The Kindest Face – Some Thoughts on Paul Newman

posted by Gareth Higgins

Gareth here.   When a movie star dies, there’s always a strange mix of responses from people – like your genial co-hosts – who never met the person.  But in some mysterious sense it may be appropriate to say that we knew them – especially if we saw them on an enveloping cinema screen when we were children; when movies seemed like giants, and the realms of possibility that they held out were endless.  We go to movies to be entertained, provoked, inspired, moved, comforted, excited, and that’s just for starters.  We develop something like a relationship with the archetypes on screen.  They teach us something, because they remind us of ourselves.  We may not know what the lesson is that is being taught, but we know it would be worth paying attention to if we could.  In that light, I think it is appropriate today to mark the passing of Paul Newman by listing the names of films in which his presence made me think I wanted to be in the room with him – just to be around someone so interesting, so beguiling, and with such a kind face:

The Hustler

Cool Hand Luke

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

The Sting

Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson

Absence of Malice

The Color of Money

The Hudsucker Proxy

Twilight

Where the Money Is

Cars.

There’s a story I’ll tell on the next episode of TFT about his humanitarian work, but for now, I raise a bottle of salad dressing to the memory of this man whom I never met, but whose face and voice have been an ineradicable part of my cinematic formation.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 27th, 2008 at 2:51 pm. It is filed under Blog, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.