7 minute read
‘The Last Movie Stars’ — Newman and Woodward
from Sunday Signal 073122
by Signal
ENTERTAINMENT
Hawke ‘Masterfully Executes’ Newman and Woodward Doc
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By Richard Roeper
Signal Contributing Writer
1/2 (out of four) A six-part documentary series available Thursday on HBO Max.
The first flickering images we see in the enthralling six-part HBO Max documentary series “The Last Movie Stars” are of Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy and Robert Redford as the Sundance Kid, riding across the lonely plains. We then hear the voice of actor Ethan Hawke, who directed this passion project, reminiscing about his youth:
“Growing up in Fort Worth, Texas, Sundays meant church. … One hot [day], my stepmother didn’t feel well, and she said she was going to stay home. We’re driving down the highway and my father says, ‘You know, there’s a cowboy picture playing at 11:15, we could go see that instead.’ My father took me to see ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,’ and from that day forward, the movies have been my church of choice.”
You get an almost visceral appreciation for Hawke’s unbridled and infectious love of movies and his undying passion for chronicling the life and times of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, the subjects of this brilliantly conceived, masterfully executed, admirably honest and consistently revealing series. When we see Hawke on camera, he’s like a kid on Christmas morning as he gushes about this particular performance or that particular movie.
“The Last Movie Stars” is filled with great old TV interviews and clips from Newman’s and Woodward’s most memorable performances (and it’s so great that Hawke allows certain scenes to play out and BREATHE, instead of delivering too-short morsels), and we glean some great insights from Hawke’s interviews with Paul’s daughters — but the real treasure, the real find, is the discovery of boxes of transcripts from Newman’s unpublished autobiography, with Hawke finding the perfect way to bring those interviews and conversations to life.
Turns out Newman was working on a book with the screenwriter StewTV shows together, and they were married for a half-century — but it wasn’t all fairy tales and glossy magazine covers. Newman was married to Witte and they had three young children when he began seeing Woodward — a romance that went on for years before Newman finally divorced Jackie and eventually married Joanne. Newman had a total of six children and, in his own words, was often an absentee father who drank a lot.
The series also reminds us that for a time, Woodward was at least as big a star as Newman, winning the Academy Award for best actress of 1957 for “The Three Faces of Eve.” She was the more talented Method actor of the two. Newman found himself getting cast for his looks and considered to be second fiddle to the likes of James Dean and Marlon Brando in terms of pure talent. Woodward’s career ebbed and flowed as she devoted much of her time to raising her three children and stepchildren, while New-
man became the biggest movie star in the world, with a series of great performances in films such as “The Hustler,” “Hud,” “Cool Hand Luke,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “The Sting.” Still, even after Newman was an established icon, there was a feeling he sometimes held back on the big screen. He was nominated for best actor for “Absence of Malice” in 1981, but when the director Sidney Lumet cast Newman in “The Verdict,” he told Newman he thought his “Malice” Laemmle Theatres • Santa Clarita Signal performance was phoned-in, and he 3col (4.75”) x 5.9” challenged Newman to dig deep and reveal himself in the part of the alcoAd insertion date: holic attorney Frank Galvin in “The Ad creation/delivery date: Verdict.” The result was arguably the finest and most compelling performance of Paul Newman’s career. “The Last Movie Stars” is brimming with these types of fascinating glimpses throughout. It’s a great documentary series about two great stars. Copyright 2022 Chicago Sun-Times
Tuesday, July 26, 2022 at 10:44:31 AM CASCS _ LEM0731-0804.qxp
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