![\"L](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785397346_436_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nA flat landscape at dawn, clouds nearly washed out of the sky on purpose by the Oscar-winning cinematography of James Wong Howe, opens the classic Texas film, “Hud.” Those billowing clouds that can fill the otherwise barren ranchland would have made the film too pretty, Howe once said. And “Hud” is not a pretty film.<\/p>\n
Oh, for sure there\u2019s a stark beauty to the images, and Paul Newman certainly fills a handsome frame. But “Hud,” released in 1963 just before the 1960s became \u201cThe Sixties,\u201d is headlined by one of the biggest heels of a character in all of cinema. Yet audiences loved the movie and its title character, much to director Martin Ritt\u2019s surprise.<\/p>\n
“Hud” is routinely listed among the best Texas films, but it also might be the defining film about Texas, presciently illustrating the end result of our maverick ways and going it alone, damn everyone else.<\/p>\n
In “Hud,” three generations of a ranching family in the Texas Panhandle live under one roof. Melvyn Douglas plays the patriarch Homer Bannon. Paul Newman is his son, Hud, and Brandon deWilde is Hud\u2019s nephew, Lonnie. (Lonnie\u2019s father was killed in a car wreck with Hud at the wheel.) Rounding out the four-hander is Patricia Neal, who won an acting Oscar as Alma, the family housekeeper. Neal here is playing earthier and more world-weary than she ever had before.<\/p>\n
With quiet dignity, Homer sees the ranch as his calling and vocation, and his values seem to have rubbed off on young Lonnie, but the teen is still forming his own opinions about the world and looks up to his Uncle Hud, who, when not on the range, is in the bedroom of just about every housewife in town after busting up the bars at night. He\u2019s drunk, disorderly, and even steals Alma\u2019s homemade peach ice cream out from under his nephew\u2019s nose on the porch.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Courtesy The Criterion Collection<\/p>\n
L to R: Melvyn Douglas, Brandon deWilde, and Paul Newman in ‘Hud.’<\/p>\n
When their livelihood is threatened by the herd contracting foot-and-mouth disease, Hud suggests shipping the sick cows off rather than the harder choice of eliminating them all.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd take a chance on starting an epidemic in the entire country?\u201d Homer asks.<\/p>\n
Hud explodes, \u201cWhy this whole country is run on epidemics. Where you been? Epidemics of big business, price-fixing, crooked TV shows, income tax finagling, souped-up expense accounts!\u201d<\/p>\n
Homer has scruples, trusts his neighbors, and looks out for others, but Hud sees hypocrisy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI say let\u2019s us put our bread in some of that gravy while it is still hot!\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The counterculture hadn\u2019t yet emerged in 1963, but within a few years, the younger generation wasn\u2019t going to trust anyone over thirty and sure as hell wasn\u2019t trusting the authorities. “Hud” tapped into that anti-establishment feeling early on. Its success, and audiences\u2019 admiration for cynical Hud Bannon was a leading indicator of the culture.<\/p>\n
No other actor besides Paul Newman could have pulled off this role. He was devilishly handsome, with those baby blue, turned-down-at-the-side eyes, and a mischievous grin. When Homer dresses him down one night, there\u2019s a vulnerability in the way Hud, dripping wet from having dunked himself and Lonnie in the water tank after a night of carousing, stares back at his father.<\/p>\n
![\"Homer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785397347_360_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Courtesy The Criterion Collection<\/p>\n
Homer (Melvyn Douglas) and Hud (Paul Newman) confront one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat turned you sour on me? Not that I give a damn,\u201d Hud asks.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust that, Hud. You don\u2019t give a damn. \u2026 You don\u2019t care about people, Hud. You don\u2019t give a damn about \u2018em. Oh, you got all that charm goin\u2019 for you, and it makes the youngsters wanna be like you. That\u2019s the shame of it, \u2018cause you don\u2019t value nothin\u2019,\u201d Homer replies.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mama loved me, but she died,\u201d Hud says.<\/p>\n
See there, how can you not feel bad for Hud? But that feeling doesn\u2019t last long, because in the very next scene, Hud is busting in on Alma in a drunken attempt to rape her, but Lonnie interrupts him and intervenes. <\/p>\n
Hud is an impatient man. He goes his own way, and he\u2019s all taking, no giving.<\/p>\n
In one of the special features on Criterion\u2019s new 4K\/Blu-ray edition<\/a> of “Hud,” actress Sally Field is interviewed about the film. Field, like Newman, worked on several films with Martin Ritt. Asked how “Hud” relates to our world in 2026, she explains, \u201cWhat ‘Hud’ is, is mean. And right now, our country is so mean. And can\u2019t find a way to heal. We\u2019re promoting brutality, and violence, and meanness \u2026 and that\u2019s what this movie is.\u201d<\/p>\n The rugged characteristics of the stereotypical Texan \u2014 maverick, individualist, powerful, looking out only for himself, if not tempered or checked by compassion and respect for others, can easily twist into that meanness we see in our society today. We\u2019ve seen it in our leaders who are praised for bravado and bluster.<\/p>\n Where does this leave Hud at the end of the film? He\u2019s alone, with nothing but a beat-up Cadillac, an empty bottle of Lone Star, and a ranch without a herd. No matter, he\u2019s going to drill, baby, drill, on the land.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n As goes Texas, so goes the rest of the country.<\/p>\n “Hud” is a brilliant masterpiece of a movie, but is Hud the definitive Texas film? Maybe so. The bigger question is, do we want it to be?<\/p>\n ‘HUD’ on 4K Blu-ray<\/p>\n “Hud” was originally shot and released on 35mm film, and has been scanned, scrubbed and restored for this stellar home video presentation by The Criterion Collection<\/a>. In addition to the best-looking version of the film on disc, the set includes a new interview with Sally Field, the very first episode of Bravo’s Inside the Actors Studio with guest Paul Newman, and an archive audio interview with director Martin Ritt, where he somewhat incredulously recounts how audiences cheered for Hud, despite the character’s many flaws. There’s also a terrific interview with cinematographer Roger Deakins about the legendary work of James Wong Howe. You can watch an excerpt, below.<\/p>\n Post script: I want to note the passing earlier this year of Robert Hinkle at age 95, who may have been one of the last living screen actors from the film, “Hud.” Hinkle was hired by Paramount Pictures as a dialogue coach for Newman and others on set, and wound up both in the film as a rodeo announcer, and behind the cameras directing the famous “hog scramble” scene. Hinkle visited with TPR audiences twice, in 2011 and 2015, to share his stories of working on “Hud” and “Giant.” You can read more here in this obituary from The Hollywood Reporter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A flat landscape at dawn, clouds nearly washed out of the sky on purpose by the Oscar-winning cinematography…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-391692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785397347_91_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n