From Paul Newman’s days on the Warner Brothers lot taking on movies meant for James Dean, to his establishment as a great actor throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s with films like “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “The Hustler,” he was already an established star by the time 1971 rolled around. Fifty years ago, Newman was named the biggest box office draw in the country by the Top Money Making Stars Poll.
I decided to watch three of his most famous movies of the era to get a better understanding on his full appeal: 1967’s “Cool Hand Luke,” 1969’s “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and 1973’s “The Sting.” After watching all three of them, the popularity of his films in the Vietnam War-era made all the more sense.
Newman consistently played rebels against society; he was a prisoner in 1967, a cowboy in 1969 and a conman in 1973. In all of these roles, he showed a great contempt for authority, going head to head with law enforcement.
All of his performances are great (he’s a product of the acclaimed Yale School of Drama), but his performance in “Cool Hand Luke” is probably the best of the three. There is one scene where he is boxing one of his fellow prisoners, played by George Kennedy, and keeps on getting beaten up due to him not throwing any real punches throughout the fight. Still, he gets up after every punch, to the point where Kennedy has to walk away from him. It showed how he was not going to run away from any fight that was given to him; but that he was also admittedly stubborn, which was cool to see in a movie star from that era. Here was an actor who was willing to take on roles that did not portray himself as perfect.
In both “Butch Cassidy” and “The Sting,” Newman plays a cunning outlaw who worked with and mentored a young Robert Redford. While both roles are so similar, this duo was able to make them feel so different from each other. In “Butch Cassidy,” the heroes are on the run most of the film and go out in a blaze of glory in a entertaining gunfight. In “The Sting,” they are tricking the law and others straight to their face, conning them into a huge steal of money.
All three are very anti-authority in presentation and execution, and with all of the political turmoil that had happened in the 1960s and 1970s, they were also huge successes.
Paul Newman made films that were fun to watch, but maintained that political message and anti-authority slant. He made the films he wanted to make, and after the studio-era ended, he did what he wanted to do. He, along with the likes of Sidney Poitier and Clint Eastwood, are examples of actors who were able to break from the studios and become legends in their own rights.
These three films showed why Newman was the definitive actor in Hollywood when The Good Five Cent Cigar was just getting its start.