Paul Newman: From Money to Myth

It may seem to be a departure to be talking about Paul Newman in the context of Breakout Creatives.  But he was an artist, and one aspect of his art is what I want to consider for a moment.
My wife Carol and I have inaugurated our own Paul Newman film festival recently.  We are watching the older films:  Hud, The Hustler, The Long Hot Summer, The Color of Money.  Butch Cassidy and The Sting are in the wings, but since we know practically every line of these movies, we are hold off on including these right now.
Just a note:  I am really struck by the oustandingly POOR quality of DVD collections of Paul Newman's oeuvre.
Back to the idea.  Many of Newman's films were about money: what it takes to get it, the status it confers, the game that builds around it.  And then the movies portray a character that goes through that gauntlet and comes out the other side, not reduced to some naive morality, the Jimmy Steward line, but a far more complex picture.  He comes out at a mythic level of life, where morality is not transcended, but it is of less consequence than taking on a life that is being fully lived, expanding to the fullest range of engagement, freedom and self-generated vitality that our mortal way has to offer.  Even it that means taking on the Bolivian Army in order to make way to the next adventure.
Newman portrayed money as a gateway to a transition that some will elect to pass through, and others will simply not venture.  Staying in the money world alone corrodes the spirit into resentment and cynicism while transcending it may mean death, but it means also stepping into freely chosen mortal vitality.
Did he personally see life and his art in that way?
I don't know, of course.  But I think so.
Remember this: The profits from his line of good quality foods go to support camps for kids with fatal diseases.  The profit from selling stuff helps kids, whose mortality is crushing them, to participate in life's self-generating care, joy and vitality to the full extent that they can.  He opened a path to that portal from money to myth  that all of us can pass through.  (If you own a Keurig coffee maker, try the Paul Newman Extra Bold brand!!!.)
Artists always found ways to help people migrate from the oppression of power, money and wealth to the liberating dimensions of living.  That was the original role of symbol, rite and eventually religion, a role created by the artist (until it was usurped by tyrants who donned the robes of liberation and created the priesthood, theocracy and modern monotheistic power-religions).
Newman portrays this great "arteous" passage in many guises:  as romantic release, as playful liberation, as tragic failure.
In whatever way it turns out, he portrays this passage. And, he makes the passage real for us:  the artist's touch at its best.