Cinema: What the H

Hombre. Paul Newman has recently displayed a penchant for movies beginning with H—The Hustler, Hud, Harper. In Hombre, the H is silent and so, almost, is the star. With a voice that only on occasion rises to a monotone, he grunts his unrelenting hatred of the world. Caucasian by birth but raised by Indians—possibly the cigar-store kind, judging by the immobility of his features —he has suffered at the hands of both. One white man who has certainly made him suffer is Martin Ritt, the film's director.

Riding south with a wagonload of symbolic...