One Paragraph Movie Review: Hud

Two hundred and forty-second film: Hud, a western in which Paul Newman plays a handsome inconsiderate good-looking narcissistic attractive selfish bastard with a very good face. Set on a proper dusty Texas cattle ranch on the verge of being inherited, Newman-as-Hud (both spunks) makes life error after life error until he’s left on his own with nothing but a beer and a creaky screen door for company. There’s an awful almost-rape scene and a brutal cow slaughter scene, and everything feels just utterly authentic except for Paul Newman’s pout and cheekbones because how are they even real. In hindsight it seems like only three things happened in this movie, but I was still totally invested the whole way through, pausing to feel briefly sorry for actor-playing-Hud’s-nephew Brandon De Wilde, who in any other movie would be considered a bit of alright. Cows and ladies don’t fare magnificently, but I enjoyed this a lot regardless. Four beer/bourbon sneaky cocktails out of five.