This week, a new six-part documentary was released on HBO Max telling the stories of the most legendary power couple in Hollywood history: Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
This epic is called The Last Movie Stars and is directed by fellow movie star Ethan Hawke. For watch nerds, this is no ordinary piece of filmmaking. Paul Newman can be seen wearing the high quality Rolex replica watches that’s taken his name in personal footage throughout the film that’s one part conventional doc, one part film criticism, and one part snapshot of our lives today. Warning: Some spoilers ahead – but only if you believe there’s such thing as spoiling a documentary about events that already happened.
Why We’re Watching
The Last Movie Stars hit the streaming platform just yesterday and is now raking in critical success. And I must join the critics out there in applauding Ethan Hawke for his unique spin on what can often be a tired genre.
In the 1980s, Paul Newman tasked a screenwriter friend of his to help him write a memoir. To carry out this monumental task, everyone in Newman’s life (including Newman himself) was interviewed – and those interviews were recorded to tape. The result was hours upon hours upon hours of tape from actor friends like Robert Redford and directors like George Roy Hill. But also Newman’s wife Woodward – and even his first wife Jackie Witte. He wanted everyone to have their say.
But then one day, Newman took those tapes and set them on fire – destroying them completely. That fire only destroyed the voices – because complete transcripts were made of all of the interviews, thousands of pages worth. Fast forward about 40 years and Hawke gets a call from Newman’s daughters asking if he might direct a film based on those transcripts. His solution is to gather as many of his famous friends as he could and have them voice the interviews, to act them out.
Hawke didn’t put together some high-budget VoiceOver scenario. Each of the actors ( George Clooney as Newman, Laura Linney as Woodward) perform their parts on Zoom, on a computer microphone. The result is hauntingly beautiful.
The story of Newman and Woodward is told through the films they acted in and narrated in their own words. Through them, and those close to them, we get an entirely new picture of who they were, what it was like to be married for so long in the face of fame, and how it affected their family (their children also contribute to the film).
Here in the watch world, many may only know Paul Newman’s name because of the 1:1 US Rolex Daytona fake watches. And that’s because there’s a certain subset of Rolex Daytona references with exotic dials known as Paul Newman Daytonas. There are no mechanical differences between a non-Newman and a Newman Daytona other than the dial. And for that reason, luxury replica Rolex Newman Daytona watches are some of the most sought-after in the world.
The most famous Paul Newman Rolex Daytona copy watches with Swiss movements is the one he wore himself the most, and one most associated with him. That would be the ref. 6239 with its white exotic dial which famously was auctioned for more than $17 million in 2017 at Phillips. The Rolex replica watches for sale was a gift from Woodward and was inscribed “Drive Carefully Me” on the caseback (Newman had begun a serious and successful career as a racer driver). It would later end up in the hands of Newman’s daughter’s boyfriend – a gift from Paul in the mid-eighties. For the full story of that watch, check out our 2017 auction coverage and Reference Points on the Paul Newman Rolex Daytona super clone watches online.
And this film addresses that Rolex replica watches shop site in a very interesting way, questioning the meaning we give objects that once belonged to an icon. The sixth and final part of the documentary opens with the ticking sound of a chronograph. Less than a minute in we see a familiar face: That of Aurel Bacs, auctioneer, standing at the dais at the now legendary auction of the Paul Newman Daytona. We get the image of the famed caseback and watch as the bids begin rolling in.
Shortly after this scene, we hear Hawke talking to his wife, Ryan Shawhughes (a producer on the film) over Zoom. He asks her what CNN thinks of the initial cut of the film (something of a meta moment since we are seeing it happen while watching the film). She tells Hawke that they love the narrative arc across six parts. Then she says, “The watch auction – they didn’t get.” Hawke is perplexed and wonders why they don’t understand. “To me, it’s the buzzards feasting on the dead.”
His wife pushes back on him. “I don’t think shaming the people that are bidding on that watch is what you’re trying to accomplish.”
“No, that’s not what I mean,” he says. “I mean, I want the watch too! I’d love to have it, so what am I talking about?”
They both realize that the importance of that scene is not to antagonize auctions, but to illustrate how much people value Newman, the man. “You can’t buy Paul Newman’s watch,” Hawke says. “It’s his watch. What makes it beautiful is him. The Swiss made Rolex fake watches is nothing. It’s a present from his wife.”
While this Zoom conversation is taking place, footage of Bacs plays on and the auction as bids continue to increase. “It’s a private thing, that’s now made public in death,” Hawke says. “But it is something real.” And then Bacs slams the hammer down on what was then the world’s most expensive wristwatch ever sold.
It is a moving moment, and one worth thinking about especially for those of us who are so deep in this world of cheap replica Rolex watches. Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of humanity. I for one, having now watched nearly six-hours worth of this film, see Newman, his watch, and his relationship with his wife in a whole new light. There are scenes where we see old family home movies, and in them, Newman has his best quality fake Rolex Daytona watches. It was his companion, both at home and in his later life behind the wheel. He and Woodward had a tenuous but strong relationship, so seeing the caseback engraving in the sixth part of the film, after watching the entire arc of their lives, just made it that much more special. That’s what makes watches important.
When We’re Watching
In the fifth part of the documentary, the subject of Newman’s heavy drinking takes center stage. There’s a story of a difficult time in the marriage between Woodward and Newman when he comes home one night very drunk and she doesn’t want to allow him to come home. She tells him that the only way he can come back is if he quits drinking. He says, “I don’t like ultimatums,” to which she replies, “This isn’t a negotiation.” As this conversation plays out, a photo of the two of them appears on screen [00:07:55] and you can clearly see Newman’s top Rolex Daytona replica watches on the leather bund strap. He then asks, what if he only drinks beer …. and she agrees.
In the middle of this same fifth part, Newman (voiced by Clooney) is ruminating over his failures as a father to his troubled son Scott – who died of an overdose. Newman is reflecting on everything he could have done differently, the signs he noticed but didn’t act on, as well as insights about himself. A series of images flash on the screen [00:27:28] including a rather famous one of him and his son at a racetrack, his son wearing a Chiquita banana T-shirt, and Newman his Rolex Daytona fake watches wholesale.
