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Fending off Vertigo & Review of the Newman/Woodward Documentary
Well, the Meclizine is kind of helping? No nausea. But still feel out off-balance. I'm fine, if I sit straight without moving my head too much - particularly not up or down. Side to side is fine. It's still congested. And the weather shift make it worse.
Because I was home sick today and couldn't do anything but watch television, I finished the Newman/Woodward Documentary airing on HBO Max (And according to my Aunt, on Amazon Prime). A couple of caveats? This is neither a memoir nor a biography in the traditional sense of the word, so viewers going into it with the expectations of getting what we'd normally get in either - will be sorely disappointed. The documentary doesn't start with either's childhood for example - it starts with Ethan Hawk on Zoom telling a bunch of his contemporaries that he's been tasked with this project, and requires their help in accomplishing it. He tells them that Newman dictated all these tapes to his friend, then for some unknown reason, destroyed them. But his friend had already transcribed all the tapes prior to their destruction. Then the documentary launches into Newman and Woodward's first major roles and introduction into acting and how they originally met. It's worth keeping in mind that this is documentary done by an actor and director, who was hired by Newmans' kids to do it, and enlists fellow actors and directors to aid him.
What it is not about is Paul Newman's childhood, parents, siblings, and anything prior to his acting career, or for that matter Woodwards, or their kids. Their early lives pre-acting and pre-each other are briefly glossed over and in perfunctory manner like quick blink and you miss them bullet points. And interspersed at various intervals in a blink and you missed it - kind of way. (Only things I remember about Newman's are: his father died when he was 22, his mother bullied him into taking over the family business (his older brother somehow escaped, don't quite remember how - except that he was unavailable and not around and the half-siblings were too young, also half-siblings..). And he enlisted in WWII and was a radioman. Also that he escaped the family store to study acting at Yale, which his mother never forgave him for. He didn't like his mother very much.) They do spend some time on Newman's service in WWII, but not a lot (clips from some War film Newman was in - and they don't tell me what it is - so I was a little distracted?), and a little on Joanne's in the Georgia with her mother, and sisters, prior to moving to New Jersey. (Don't ask me what it was because I was distracted during this portion with the film clips they were using to show Joanne's home life - which were from the godawful film Sound and the Fury, where Woodward played Caddy. And actually takes place in Mississippi not Georgia. So I kept losing track of the narrative. I may have to watch again.) Granted you can get all of that information elsewhere.
Actually? I looked it up and my Mother was right - a book was published post-humously in 2022, several years after Newman died in 2008. he Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir Hardcover – Deckle Edge, October 18, 2022 by Paul Newman (Author), David Rosenthal (Editor), Clea Newman Soderlund (Afterword), et al
So, if you want that level of detail - maybe read the book? Because you will not get it in this documentary. This is not your run of the mill biography folks. Which I actually found to be a pleasant surprise, but your mileage may vary? [Although I don't know how much detail they went into in the book? Newmans were very private. And the same restrictions may have applied there? I honestly think Hawk was given some clear boundaries on what to do - and then given the freedom to have fun within those boundaries, at least that was my impression from watching it.]
The documentary doesn't really use old pictures and family footage (it's there but not all that much of it), so much as film footage. It goes into detailed analysis of the films, and often uses the films to express bits and pieces of the actors lives, their personal conflicts, and inner demons.
Being an actor himself, Hawk takes the perspective that an actor reveals who they are on screen, raw and unvarnished. And is, being an actor and filmmaker, more interested in the craft and the difficulty of having a relationship and family alongside it, then the lives of his subjects.
That said, I found it to be a moving and entertaining ride, perhaps more so because if veered way off the traditional route. And I enjoy watching and listening to actors and directors at the height of their craft, with vast amounts of experience behind them, discussing those who proceeded them, they worked with, and admire. Martin Scorsese discusses doing Color of Money with Newman, George Roy Hill discusses doing Butch and Sundance, along with various other films, James Ivory discusses Mr and Mrs. Bridge, Sally Field discusses Sybil, Sydney Lumet discusses the Verdict...and oh, yes, the director of Cool Hand Luke discusses doing Cool Hand Luke.
The final episode almost had me in tears. On screen there's footage of Mrs Bridge (Joanne Woodward is playing older woman) stuck in a snowed in car in her garage unable to get out, asking if anybody is there and Mr. Bridge (a older man played by Paul Newman) buying her a dozen red roses in a store. [This is the last film they did together out of sixteen, in 1990]. And the words that appear on the screen are: Paul Newman was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007, and Joanne Woodward was diagnosed with Alzheimers in 2007. The diagnosis happened just days before her husband, Paul Newman, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Newman died in 2008.
The last two episodes focus heavily on their philanthropy work, and the Hole in the Wall Gang, with David Letterman interviewed - and he explains how he was amazed by it. It's the center for children diagnose with leukemia and aids, and now other ailments that are terminal, to play and and be taken care of in an environment that's not like a hospital. And on their lives with the grandchildren.
We're also told at the beginning and at the end that Paul Newman started doing audio tapes about his life, and interviewed all these people, only to burn the tapes. At the end, we know why. Well, we're not told directly. It's implied. In a way it's kind of the mystery of the piece, why did he do all those tapes only to burn them later? And why did his daughter decide to take the transcripts and with her siblings and neices and nephews and kids decide to hire Hawk to do a documentary on her parents lives, and release the memoir on Newman?
I think the answer lies in what they tell us in the last episode. Newman started doing the tapes in the 1980s, in 1991, he stopped, stating he'd grown bored of talking about Paul Newman, in 1998, while driving to the beach with his daughter Clea, he burned the tapes on the beach. What also happened around that time? His daughter was going through a rough period and went into counseling. Newman was terrified of losing her. When she asked him to do counseling with her - he agreed and did two hour sessions for several years, leaving sets, work, etc to do so. And this began in 1991. Then he asked if he could continue therapy alone with her therapist and if that would be okay. That was most of the 1990s.
I can see why he burned the tapes, and stopped the memoir. And I can see why, after watching the documentary, his daughter and friend, Stern, chose to show it to the world.
We often don't see ourselves as others do.
When asked if she loved Newman when she first met him and married him, Woodward states "no, not then. I didn't know what love was back then, I didn't even know who he was. I was enamored of him. I was in lust, yes. But not love. And he didn't love me then. We didn't know who we were yet."
At the end, this documentary is a documentary of the Woodward and Newman relationship to each other, their kids, and their professions and the effect it had on those around them. It's not a memoir or a biography.
Because I was home sick today and couldn't do anything but watch television, I finished the Newman/Woodward Documentary airing on HBO Max (And according to my Aunt, on Amazon Prime). A couple of caveats? This is neither a memoir nor a biography in the traditional sense of the word, so viewers going into it with the expectations of getting what we'd normally get in either - will be sorely disappointed. The documentary doesn't start with either's childhood for example - it starts with Ethan Hawk on Zoom telling a bunch of his contemporaries that he's been tasked with this project, and requires their help in accomplishing it. He tells them that Newman dictated all these tapes to his friend, then for some unknown reason, destroyed them. But his friend had already transcribed all the tapes prior to their destruction. Then the documentary launches into Newman and Woodward's first major roles and introduction into acting and how they originally met. It's worth keeping in mind that this is documentary done by an actor and director, who was hired by Newmans' kids to do it, and enlists fellow actors and directors to aid him.
What it is not about is Paul Newman's childhood, parents, siblings, and anything prior to his acting career, or for that matter Woodwards, or their kids. Their early lives pre-acting and pre-each other are briefly glossed over and in perfunctory manner like quick blink and you miss them bullet points. And interspersed at various intervals in a blink and you missed it - kind of way. (Only things I remember about Newman's are: his father died when he was 22, his mother bullied him into taking over the family business (his older brother somehow escaped, don't quite remember how - except that he was unavailable and not around and the half-siblings were too young, also half-siblings..). And he enlisted in WWII and was a radioman. Also that he escaped the family store to study acting at Yale, which his mother never forgave him for. He didn't like his mother very much.) They do spend some time on Newman's service in WWII, but not a lot (clips from some War film Newman was in - and they don't tell me what it is - so I was a little distracted?), and a little on Joanne's in the Georgia with her mother, and sisters, prior to moving to New Jersey. (Don't ask me what it was because I was distracted during this portion with the film clips they were using to show Joanne's home life - which were from the godawful film Sound and the Fury, where Woodward played Caddy. And actually takes place in Mississippi not Georgia. So I kept losing track of the narrative. I may have to watch again.) Granted you can get all of that information elsewhere.
Actually? I looked it up and my Mother was right - a book was published post-humously in 2022, several years after Newman died in 2008. he Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir Hardcover – Deckle Edge, October 18, 2022 by Paul Newman (Author), David Rosenthal (Editor), Clea Newman Soderlund (Afterword), et al
So, if you want that level of detail - maybe read the book? Because you will not get it in this documentary. This is not your run of the mill biography folks. Which I actually found to be a pleasant surprise, but your mileage may vary? [Although I don't know how much detail they went into in the book? Newmans were very private. And the same restrictions may have applied there? I honestly think Hawk was given some clear boundaries on what to do - and then given the freedom to have fun within those boundaries, at least that was my impression from watching it.]
The documentary doesn't really use old pictures and family footage (it's there but not all that much of it), so much as film footage. It goes into detailed analysis of the films, and often uses the films to express bits and pieces of the actors lives, their personal conflicts, and inner demons.
Being an actor himself, Hawk takes the perspective that an actor reveals who they are on screen, raw and unvarnished. And is, being an actor and filmmaker, more interested in the craft and the difficulty of having a relationship and family alongside it, then the lives of his subjects.
That said, I found it to be a moving and entertaining ride, perhaps more so because if veered way off the traditional route. And I enjoy watching and listening to actors and directors at the height of their craft, with vast amounts of experience behind them, discussing those who proceeded them, they worked with, and admire. Martin Scorsese discusses doing Color of Money with Newman, George Roy Hill discusses doing Butch and Sundance, along with various other films, James Ivory discusses Mr and Mrs. Bridge, Sally Field discusses Sybil, Sydney Lumet discusses the Verdict...and oh, yes, the director of Cool Hand Luke discusses doing Cool Hand Luke.
The final episode almost had me in tears. On screen there's footage of Mrs Bridge (Joanne Woodward is playing older woman) stuck in a snowed in car in her garage unable to get out, asking if anybody is there and Mr. Bridge (a older man played by Paul Newman) buying her a dozen red roses in a store. [This is the last film they did together out of sixteen, in 1990]. And the words that appear on the screen are: Paul Newman was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007, and Joanne Woodward was diagnosed with Alzheimers in 2007. The diagnosis happened just days before her husband, Paul Newman, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Newman died in 2008.
The last two episodes focus heavily on their philanthropy work, and the Hole in the Wall Gang, with David Letterman interviewed - and he explains how he was amazed by it. It's the center for children diagnose with leukemia and aids, and now other ailments that are terminal, to play and and be taken care of in an environment that's not like a hospital. And on their lives with the grandchildren.
We're also told at the beginning and at the end that Paul Newman started doing audio tapes about his life, and interviewed all these people, only to burn the tapes. At the end, we know why. Well, we're not told directly. It's implied. In a way it's kind of the mystery of the piece, why did he do all those tapes only to burn them later? And why did his daughter decide to take the transcripts and with her siblings and neices and nephews and kids decide to hire Hawk to do a documentary on her parents lives, and release the memoir on Newman?
I think the answer lies in what they tell us in the last episode. Newman started doing the tapes in the 1980s, in 1991, he stopped, stating he'd grown bored of talking about Paul Newman, in 1998, while driving to the beach with his daughter Clea, he burned the tapes on the beach. What also happened around that time? His daughter was going through a rough period and went into counseling. Newman was terrified of losing her. When she asked him to do counseling with her - he agreed and did two hour sessions for several years, leaving sets, work, etc to do so. And this began in 1991. Then he asked if he could continue therapy alone with her therapist and if that would be okay. That was most of the 1990s.
I can see why he burned the tapes, and stopped the memoir. And I can see why, after watching the documentary, his daughter and friend, Stern, chose to show it to the world.
We often don't see ourselves as others do.
When asked if she loved Newman when she first met him and married him, Woodward states "no, not then. I didn't know what love was back then, I didn't even know who he was. I was enamored of him. I was in lust, yes. But not love. And he didn't love me then. We didn't know who we were yet."
At the end, this documentary is a documentary of the Woodward and Newman relationship to each other, their kids, and their professions and the effect it had on those around them. It's not a memoir or a biography.