"Fat man....you sure shoot a great game of pool."
"So do you, Fast Eddie."
The Hustler1961
This is simply a must see film. I will come clean - I've many times watched Scorsese's The Color of Money - for which PN won his Oscar portraying Fast Eddie Felson - only 25 years later than he should have. But this was my first start-to-finish viewing of this film. And I'm an idiot for not seeing it before. Now I don't say this lightly. I loved The Color of Money and Scorsese is one of my all time favorite directors. But The Hustler is the film PN should've won for. He is astonishingly brilliant in it. The entire cast is brilliant - George C. Scott, Piper Laurie, Jackie Gleason - these are all actors who are arguably at the pinnacle of their careers. They command the viewer's attention and do not let up until the final credits role. The fantastic story is almost buried by the power of these performances. You don't have to be a fan of pool to enjoy this film. Though the pool scenes are tension-filled vignettes that truly showcase the skills of the players (actors). The story is almost universal and applicable to many sports themed productions.
For those who aren't familiar with the film, Fast Eddie Felson is a pool prodigy who sharks his way to meet and play against the legendary Minnesota Fats. After a grueling 25 hour match, Fats has taught Eddie some hard lessons about life and Eddie goes off to lick his wounds and regroup. He meets up with a lonely, mildly disabled, and alcoholic woman Sarah (Piper Laurie) who spends her sleepless nights in a bus station. She easily recognizes that he is every bit as broken as she is and, "too hungry." Yet their attraction to one another is too strong and they wind up living together as Eddie contrives to find Fats and beat him at his own game.
Enter Bert, George C. Scott, who tells Eddie he's a born loser but agrees to stake him in his quest to go up against Fats again. For 75% of the winnings. Eddie refuses and cockily goes off to hustle his way along again and in a seedy bar is discovered and beaten to the point of having both thumbs broken. As he nurses himself back, he once again meets with Bert and agrees to Bert's terms. Bert sets up a small but lucrative game between Eddie and a rich socialite looking for a game after the Kentucky Derby. But once the game begins Eddie discovers it is billiards, not pool, and Eddie loses so badly that Bert refuses to stake him further. Eddie's inner demon thus unleashed, he refuses to return to the hotel with Sarah who pleads with him to leave the "perverted, sick and twisted" world of gambling/pool behind. Bert eventually agrees to stake him at $1000 a game. Eddie comes back and winds up winning $12K and after collecting his $3K returns to the hotel to find Sarah has killed herself using heroin and slitting her wrists.
*Spoiler Alert*
Eddie puts up the $3K in the rematch with Fats again but this time on a single game. Eddie continues to win then, putting the balance up game after game and Fats eventually has to concede. Bert demands his cut and threatens to have him beaten but Eddie goads him by telling him he will heal from the beating and hunt him down and kill him. It is a riveting scene. Bert lets it go but only on the caveat that Eddie never plays pool for stakes again. And the 2 phenomenal players acknowledge each other's greatness and the film ends.
******
This film was nominated for a slew of awards. It won for Best Picture and Newman for Best Actor at the British Academy Film Awards. As for the Oscars, it won for Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction, black and white. Why it didn't do better there I can only surmise the voters preferred West Side Story and Judgment at Nuremberg. Director Robert Rosen was rightfully nominated. He is another interesting director who pled the fifth during the HUAC investigations and refused to say whether he had ever been a communist or not. He was thus blacklisted and refused his passport. He was called to testify a 2nd time and named 57 people in order to get his blacklisting lifted so he could work again. I should also credit the writer here - the movie was based on a novel by Walter Tevis (The Color of Money, The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Queen's Gambit).
At a cursory glance The Hustler is a film about a pool shark. But it really is about the obsession with winning at any cost.
Trivia: All the pool shots in the film are made by the actors themselves except for one - called a 'masse' shot where the cue balls sends 2 object balls into the same pocket. This shot was done by Willie Mosconi, who also served as technical advisor on the movie.
Newman had never held a pool cue before landing the role. He took out the dining table in his home and had a pool table put in its place to practice.
Newman and Gleason became friends but at one point during filming Newman challenged Gleason to play for $50. Gleason being a much better pool player, took advantage of winning every of the 15 shots after Newman broke. Newman payed off his debt the next day in pennies.
Weird musing I had while watching the scenes between Eddie and Sarah while Eddie's thumbs were casted - "How the hell can he wipe his ass like that?"
As usual, this is now my favorite PN movie.
Topic: Paul Newman = God (Read 5028 times)
