The Hustler
Considered by many to be the film that popularized the game of pool nationwide following its release, Robert Rossen’s 1961 classic is actually a fairly, downbeat, depressing story about a born loser with all the talent in the world at the game yet usually comes undone by his own personal flaws. Significant is the fact that all four primary actors earned Oscar nominations for their work here (yet none of them won): Paul Newman, in what many consider his signature role as Fast Eddie, brings sympathy from the viewer while playing a character that in many ways is his own worst enemy, with his opening scene scamming a bunch of hicks in a small-town bar drawing in the viewer and never letting up; Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats, the “best player in the country” whom Eddie has pursued for years, puts his larger than life persona as The Great One to perfect use here, never letting Eddie psych him out when they first meet early on despite getting deep in the hole to him; George C. Scott as the ruthless, soulless gambler who stakes Eddie and uses him to line his own pockets does one of the best things an actor can do with a villain, which is to reveal enough different shades of gray to make his antagonist a well-rounded human being; and Piper Laurie is winsome as the drunken college girl who embarks on an ill-fated romance with Eddie, and as good as she is, it leads to a bit of a problem, as their romance seems built on heaping helpings of self-pity, so much so that it drags the story down into two characters constantly feeling sorry for themselves, which Scott’s Bert Gordon accurately points out as “one of the most popular indoor sports”. The fact that her ultimate fate serves more as a plot point to give Eddie his “character boost” to face down Fats in the final confrontation is also a bit much. I also would have liked to have seen more insight into the beauty and purity of the game itself (something Scorsese did beautifully in the sequel, The Color Of Money), but many of the pool sequences consist of quick cuts and fancy angles, and the rematch between Eddie and Fats in the end, so exquisitely paced when they first met early on, seems rushed and anticlimactic. In the end, certainly a downer of a drama which is not for all modern tastes, and was definitely topped by its more adrenaline-rushed sequel…
7/10