Cool Hand Luke is a 1967 American prison drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg and starring Paul Newman and George Kennedy, who won an Academy Award for his role in the film. As Luke, a prisoner in a Florida prison camp who refuses to surrender to the system, Newman plays the main character. It is based on Donn Pearce's 1965 film Cool Hand Luke and is set in the early 1950s.

With his portrayal in Cool Hand Luke, Newman established himself as one of the most legendary cinema rebels. Newman portrays the eponymous character, a laid-back troublemaker doing a two-year sentence in a brutal Southern jail. Despite the fact that he is respected and admired by his fellow inmates, he refuses to submit to the prison's authority. Newman's magnetism carries the film, making him feel like a larger-than-life figure in the best conceivable manner. The writing is snappy and smart, and George Kennedy plays a terrific supporting part.

Detailed information:

Directed by: Stuart Rosenberg

Release date: October 31, 1967

Link to watch: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061512

Harper (also known as The Moving Target in the United Kingdom) is a 1966 American mystery film based on Ross Macdonald's 1949 novel The Moving Target, which was adapted for the screen by author William Goldman, who loved MacDonald's work. The film, directed by Jack Smight and starring Paul Newman as Lew Harper (Lew Archer in the novel), also features Robert Wagner, Julie Harris, Janet Leigh, Shelley Winters, Lauren Bacall, and Arthur Hill. Lauren Bacall, Bogart's widow, plays a devastated wife seeking for her lost husband, a role similar to General Sternwood in Bogart and Bacall's 1946 picture The Big Sleep.

Newman had the unusual ability to give individuals who were normally quite basic dimension and intrigue. Newman plays Lew Harper, a smooth private detective hired to find a wealthy woman's missing husband in Harper. The film fell short of several other well-known private detective films, but it nevertheless managed to be a fascinating adventure in its own right, according to critics. Newman was singled out for his powerful performance, and the writing was praised by William Goldman in one of his first credits.

Detailed information:

Directed by: Jack Smight

Release date: February 23, 1966

Link to watch: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060490

The Hustler is a 1961 American CinemaScope drama film directed by Robert Rossen and written by Rossen and Sidney Carroll from Walter Tevis's 1959 novel of the same name. It chronicles the narrative of "Fast Eddie" Felson, a small-time pool hustler who aspires to join the "big league" of professional hustling and high-stakes wagering that follows. In order to beat the famed pool player "Minnesota Fats," he pits his raw skill and drives against the finest player in the country.

Newman should have won his first Academy Award for his erratic portrayal as Fast Eddie Felson, daring to portray an arrogant pool shark who elevates his game to new heights while leaving behind one who loves him. They are an irresistible force beneath the lights of the darkened pool club, teamed with the devilish manager Bert, played with volcanic wrath by George C. Scott. Newman is a force of nature, at ease in the smoky, gloomy hallways where money is exchanged and lesser players are hustled. He realizes what an arrogant idiot he has been only after he has lost the one he loves. He easily defeats the Minnesota Fats without breaking a sweat, now cool and disciplined, after recovering from broken hands.

Detailed information:
Directed by: Robert Rossen
Release date: September 25, 1961
Link to watch: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054997

Paul Newman directed Sometimes a Great Notion (also known as Never Give an Inch), a 1971 American drama film starring Newman, Henry Fonda, Michael Sarrazin, and Lee Remick. Richard Jaeckel is also in the cast, and his performance has been nominated for an Academy Award. John Gay's script is based on Ken Kesey's 1964 novel of the same name, which was the first of his works to be adapted for the film. It was shot in western Oregon during the summer of 1970 and released in December 1971, more than a year later.

Though Newman's directorial career was brief, he was responsible for a number of important films that gained critical praise. Sometimes a Great Notion, in which Newman co-starred with fellow icon Henry Fonda, was one of these films. Newman and Fonda portray father and son loggers in Oregon who work independently. When the other loggers in the region go on strike, the family enrages everyone by refusing to stop working. It's a gripping family story with a lot at stake.

Detailed information:

Directed by: Paul Newman

Release date: December 17, 1971

Link to watch: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067774

Richard Brooks directed Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a 1958 American drama film. It is based on Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning drama of the same name, which was adapted by Richard Brooks and James Poe in 1955. Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Judith Anderson, Jack Carson, and Madeleine Sherwood feature in this picture.

This harrowing rendition of Tennessee Williams' play earned Newman his first Academy Award nomination. Newman plays an ex-football player who is recovering from an injury and fighting his wife's love in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Elizabeth Taylor). When his father visits town, he slips into drunken despair and reminisces about his childhood. Critics praised the film as electrifying, owing in large part to Newman and Taylor's outstanding performances. Throughout the novel, the tension in their relationship rises, providing for fascinating sequences of their back-and-forth.

Detailed information:

Directed by: Richard Brooks

Release date: August 27, 1958

Link to watch: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051459

Hombre is a 1967 American Revisionist Western film directed by Martin Ritt and starring Paul Newman, Fredric March, Richard Boone, and Diane Cilento, based on Elmore Leonard's 1961 novel of the same name. Newman has very little language throughout the picture, and most of the character is represented via his actions and mannerisms. Ritt directed Newman for the sixth and last time.

With this adventure picture based on Elmore Leonard's novel, Newman makes another breakthrough in the Western genre. Newman portrays John Russell, a man reared by Native Americans who is an outsider in the white town of Hombre. He is the only one who can save a stagecoach full of strangers when they are assaulted by bandits. Newman was a dashing and passionate hero, and the film's smart scripting set it apart from others in the category. It was one of the Westerns that helped usher in a new era of Western revisionism.

Detailed information:

Directed by: Martin Ritt

Release date: March 21, 1967

Link to watch: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061770

Nobody's Fool is a 1994 American comedy-drama film based on Richard Russo's 1993 novel of the same title. Paul Newman, Jessica Tandy, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, Dylan Walsh, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Gene Saks, Josef Sommer, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Philip Bosco feature in the film, which was written for the cinema and directed by Robert Benton. Jessica Tandy's final produced picture before her death on September 11, 1994, was Paramount's final production under its Paramount Communications ownership (which was sold to the original Viacom in July 1994).

Given how attractive and engaging Newman is off-screen, seeing him play characters with dubious moral fiber may be entertaining. Newman plays a careless and irresponsible older guy with no real links in life whose long-lost son unexpectedly reappears in his life in Nobody's Fool. The picture features a terrific ensemble, including Bruce Willis, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Melanie Griffith, and is a simple and delightful narrative. But it was the film's ability to serve as a great vehicle for one of Newman's best performances that wowed reviewers.

Detailed information:

Directed by: Robert Benton

Release date: December 23, 1994

Link to watch: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110684

The Left Handed Gun is a 1958 American Western film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Paul Newman and John Dehner as Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett, respectively. Leslie Stevens adapted the script from a teleplay by Gore Vidal for the Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse episode "The Death of Billy the Kid" from 1955, in which Newman also starred as the main character. For the 1989 television film Billy the Kid, Vidal reviewed and reworked the material.

William Bonney (Paul Newman), a drifter known as "Billy the Kid," befriends John Tunstall, a cattle boss known as "The Englishman." During the Lincoln County War, Tunstall is assassinated by unscrupulous rival cattlemen headed by the local sheriff. Bonney intends to revenge the tragedy by tracking down the perpetrators and killing them in a series of staged gunfights. His heinous deeds jeopardize his surviving pals as well as New Mexico Territory governor Lew Wallace's territorial amnesty. Pat Garrett, a longtime buddy of Billy's, becomes a sheriff and sets out to find him.

Billy's adoring buddy, Moultrie, extols Billy's deeds, resulting in a series of dime novels that elevate Bonney to mythical status. Billy is repulsed by his fictionalization and dismisses Moultrie. Moultrie, enraged, betrays Bonney to Garrett. Garrett ambushes and murders Bonney, who confronts his enemy unarmed in the hopes of terminating his own life, in a final fight.

Detailed information:

Directed by: Arthur Penn

Release date: May 7, 1958

Link to watch: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051849

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a 1969 American Western film written by William Goldman and directed by George Roy Hill. The film chronicles the story of Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and his sidekick Harry Longabaugh, the "Sundance Kid" (Robert Redford), two Wild West outlaws on the run from a strong US posse following a string of train robberies. To get away from the group, the couple and Sundance's sweetheart, Etta Place (Katharine Ross), fled to Bolivia.

While the Western genre was still alive and well at the time, great actors such as John Wayne, Butch Cassidy, and the Sundance Kid irrevocably transformed the genre. The two titular outlaws are on the lookout for their next big score while attempting to dodge the cops in this action-packed adventure flick.

Newman and Robert Redford were an instantaneously recognizable on-screen couple that viewers adored. Critics adored their chemistry as well as the film's lighthearted tone. They cited the film's light tone, comedy, and antiheroes as contributing to its status as a classic.

Detailed information:

Directed by: George Roy Hill

Release date: September 23, 1969

Link to watch: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064115

The Verdict, based on Barry Reed's 1980 novel of the same name, is a 1982 American courtroom drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and written by David Mamet. Paul Newman, Charlotte Rampling, Jack Warden, James Mason, Milo O'Shea, and Lindsay Crouse are among the cast members. In the narrative, a down-on-his-luck alcoholic lawyer joins a medical negligence lawsuit in order to better his personal condition but learns along the line that he is doing the right thing.

For this gripping courtroom drama, Newman paired together with another legendary Hollywood figure, Sidney Lumet. Newman portrays an alcoholic, washed-up lawyer in The Verdict, who is brought in to settle a major case but finds himself determined to fight for true justice. The part is tailor-made for Newman, with shades of good and bad to this complicated character that the actor has painstakingly crafted. In the perspective of many critics, Newman's acting, the crisp and incisive writing, and Lumet's taut directing created this a great courtroom thriller.

Detailed information:

Directed by: Sidney Lumet

Release date: December 8, 1982

Link to watch: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084855