PAUL NEWMAN: "NOBODY CAN EAT 50 EGGS"

At the time of this writing, Paul Newman died today at the age of 83. Another icon out the window. First George Carlin, now Newman. Not quite as disappointing a passage; the man was 83 and working right up to the end.

While Carlin was an artist that had some direct influence on my life, like the way he approached comedy, the fact that someone from the "counter culture" could succeed in the mainstream, Newman was simply an actor I admired. There was something of the anti-hero about him, a contrast to the John Wayne character I grew up with (and I love John Wayne) and that was very appealing to me as I grew up in the sixties. Fast Eddie Felson in The Hustler was one of his iconic characters and although I think this is a good movie it is not one of my personal favorites, I actually the sequel, Color of Money, much more. Paul Newman as Hud, was perhaps his first role that really jumped out as something different.

Here was this big star, this gorgeous leading man with a great sense of humour and brother, Hud was a bad, bad man. Rebellious to the point of being anti social. Anti social to the point of being pathological. Newman held nothing back from this portrayal; one moment Hud was charming and entertainingly bad boyish and the next moment just plain mean. Hud the movie is not a breezy entertainment, it is, in parts a tough movie and Newman's performance holds it together, he is just compelling.

A good movie to illustrate the "against the grain" that Newman brings to a movie is Harper.

Harper is a private eye movie from the 60's based on the Lew Archer series of novels. These are pretty solid, straight ahead stories but Newman brings this great "what the fuck attitude" to the role, like he had this great smirk almost hidden that derided the entire private eye structure and it worked perfectly for the time. He was equally good in the sequel, The Drowning Pool where he would just throw away lines with this incredible nonchalance. At one point, Harper tells a cop that his day rate is 500 bucks. "That's good money" says the cop and Newman replies with this little shrug "Not if you work 5 days a year"

Whereas the two Harper movies showed Newman's kick the establishment side, Hombre puts him back in Hud mode. Newman made a lot of good westerns, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a classic, but Hombre may be my favorite.

A straight forward western suspense tale about a stagecoach full of people being held hostage by a bad guy, Newman's performance gives it some extra weight. His character, half Apache half white, is a man entirely disassociated from mainstream culture. He's turned his back on the white world and really doesn't give a rat's ass about what happens to his white companions. He is the perfect anti hero here, a reluctant hero who takes a leadership role quite against his will.

But let's face it, there really is one home run, define the rest of it, Paul Newman anti hero counter culture stance. And I am talking about not only my favorite Newman movie but one of my top ten movies of all time. Cool Hand Luke.

This is it, isn't it? One of the most iconic movies of the 60's that still stands up today. Good Ole Luke, a guy who ends up on a chain gain for the cutting the tops off of parking meters and ends up being shot inside a rainy church in the deep south. Luke is cool. Cool to the point of personal retreat. Luke may have been the first slacker, except he was way smarter and took better care of his body. There is some Hud here, the man not in touch with his feelings and some of Harper, the bad boy smirk too cool to care. I have watched the movie at least a dozen times, and I never tire of it. I am bound to quote this movie at any time, for no particular reason. "Luke, nobody can eat 50 eggs" is one of my faves and it just pops out apparently out of context but for me, it just means: Fuck, do it, even if you know you don't have a hope in Hell of succeeding, just do it.

Some of my favorite later Newman movies works more for his intelligence, maybe, than that rebel 'tube.

Nobody's Fool from 1992 is a great movie because it tells a simple story without a lot of drama and Newman's character is his bad boy at the end maybe; the man who had spent a great deal of his live alienating everyone around and ends up on the verge of being alone ... but he doesn't want to be alone and he struggles with how he can regain those connections with his family.

This movie Twilight from 1998 puts Newman back in private eye mode. This is Harper, older, more beat up, almost burned out .. and even more cynical. This is Nobody's Fool with a gun in his hand but instead of seeing redemption, he sees good people doing bad stuff for some pretty shallow reasons. Great hard boiled stuff. The final scene between Newman and James Garner is as low keyed and suspenseful as you'd ever want to get.

Then we have Road to Perdition. Newman in a small role here, and one where he is as about as stripped down and cold and cynical as any he ever played.

I love the scene in this movie between Newman and Tom Hanks, where they are playing the piano together; in just those few seconds we learn everything we need to know about the relationship between these two men, and I think most of that silent telling comes from Newman.

There are a lot of other great Newman movies of course, including The Sting and The Verdict but I just wanted to concentrate on these few that touched something in me. If Newman had only made Cool Hand Luke he would still be one of my favorite actors. The fact that he made so many more means that even though he has passed, he will be hanging around in our minds for a long time to come.