Movie #2147 ........................."The Last of the Movie Stars" (HBO Limited Series)

Movie #2147 "The last of the Movie Stars" (HBO Limited Series)  I have always been a fan of both of these movie stars, so I checked into this series, but I have to admit, I only saw 4 of the episodes.  I am not a fan of long documentaries that take a while to get to a point ----- and this one tests the theory, for sure.  I went longer than I thought, I guess because I was waiting for a disc of "Cool Hand Luke" (which occurs in episode 2) .  That was when I learned that the director Stuart Rosenberg wanted Paul Newman to sing something to react to his mom's death.  It's a good story as to how that scene was done.  Anyway, this is an unusual documentary because it is loosely organized --- Ethan Hawke got the go ahead to put it together and evidently Newman had prepped for someone to do this on his life with Joanne, so he had tons of cassettes --- audio comments on the films and himself and Joanne, and their relatives, and the kids, etc.  So Ethan was overwhelmed with info and didn't know what to do with it, so he decided to cast all the voices because some of the cassettes were incoherent --- so like Laura Linney plays Joanne and George Clooney plays Paul Newman throughout the series.  To me it was a big jumble --- I would try to figure out who was speaking and by that time, I missed what that person would say --- hard to follow, generally.  But very creative --- perhaps, if it had less people, and a more definite focus --- he titles each of the episodes, but maybe it's just me, but I didn't see an obvious overall focus in each one ---and there was a lot of repetition --- yes, the Newmans were very different --- yes, Paul was more famous than she was, even though right out of the gate she won an academy award and known to be the better actor of the two for a long time --- yet, she's the one that kept the family together and sacrificed her acting career to care for the family; probably for that reason he would direct her in a few films to keep her juices going.  The doc points out over and over that they worked differently, they played differently, but their relationship worked --- The four episodes were good, but I felt I had seen enough, and like I said, "Cool Hand Luke" fans might enjoy that particular discussion, and the ones on George Roy Hill films ("Butch & the Kid," and "Sting).  All of my very favorites!  I'd give this 3.5 out of 5.

"LAST OF THE MOVIE STARS"      T.V. SERIES ON HBO     2022     59 minute episodes (6 of them)

Follows a celebration of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman's lives

.Ethan Hawke , director