Color Of Money
The original 1961 film The Hustler was in some ways a bit of an overrated anomaly, in that it popularized the game of pool into the mainstream while showcasing possibly a career best performance by Paul Newman as pool shark āFastā Eddie Felson, nearly topped by Jackie Gleasonās iconic turn as rival Minnesota Fats, but the film itself got bogged down by a weepy, soap opera style love story with a depressing outcome, and Felson himself essentially being run out of the game he loved by the criminals who controlled it, almost an attempt to bring a European style to a film about a very American game. Newman, Gleason, George C. Scott, and Piper Laurie all got Oscar noms, and the film for better or worse took its place among the pantheon of all time great American cinema. Flash forward 25 years later, when the decision was made to do a sequel to the old school classic in the midst of the 1980s, 1986 to be exact, with Newman signed on as the only returning cast member (although Gleasonās Fats had been in the novel this was based on, and he was willing to reprise the role, but sadly was written out for the movie), and no one less than Martin Scorsese was brought on board as the director for hire on the project. What resulted was a completely different style of film, one where arguably viewing the original was not required, but instead of a depressing, downbeat, tome we got an exhilarating sports movie (or at least as exhilarating as a movie about pool playing can be) that also serves as an uplifting comeback story not to mention a fascinating drama about an old timer who had left his dreams behind deciding to give it one more shot. Newmanās Felson is now a wholesale liquor salesman traveling around from bar to bar peddling whiskey and having such clout with the owners he deals with that he uses the back offices of any given bar heās in to work out of. He also keeps a steady eye on any local pool sharks in the area, occasionally staking one out to keep from being bored, including a cocky dope fiend played by John Turturro. But pick up a pool cue himself once again? Never. Then one night while hanging out in a lady friendās bar, he witnesses Turturro getting squashed by a completely unknown newcomer (and costing him money in the process). After Turturro runs for the hills, Felson immediately challenges the kid to go 500 a game and psychs him out, but eventually decides to take him under his wing. The kid, Vincent, is played by none other than Tom Cruise in one of his earliest major roles, so cocky in his own right that Turturro is obviously afraid of him, and so brash in his attitude that he brings back memories of the young Fast Eddie in the earlier film. Cruise plays it broad all the way around, making Vincent a grinning idiot to the point of near unlikability only reined in by his own charisma. At his side is his girlfriend Carmen played by Supporting Actress Oscar Nominee Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, the obvious brains of the two which Felson realizes right away and thus takes her into confidance in private and explains how she and Vincent will make a lot of money if she can just help him keep Vincent in check. The three of them hit the road, with lots of stops planned along the way at various pool halls, with the destination being a gigantic tournament held in Atlantic City, and thatās where the real magic of the film comes into play as opposed to the stark nihilism of the original. Felson teaches the philosophy that the game of pool is essentially a microcosm of life itself, where winning a mere game is not necessarily what itās all about, but rather the way you play the whole environment in order to come out ahead and make money, with psychology being the all important, defining factor. Obviously, this takes some learning for Cruise to figure out, as the immature kid likes to walk into every game looking for the win, and into every pool hall looking to be the man right away. While Felson gets pissed, the major dynamic of the film now comes into play, as Cruise starts to remind him of his younger days and how he threw down his own pool cue and walked away, and slowly but surely the competitive fire he once had, the electrical feeling of humbling another man at a green table covered with balls to collect the green money of that man, starts to overtake him once again, even though the ravages of rust happen to show when he winds up completely and thoroughly humbled by a hustler in his own right played by then total newcomer Forest Whitaker. This inspires Felson to go into serious training and practice, obtain new eyeglasses and now, split apart from Cruise, embark on his own road towards Atlantic City, the legendary Fast Eddie once spoken about in hushed tones for beating the one and only Minnesota Fats, making his return to the big time like only he can. And as he faces the fact that he was using Cruise and Mastrantonio all along like they used him, Scorsese as director uses his abilities to bring us so deeply into the world of hustlers and pool sharks who are practically able to make an actual living from playing the game, that most (male) viewers can almost sense the purity from within of such a world, and actually consider picking up a pool cue ourselves to sharpen our collective skills. And with the events that transpire in Atlantic City where Felson and Cruise go from teacher and student as well as friends into being fierce rivals, so we witness the resurrection of a major character in the history of cinema becoming alive once again, a transformation so inspiring that it resulted in Paul Newmanās only competitive Oscar win for Best Actor, and a sequel that readily bettered its original to become one of the best sports movies and most engaging dramas of all timeā¦
10/10