Hud Bannon is a ruthless young man who tarnishes everything and everyone he touches. Hud represents the perfect embodiment of alienated youth, out for kicks with no regard for the consequences. There is bitter conflict between the callous Hud and his stern and highly principled father, Homer. Hud's nephew Lon admires Hud's cheating ways, though he soon becomes too aware of Hud's reckless amorality to bear him anymore. In the world of the takers and the taken, Hud is a winner. He's a cheat, but, he explains, "I always say the law was meant to be interpreted in a lenient manner."
Acting
Newman weaponizes his own charisma against you.
Cinematography
Harsh monochrome that makes Texas feel like purgatory.
Writing
Dialogue so sharp it'll leave marks.
Director
Martin Ritt
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Patricia Neal had a massive stroke two years later at 39; her comeback in 'The Subject Was Roses' mirrored the resilience she brought to Alma.
This was Larry McMurtry's first adapted novel—he later called Hud 'the beginning of the anti-Western' that would reshape American mythology.
US
