1960s

Evoking the wide, flat landscape and beating sun of the American West, this rare knockout poster for the original Japanese release of revisionist Western Hud places Paul Newman center stage as the titular raffish anti-hero. A loose adaptation of Larry McMurtry's 1961 novel Horseman, Pass By, the film situated crude and arrogant young cattle rancher Hud Bannon against his moral, law-abiding father during an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in modern day Texas. A critical and commercial success on release, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning three including Best Actress for co-star Patricia Neal and Best Actor for Melvyn Douglas as ranch patriarch Homer Bannon. In a prescient indicator of the generational conflict which would characterize the counterculture of the 1960s, young audiences fell in love with Newman as the selfish, swaggering Hud. Director Martin Ritt, who had intended the outwardly charming but morally repugnant character as a caution against personal corruption in modern America, was appalled by the admiration for his anti-hero among America’s alienated youth. Later Newman posed: Hud was good with women. He did all those macho things. He wore his pants right. But we thought the fact that he was basically rotten at the core would be the distinguishable feature. What we didn’t realize was that all of the other things overwhelmed that single flaw and he came away a folk hero. We thought people would turn away from him, but apparently he was part of the American Dream.

Condition

Excellent (A-)

Unfolded, conservation backed on linen with no restoration. Backing has smoothed and diminished the most minor edge wear. Tiny surface blip to left of Newman's knee. Minor printing discrepancy to orange border on sun. Image and colours otherwise excellent.