Hud

TICKETS

Hud, which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, was a critical and commercial success at its general release. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning three: Patricia Neal won Best Actress, Melvyn Douglas won Best Supporting Actor, and James Wong Howe won for Best Black and White Cinematography. Howe's use of contrast to create space and his selection of black-and-white was acclaimed by critics. In 2018, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” 

Based on McMurtry’s novel Horseman Pass By, Hud is a 1963 American Western drama film directed by Martin Ritt and starring Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Brandon de Wilde, and Patricia Neal. Hud was filmed on location in the plaintive nether regions of the Texas Panhandle and was one of the first revisionist Westerns, choosing to showcase an antihero rather than the typical triumphalist. 

The film centers on the ongoing conflict between principled patriarch Homer Bannon and his unscrupulous and arrogant son, Hud, during an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease that put the family's cattle ranch at risk. Lonnie, Homer's grandson and Hud's nephew, is caught in the conflict and forced to choose which character to follow.

Join us this August as we pay tribute to the acclaimed novelist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry, Texas’s most famous literary and cinematic son, who passed away in March 2020. Through his books, screenplays, and the films adapted from his books, some feel that McMurtry, more than anyone else, shaped the way that the world sees Texas. 

Guest host and McMurtry devotee Bud Kennedy of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram will kick off our exploration of McMurtry’s cinematic works, including Hud, The Last Picture Show, Texasville, and Lonesome Dove. Film scholar and SXSW co-founder Louis Black will join remotely. 

McMurtry grew up on a ranch in North Texas with only an oral tradition of storytelling, never seeing a book until he was six years old. His stories jumped through many media—print, film, television—and in each he excelled, garnering 13 Oscars, 7 Emmys, and a Pulitzer in 1985 for his novel Lonesome Dove. 

It has been said that what the South was to William Faulkner, Texas was to Larry McMurtry. His passion for the land and people made it impossible for him to fully inhabit the self-proclaimed role of "western revisionist." Even when he depicts Texas at its worst, he only makes you love it, and him, more.

Screenings will be held in the Modern’s auditorium. Tickets are $10, $8 for Modern members, $7 for Modern Reel People members.  

A Tribute to Larry McMurtry Schedule:

Lonesome Dove
July 31, Part I noon & Part II 2 pm
August 1, Part III & IV 4:30 pm

Hud
August 7, 2 pm

The Last Picture Show/50th Anniversary 
August 14, 2 pm

Texasville
August 15, 4:30 pm