Series directed by Ethan Hawke
Series written by Stewart Stern
Stars: (archive footage) Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Martin Scorsese, Sally Field, Dick Cavett and David Letterman
(re-enactment interviewees) George Clooney, Laura Linney, Zoe Kazan, Josh Hamilton, Barry Poltermann, Brooks Ashmanskas, Jonathan Marc Sherman, Alessandro Nivola, Karen Allen, Steve Zahn, Tom McCarthy, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Bobby Cannavale
Everyone knows about the marriage of Hollywood actors, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. This documentary lifts the veil on their fifty year marriage to let you know that everything was not sunshine and roses.
Ethan Hawke who put the documentary series together was tasked by one of the Newman daughters to bring their parent's life to light. I only knew that they were married, starred in films together and that was it.
There were some things that I didn't know. The rose colored glasses of it all. I didn't know that Paul had a wife who he was having an affair with Joanne. When Newman and Woodward got married, her star power dimmed while his was on the rise. His alcoholism. What happened to them when they got older?
It was fortuitous that family friend, Stewart Stern transcribed the interviews for Paul Newman's memoir that never came, because he burned the tapes in 1991. I felt like I knew the real people behind the mask that they shown to the public.
This documentary series is moving and poignant. Sometimes, I felt like the action would have benefited more if it was in chronological order. Hawke took the film in a Tarantino-esque trajectory that would have more emotional weight with a linear approach.
Rating: 9/10
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