For Empire's Ultimate Movie Playlist issue – on sale now, and available to order online here – we asked Hollywood to recommend must-see films in a series of expertly-curated lists, full of firm favourites and forgotten classics. Here, the legendary Ethan Hawke picks 10 must-see Paul Newman flicks.
Read all of the Ultimate Movie Playlist selections in the September 2020 issue – on sale now.
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Paul Newman – always ahead of the curve.
With so many white male idiots making us all look like turkeys with their head in the sand, I started thinking about Paul Newman.
I remember the first time I saw The Hustler. It stands revisiting. “I mean, that ever happened to you? When all of a sudden y’feel like you can’t miss…?” The cockiness, the wit, the humanity.... Piper Laurie’s limp. Some people love James Dean, some people love Brando, but Newman was real. Emotion didn’t come easy. It cost something. He didn’t manipulate. He just told the truth even if the truth is ugly and hard.
Then I saw Cool Hand Luke. It was my first experience with a ‘cops suck, the system is screwed, to hell with the man, find your own sense of pride, honour among thieves’ kinda picture. I dare you not to love Luke. “What we've got here is failure to communicate!”
As a child of Texas – Larry McMurty’s Hud is a classic. The photography, the landscape and Paul! Treat yourself. This movie is trouble – in a good way.
Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid. Yeah, it’s Hollywood. But there’s a reason Hollywood is famous.
Buffalo Bill And The Indians, Or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson. This is a major work of art. Robert Altman is firing on all cylinders. Made right after Nashville. This is movie is a badass fierce indictment of the white American male – and his unbelievable strength, courage and particular genius at lying to himself and others. The movie was released in 1976 – the bicentennial. Guess what? Everyone hated it (everyone in America that is.... it won Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival). The scene between President Garfield and Sitting Bull is staggering.
The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean. This is John Huston and Paul Newman’s F*CK YOU to the phoniness of the Hollywood Western and even Paul’s movie star image. It’s full-blown nuts. Have a six-pack, FaceTime a pal, and laugh you ass off. Watch Newman get hammered with a bear! I’m glad to live in a world where someone once had the guts to make a film this nuts. Watch for Stacy Keach as Bad Bob.
Slap Shot, written by Nancy Dowd – a feminist tirade about the utter selfishness of men and their chronic stupidity. It’s funny, stupid, arrogant, brash, pig-headed and kinda brilliant. Along with Buffalo Bill and Roy Bean, Slapshot is a film Paul used to crack the ‘Paul Newman’ mask.
Nobody’s Fool is Newman’s grace note. It’s a ravishing kiss goodbye.
So many films worth revisiting. Paris Blues with Sidney Poitier (with whom in 1963 he would start a production company).
Newman and Forest Whittaker in Scorsese’s Color Of Money is one of the best scenes ever.
Shit, I forgot The Verdict. There’s too many to mention.
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Also inside the Ultimate Movie Preview issue: Action aficionados Edgar Wright and Gareth Evans on their favourite Jackie Chan flicks, horror hitmaker Mike Flanagan on the spookiest haunted house films, the legendary Sandy Powell on her favourite screen costumes, Richard Kelly’s personal pick of the most mind-bending movies, the Duffer Brothers on the films that changed their lives, Paul Feig and Henry Golding’s greatest Brit-flicks, Delroy Lindo on the movies that moved him, Joe Dante and John Landis on the greatest (and hairiest) werewolf horrors, Nicole Holofcener on the films that always make her cry, Christopher McQuarrie’s pick of the heist genre, Drew Pearce on musicians in movies, Corin Hardy’s pick of crime thrillers, Jack Reynor’s lockdown watch-list, Noel Clarke on the international films that inspired him, and much, much more.
Find the issue on shelves now, or order a copy online with free UK postage here.