The Lemon Fool

I watched this recently for the first time in ages and had forgotten what a great piece of work it is, even when seen on a seatback video screen during a plane flight, as was the case this time. Paul Newman is terrific, of course, and his dialogue with Patricia Neal and Melvyn Douglas (both also very good) really crackles with undertones of varying sorts. The flat, sun-baked Texas landscape is beautifully shot by James Wong Howe and plays an integral part in the film's tour de force scene, when Homer Bannon's cattle are herded into a pit and slaughtered to control the spread of disease. A great entry in the genre of revisionist Westerns.