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When people discuss the best actors of all time, Paul Newman definitely enters the conversation. Alongside Michael Caine, Jack Nicholson, and Lawrence Olivier, he is one of four actors to be nominated for an Academy Award in five different decades. He has a deep filmography with some of the most iconic films in American history including The Verdict, The Color of Money, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Hustler, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Outside of his acting career, he had a robust racing career and far-reaching philanthropic work. All of that said, his marriage to frequent costar and acclaimed actress in her own right, Joanne Woodward was kept mostly out of the public eye. The Last Movie Stars, Ethan Hawke’s docuseries about their lives, dives deep on the topic and gives an in-depth look at their careers and personal lives.
The docuseries focuses mostly on how the careers of Woodward and Newman paralleled events that were happening in their marriage. Beyond just the usual interviews one would expect from their children and other people familiar with the couple, Paul Newman himself recorded conversations with friends, family, costars, and other people in his life. He ended up abandoning the project and destroying the tapes, however transcripts of the conversations still exist. These conversations are brought back to life through recreations by actors like George Clooney and Laura Linney who take on the roles of Newman and Woodward respectively. This provides for the deepest look yet at their marriage, telling stories that were never made public before.
The celebrity guests throughout the docuseries add a lot to the narrative without being distracting. Beyond just serving as director, Ethan Hawke serves as a sort of guide for the viewer and facilitator for the plethora of guests. Beyond those reenacting the transcripts of the conversations, he has conversations with actors like Sam Rockwell (Iron Man 2 and Vice
among many others), Vincent D’Onofrio (Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Daredevil, and Full Metal Jacket), Zoe Kazan (Ruby Sparks, and the upcoming She Said), and his daughter Maya Hawke (Stranger Things) about topics ranging from acting methodology to the impact of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
When it comes to the quality of the video and sound, there is a slight issue for viewers who will bump into pandemic-era filmmaking where everyone involved is coming in via a Zoom call to record the audio. As people moved deeper into the pandemic and more money was going towards recording things in this manner, there were better microphones and webcams made available, however it seems this was shot relatively early pandemic because there is a number of lighting issues and video and audio quality issues (the audio quality is consistent in so much as a viewer will not have to adjust their volume while watching, however the way it sounds varies depending on who is speaking because the microphones are all different) that may be cumbersome for viewers.
All that said, this documentary should definitely be watched by anyone who considers themselves a fan of old Hollywood and celebrating the lives and legacies of two of the most influential actors to star in films. The Last Movie Stars was originally planned to be programmed on the now defunct CNN+, however since then it has relocated to HBOMax with all six parts coming out on July 21st. It is not the fault of the show, but this docuseries would have definitely benefitted from the weekly release model over the binge release model because it is a lot for someone to sit down and watch all the way through.
Final Rating: 8/10
