With the sad news that one of my favourite actors, Paul Newman, has passed away at the age of 83 on Friday September 26th, 2008. My thoughts are with his family and friends now.
For the past day I have been thinking of how I would like to take the time to commemorate his great acting career by listing My Top 5 scenes in the movies I’ve loved him in.
So here we go…
FIVE
Many might want to argue with me about how good this movie actually is. But I have to give it some love as one of my most guilty of pleasures for a Scorsese film. I love this scene where Fast Eddie Felson [Paul Newman] comes back frustrated from the pool hall and gives Carmen [Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio] a lecture about how he expects her to conduct herself around him, and other strange men. It shows me how serious Eddie is taking this job of trying to groom young Vince [Tom Cruise] into the pool shark that he wants him to be. From The Color of Money (1986).
FOUR
Watching our introduction to Henry Gondorff [Paul Newman] and the conversation between him and Johnny Hooker [Robert Redford] is just comedic greatness. I love how John says “He said you could teach me something… I already know how to drink.” It sets up the great dynamic between these two con men, the young gun who wants to try the long con and the experienced artist who knows how to fool an eskimo into buying ice. The scene seeing Gondorff drunk as a coot and Hooker trying to sober him is one that I will remember forever. From The Sting (1973).
THREE
Here we see Eddie Felson [Paul Newman] in his beginnings, young and way too eager. I love the first matchup between him and Minnesota Fats [Jackie Gleason]. I love the transition as you see Fats working the hustle on the youngster who thinks he’s doing all the hustle. I think this scene resonates with me most for the film mainly because I saw this years after falling in love with the sequel, The Color of Money, and I was able to see all the similarities between Eddie in this film and Vince in the sequel. Especially to the end of the scene when Fats is done with him and he’s completely drunk and doesn’t want to stop playing, it makes me start to feel so drawn for this character and feel bad for a person who I’m not supposed to like, as he is a huslter. From The Hustler (1961).
TWO
All I’m going to preface this scene with is the quote: “Kid, the next time I say, “Let’s go someplace like Bolivia,” let’s GO someplace like Bolivia.” I love this scene so much. Butch [Paul Newman] and Sundance [Robert Redford] are put between a rock and a hard place and what do they do? They start to argue and bicker. This is one of my favourite buddy films and hands down my favourite Paul Newman movie – but doesn’t have my favourite scene – because it completely rekindled my interest in western movies. This reminds me that at the heart of all film friendships is how we disagree in how we should proceed. From Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969).
ONE
“Up on your feet. We don’t crawl here at Hudsucker Industries.” I love this scene. Norville Barnes [Tim Robbins] is being fired by Sidney J. Mussburger [Paul Newman], while Norville is running around trying to put out a fire and Sidney is trying to conduct his cutthroat style business on the phone. Personally this is one of his most hilarious roles I’ve seen Paul Newman do, but that could be the Coen Brothers influence. He even starts smoking a cigar while hanging outside a window thinking he’s going to fall because he was too cheap to pay for a double stitch pants… HILARIOUS!!!! From The Hudsucker Proxy (1994).