Perhaps because the drama is so overwrought, Newman's acute underplaying is effective
Rheinhardt is his most thorough cynic: a failure at marriage and as a musician, he's become a wandering, alcoholic opportunist, so spineless and corrupt he thinks nothing of taking a job as announcer for WUSA
At lasta Newman character who's abandoned all ideals, ambitions and principles, who concentrates exclusively on surviving at all costs
He's even worse than "Hud," because he realizes his corruption but persists In fact, he uses his self-knowledge to pretend superiorityto laugh secretly at the Neo-Fascists, while working for them He acts cynically and viciously toward liberal Do-Gooders because presumably he "knows the score," although he really envies their idealism; and he rises above it all to a liquor-soaked detachment His only ability is the put-ononce the essence of Harper's charm, now exposed as the weapon of a destructive mind
Rheinhardt's first appearancehe drifts into New Orleans, unshaven, tired, defeated, brokeis like Fast Eddie's after his loss to Fats Like Eddie, he picks up a despairing, fallen woman, Geraldine (Joanne Woodward), a former hooker who, like Sarah, is physically and emotionally scarred As always, Woodward flawlessly portrays the fragile, easily hurt woman who is wary of Newman, but who ends up giving him more affection than he can return They have some tender scenes, but with her, as with everyone else, he's most1y indifferent and uninvolved
"WUSA" suffers from conversations that sound like speeches, heavy-handed direction, and a paradoxical reluctance really to meet the issues head-on
He's even worse than "Hud," because he realizes his corruption but persists In fact, he uses his self-knowledge to pretend superiorityto laugh secretly at the Neo-Fascists, while working for them He acts cynically and viciously toward liberal Do-Gooders because presumably he "knows the score," although he really envies their idealism; and he rises above it all to a liquor-soaked detachment His only ability is the put-ononce the essence of Harper's charm, now exposed as the weapon of a destructive mind
Rheinhardt's first appearancehe drifts into New Orleans, unshaven, tired, defeated, brokeis like Fast Eddie's after his loss to Fats Like Eddie, he picks up a despairing, fallen woman, Geraldine (Joanne Woodward), a former hooker who, like Sarah, is physically and emotionally scarred As always, Woodward flawlessly portrays the fragile, easily hurt woman who is wary of Newman, but who ends up giving him more affection than he can return They have some tender scenes, but with her, as with everyone else, he's most1y indifferent and uninvolved
"WUSA" suffers from conversations that sound like speeches, heavy-handed direction, and a paradoxical reluctance really to meet the issues head-on