Hud: Bucking the Western Film Stereotype

Hud: Bucking the Western film stereotype

Hud (1963) starring Paul Newman is a film about a man who works on his families' ranch along with his nephew Lonnie under his father Homer's direction. When the cows on the ranch become ill with foot and mouth disease, Homer must make a tough decision to kill them. The film depicts the struggle between Homer and Hud over the future of the ranch.

Thinking about popular culture imagery of Western movies evokes many thoughts in American minds: guns, cowboys, Indians, and horses. According to Wikipedia, the Western movie genre is classical Hollywood depiction of the established 19th century Western literature. Hud is truly a coming of age film for the Western genre itself. This movie uses many of the elements both described in Wikipedia and "Movie Chronicle: The Westerner" by Robert Warshow to categorize it within the realm of Western films. While this film shines as a contemporary Western movie, it displays far too many variances to be stereotyped as a simple Western.

Wikipedia states that classical Western films are generally set within the time-period of the American Wild West era of the late 19th century. The viewer quickly ascertains that Hud is clearly outside of this time frame. The filmmakers have set this work in a time of modern accoutrements, such as paved roads, automobiles, horse trailers, and transistor radios. Modern industrialism had already taken place. We do not see Indian wars, saloons or horse drawn carriages as you might in a more stereotypical Western movie.

In most cases, Western films usually have a protagonist that has had something wrong done to them in their past and they spend the story trying to overcome this through vengeance or vigilantism. The character of Hud does have a past grievance within his psyche; but instead of using that to overcome adversity, it further fuels him as the antagonist of the film. Instead of learning from the death of his brother, he simply becomes a selfish and callous character. This example illustrates the fresh approach of the filmmakers and distinguishes itself from the classic examples as described by Warshow.

Warshow explains a Western as having a melancholy man who is often forced into violence, but understanding the necessity for it. The character of Hud contradicts this example by seeking trouble, displaying traits that are aloof, oppugnant, yet charming and vain. A scene early in the film shows Hud and his nephew Lonnie being asked to watch a dead cow by his father Homer. Instead, Hud displays