Hud

Oh jeez, where do I start with this one? I recently made a list of what I consider the ten best movies of the 20^th C. Hud is in at number 10. Why? Well, I don’t know of any movie that tells a more provocative story with more brutal simplicity. Well, I guess I know nine of them, but Hud belongs on that list, in my mind, because it is so wretchedly beautiful. The events in this film are cruel truths, horrifying actually, and yet I love watching this film. The filmmaking is modest and old-fashioned, and wonderfully simple. It is cinema but it doesn’t reach for it (i.e. The Color of Money). The directing has that invisibility to it that is as rare as it is beautiful. Every character and every block in this film is meaningful, yet totally natural. Every set up is swimming in subtext and every shot is gorgeous. The true source of this film’s success (as art) is in its script, however. This archeAmerican story about cattle ranchers and oil money and family insanity and wholesome virtues gone awry is complete. Akin to The Grapes of Wrath, Hud shows a tragic America full of goodness but desperately flawed. The dialogue in this movie is as memorable as any since Casablanca ("Honey don’t go shootin’ all the dogs ‘cause one of ‘em’s got fleas" one of my favorites). Newman’s performance is as good as any of his, which means more than for most actors, and the supporting cast, Hud’s less vicious friends and enemies, are all played with a delicate authenticity, likely due to Ritt’s direction. If I had to choose a movie to forever emulate in my own coming films, I’d think long and hard about Hud. It’s so very heinous and yet so artfully made, that there are few films I hold in higher esteem. It is simple, and founded on a strong, uneditable script. Hud is a total bastard, completely reprehensible. There is nothing about him that is good, but this film, about how he affects the lives and actions of those around him, is nothing but good. This miserably sad film inspires joy in me as a viewer, tempered of course with troubled compassion for the characters in the film. This movie could be a lesson for every filmmaker because it is able to be utterly disturbing within an entirely practical human setting. ‘Affliction’ is a recent film that has a similar doom-motif of story, but ‘Hud’ is the Granddaddy of All-American Family Dysfunction Films that makes ‘American Beauty’ look like ‘You’ve Got Mail.’