Paul Newman kept making interesting movies when he started getting long in the tooth, so to speak. Still one very handsome man and arguably a more mellow better actor after his years of experience, the swagger of Hud still remains, now joined with enough gravity to carry a complex role without effort.

In Blaze, Ron Shelton hands Newman a part that requires a lot of overacting - Earl Long is a slightly-progressive man in a very backwards part of the country who uses plenty of old fashioned attention-getting behavior. The Civil Rights Movement is underway and Long's attempts to integrate hospitals as a start toward some kind of equality is seen as political suicide by his good-old-boy backers. Not a young man, his antics (storming the state legislature, punching out opposition foes) aren't exactly on the level.

Long's liberalism works in Shelton's favor by giving Blaze a P.C. attitude in a setting where progressive ideas about racial equality can't have been commonplace. By showing Long as somewhat ineffectual and motivated more by personal intransigence than personal commitment, Shelton avoids the usual trap of movies that want to impose present-day ideals on less enlightened times.

The best thing about the picture is Lolita Davidovich (Gods and Monsters), a Serbian raised in Canada and England who delivers a convincing Southern accent. Actresses who want to be taken seriously no longer do nude scenes, and she manages the ones here with dignity and aplomb. As the kind of stripper who talks patter to "the boys" instead of putting on a pure sex show, Blaze Starr maintains a certain dignity, the finer points of which are lost on the general public. When she and Earl start their torrid love affair (commencing with a hilarious scene where he wears boots to bed for "traction") it provides the perfect ammunition for his political foes. Pro-integration, shacking up with a harlot, provoking controversy in public = crazy man.

I don't remember the details, but the tempest in the governor's mansion in Blaze reminds me of a movie I saw long ago called Ada. It's about a governor (Dean Martin) with a wife who's an ex-hooker (Susan Hayward). She helps him solve his political problems in a more flamboyant fashion. Since Ada was released about the time of the events of Blaze, there's only a superficial connection. Shelton handles the last chapters of his film quite well. Blaze gets her defeated man in shape for a long-shot run at a congressional office. She's involved but her role as "the great man's woman" is not exaggerated.

Blaze has a great sense of humor. It's less raucous than Bull Durham but is needed to avoid becoming a farce or a girly show. Blaze shows up for dinner with the governor (he does the cooking himself) in a scandalous dress and is openly insulted by the wives of his yes-men (one of them, I believe, is the real Blaze Starr). Blaze's "heat" is compared to that of an animal when Earl buys her a panther for a pet - it scares away the pesky reporters as well. An awful-looking stuffed bobcat with a stupid taxidermy grin on its face proves itself good for a last-minute joke. To remind us that the story events are real, some audio of the real Earl Long is heard over the end credits.

Touchstone's DVD of Blaze is a no-extras disc. It has an annoying promo up front but the enhanced transfer is quite good and the audio excellent. Haskell Wexler's terrific cinematography of the night streets in New Orleans is enjoyable all by itself. All in all, an entertaining package.

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Blaze rates:
Movie: Very good
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements: none
Packaging: Keep case
Reviewed: April 19, 2004