unquiet Life. University of Kentucky Press. ISBN 978-0-8131-7136-4. 
• Outlook Magazine Staff (1963). "Cineopinion". Outlook 2. 
• Saturday Review staff (1963). "Deep in the Heart of Texas". Saturday Review. 
• Time Magazine staff (1963). Time (Time, Inc.). 
• Quirk, Lawrence (2009). Paul Newman: A Life. Taylor Trade Publications. ISBN 978-1-58979-438-2. 
• Variety staff (1962). "Hud is a near miss. Where it falls short of the mark is in its failure to filter its meaning and theme lucidly through its characters and story.". Variety (Variety Media, LLC.). Retrieved September 4, 2013. 
• Variety staff (1966). "All-Time Top Grossers". Variety (Variety Media, LLC). 
• Wishart, David (2004). Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. U of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-4787-1. 
• Wojcik, Pamela (2012). New Constellations: Movie Stars of the 1960s. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-5229-3. 

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Hud (film)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hud (film).

• Hud at the Internet Movie Database
• Hud at the TCM Movie Database