Wayyyy to much method acting in this film. People have mentioned in other posts that James Dean was slated for this role and I think Newman channeled Dean's spirit all the way including the hair style. But, I wanted to see Paul Newman.
I just couldn't make out what Billy the Kid's character was all about. I didn't like him or dislike him. I just didn't care and so this film is flat.
More loke over-acting than method-acting.
Few times it seemed like they jumped into an ancient Greek melodrama.
I had nothing against Paul Newman's performance in this film. Some may see it as over acting but it conveyed a sense of a child in a man's body, which Newman's Billy the Kid was.
"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not".
It showed what happens when you go against God. That was what McSween was trying to tell him. He was just too young and dumb. Paul Newman gave him character. Probably in real life Billy was just a punk.
shareIt's overdone (his performance), method or not. It's like we used to say in acting class, 'doing too much'. Newman settled down later--for instance The Hustler--and starting getting it right.
The same thing happened in Somebody Up there likes Me, Newman overdid the acting.
That's okay, he learned to do less for later films (and still show us what the character was all about).
As for James Dean, his intense style of angst came off more believable, to me, and would have worked for this part.
"Did you make coffee...? Make it!"--Cheyenne.
lots of salad dressing in this perf, eh?
The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money.-James Madison
I didn't think Newman's acting was overdone. I thought it was underdone, meaning that he wasn't able to do it at all. I never bought the character for who he was supposed to be. It simply seemed out of his range. That said, I didn't think any of the cast did a particularly good job. They were all stiff and their accents were terrible. I found the movie painful.
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