The star of "Hud" is Paul Newman, and he plays the title character. Hud works for his father, Homer (Melvin Douglas),on the family ranch. While he's a hard worker, he's also a hard-living and amoral man. He loves to drink, carouse with married women and do what pleases him. While this is a problem, it's a much more serious problem because his young nephew, Lon (Brandon De Wilde) is impressionable and looks up to Hud. He sees Hud as a real manly sort...and Homer has a decidedly less favorable impression of his son. Just how bad is Hud and what is he capable of doing and will Lon follow him in his depravities?

While this is a slow-moving film and there isn't a lot of action, it is filled with excellent character studies. Newman clearly is in his element and is riveting, though at least equally interesting is Douglas--who does a wonderful job conveying decency and integrity. The rest are fine...but these two dominate the film and you can see why they were both Oscar-contenders. Overall, a rather adult film for its time and one I don't recommend to kids even today...but also a textbook example of fine acting.

Nominated for seven Oscars (inexplicably though not for Best Picture, when it was in a different league to the films nominated from personal opinion) and deservedly winning three (cinematography and Best Supporting Actor being especially deserving),'Hud' is still over fifty years later regarded in high esteem and no wonder.

'Hud' is powerhouse stuff, a very bold film thematically back in 1963 and has lost none of its chills, power or poignancy fifty four years later. 'Hud' still looks world-class technically, while atmospherically lit and handsomely mounted the cinematography win is one of the category's most richly deserved, can't think of any other film from that year that had cinematography so rich in atmosphere and beauty or that provoked so many stark chills and melancholic emotion.

Elmer Bernstein's score is restrained but also very haunting, while the script is sardonic and thoughtful with some of Homer's lines unforgettable in a life-affirming sense. The story is tightly paced and makes the most of seemingly black and white but actually richly and complexly drawn characters. The telling of it pulls no punches and it has none of its harrowing and poignant emotional power.

Paul Newman's performance in 'Hud' is one of his finest. It is gut-wrenching to see one of the most handsome and coolest actors in film history play a character with so few redeeming qualities and do it so powerfully. Melvyn Douglas embodies wisdom and nobility, while Patricia Neal is touching and Brandon De Wilde more than holds his own in an "observing the action" sort of role.

All in all, a powerhouse film in every sense. 10/10 Bethany Cox

As a film Hud answers the burning question of the day whether a person has to be a nice guy to be in the right. The answer is indubitably, no.

Personally I think Paul Newman has done a lot better roles than Hud Bannon, but the film certainly does have a lot of merit to it. Hud's the less favored son of Melvyn Douglas, the older son having been killed in a car crash years ago. Living on a rather large cattle ranch is Newman, Douglas, fetching housekeeper Patricia Neal and the son of that late brother Brandon DeWilde.

Two Oscars came from Hud, Best Actress for Patricia Neal and Best Supporting Actor for Melvyn Douglas. Neal is the 40 something housekeeper taking care of the aging Melvyn Douglas and even in those drab housewife outfits, Neal somehow manages to look fetching. Newman and DeWilde would like a quickie with her and if truth be told, old Melvyn wouldn't mind either. She kind of likes Newman, but his drinking, his womanizing, his total contempt for any values repels her. She's a tolerant, take life as it comes soul, but Hud proves just a bit too much to take.

But it really is Melvyn Douglas who sets the tone of the film. He's a righteous man with a set of ideas that cannot change with the times. Even with the crisis of which he brought on by buying infected Mexican cattle with hoof and mouth disease which necessitates killing the whole Bannon herd, he won't go for the oil on his land. He'd rather earn through hard work though he won't be in a position to earn anything for a few years with cattle.

Hud maybe no good, but that doesn't stop him from seeing the gross stupidity of his father's idea. And because opposition comes from the son he despises, Douglas won't concede any merit to anything Newman has to say.

In the end when he's alone, Newman gives that smirk as he closes the door. He's a sad case because while he'll be rich, he'll never have any real kind of attachments in life. He might not care now, but in years to come when he's his father's age, or his own age in real life now, they're going to be lonely like he can't conceive.

Newman got one of his many Oscar nominations, but he lost to Paris Blues co-star Sidney Poitier for Lillies of the Field.

Hud is not dated in the least and with oil in the news so much today, it has a relevance undreamed of by Paramount and director Martin Ritt in 1963.