Seems like something's missing
A few times in the movie, we hear Hud telling his nephew that he doesn't know the "whole story" of his past and his relationship with his father. Up to the end, I kept waiting for this information to be revealed and possibly justify or account for some of Hud's bitterness and cruelty. But when the door and the story are finally closed, it seems the only conclusion that can be drawn is that he was "bad" from the beginning.
Maybe I'm missing something, or maybe I'm trying to sympathize with a character who wasn't really meant to be sympathized with, but the movie left me feeling something wasn't fulfilled.