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MovieMeditation presents...
HIS FILM DIARY 2015
total movie count ........... current day count
244 .......................... 270
__________________________
August 11th
—— 1961 ——
THE
HUSTLER
—— drama ——
"So I got talent? So what beat me?"
"Character."
I always enjoy these films that build themselves around some sort of sport, which always makes for some interesting characters, mindsets and ambitions. I was looking forward to finally watching this film, since I have been fascinated about finding out who the hell this “Fast Eddie” was, who I had heard about before but never looked into. ‘The Hustler’ is a story about a pool player who knows his game well, which encourages him to always aim for perfection and is never satisfied with what he gets. Therefore, he travels a long way to meet the notorious “Minnesota Fats” and take him on in a game that calls for high stakes and few mistakes. But can Fast Eddie handle the huge sums of money or will he hustle himself by the end of it all?
‘The Hustler’ is quite clear about the premise and the point it wants to get across the pool table from the very beginning. The character of Fast Eddie comes with great possibilities and interesting ideas, but personally I feel like there was so much more that could have been explored with this film. Eddie is a winning pool player with a losing personality, always wanting to score big and beat everyone around him in the game he knows best. Unfortunately, he is pretty much blind to the reality around him and his constant striving for sums of immeasurable sizes makes him a despicable human being with no proper sense of his surroundings. Fast Eddie is definitely a fascinating character, but I feel like he is more interesting to look at than study. I would like him to have had a bit more depth, since I feel like he is a very surfaced character with traits that doesn’t really tackle his inner identity that well. Like his character, his portrayal is more show than tell, which makes us notice the rough edges of Fast Eddie and the misfortunes he is responsible for, but I think the film sets up the possibilities for a much deeper and more complicated character study. Ultimately it ends up being a very simple movie, about a loser who is great at winning, but is still a loser by the end of it all. I would have wished for more implicit struggles and a better look inside the mind of Fast Eddie, instead of mostly glancing over his pool playing skills and his outspoken personality.
If I should describe the character of Fast Eddie in a different and fun way, you could say he is like the black ball on the pool table. He is the one who has the final say in things and the one who ultimately wins the game. But not before everything around him has went down a black hole first, which makes him alone and vulnerable in the open. After all, he may be the winning element, but it can still be someone else who pushes him towards his doomed destiny and down into the darkness. His reasons for ending up in such a situation can actually be caused by his own choices and judgments throughout, which makes Fast Eddie mainly responsible for his own failures and thereby putting himself into misfortune. Again, conclusively Fast Eddie is a very interesting character, but his cinematic portrayal could have been stronger and with greater impact. Paul Newman was good in the role, but personally I enjoyed Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats a whole lot more. Many of the characters are missing depth though, but one of the reasons for that is because they keep introducing new ones along the way, who are never properly fleshed out when the movie ends. I know it is about Newman and the journey of Fast Eddie, but still I didn't even think that his character or performance was enough to carry the entire film.
Overall, I feel like this is a very uneven film that could be so much better with the proper focus. I though it looked great in terms of cinematography and general technical achievements, while also having an interesting concept about greed, honor, pride, respect, character and what not. I do think this might grow on me with time, since there was much about it that I actually liked. It was nice to have a film about sports and such, which isn’t about the main character winning, but how he is ultimately defeated by it all and how we have a main character we actually have a hard time cheering for. I’m fairly confident I will find this a lot better on a second watch and I know how many older movies doesn’t conceal their messages and themes like those of today, so I might be unnecessarily bashing this film for nothing of importance.
++
__________________________
HIS FILM DIARY 2015
total movie count ........... current day count
244 .......................... 270
__________________________
August 11th
—— 1961 ——
THE
HUSTLER
—— drama ——
"So I got talent? So what beat me?"
"Character."
I always enjoy these films that build themselves around some sort of sport, which always makes for some interesting characters, mindsets and ambitions. I was looking forward to finally watching this film, since I have been fascinated about finding out who the hell this “Fast Eddie” was, who I had heard about before but never looked into. ‘The Hustler’ is a story about a pool player who knows his game well, which encourages him to always aim for perfection and is never satisfied with what he gets. Therefore, he travels a long way to meet the notorious “Minnesota Fats” and take him on in a game that calls for high stakes and few mistakes. But can Fast Eddie handle the huge sums of money or will he hustle himself by the end of it all?
‘The Hustler’ is quite clear about the premise and the point it wants to get across the pool table from the very beginning. The character of Fast Eddie comes with great possibilities and interesting ideas, but personally I feel like there was so much more that could have been explored with this film. Eddie is a winning pool player with a losing personality, always wanting to score big and beat everyone around him in the game he knows best. Unfortunately, he is pretty much blind to the reality around him and his constant striving for sums of immeasurable sizes makes him a despicable human being with no proper sense of his surroundings. Fast Eddie is definitely a fascinating character, but I feel like he is more interesting to look at than study. I would like him to have had a bit more depth, since I feel like he is a very surfaced character with traits that doesn’t really tackle his inner identity that well. Like his character, his portrayal is more show than tell, which makes us notice the rough edges of Fast Eddie and the misfortunes he is responsible for, but I think the film sets up the possibilities for a much deeper and more complicated character study. Ultimately it ends up being a very simple movie, about a loser who is great at winning, but is still a loser by the end of it all. I would have wished for more implicit struggles and a better look inside the mind of Fast Eddie, instead of mostly glancing over his pool playing skills and his outspoken personality.
If I should describe the character of Fast Eddie in a different and fun way, you could say he is like the black ball on the pool table. He is the one who has the final say in things and the one who ultimately wins the game. But not before everything around him has went down a black hole first, which makes him alone and vulnerable in the open. After all, he may be the winning element, but it can still be someone else who pushes him towards his doomed destiny and down into the darkness. His reasons for ending up in such a situation can actually be caused by his own choices and judgments throughout, which makes Fast Eddie mainly responsible for his own failures and thereby putting himself into misfortune. Again, conclusively Fast Eddie is a very interesting character, but his cinematic portrayal could have been stronger and with greater impact. Paul Newman was good in the role, but personally I enjoyed Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats a whole lot more. Many of the characters are missing depth though, but one of the reasons for that is because they keep introducing new ones along the way, who are never properly fleshed out when the movie ends. I know it is about Newman and the journey of Fast Eddie, but still I didn't even think that his character or performance was enough to carry the entire film.
Overall, I feel like this is a very uneven film that could be so much better with the proper focus. I though it looked great in terms of cinematography and general technical achievements, while also having an interesting concept about greed, honor, pride, respect, character and what not. I do think this might grow on me with time, since there was much about it that I actually liked. It was nice to have a film about sports and such, which isn’t about the main character winning, but how he is ultimately defeated by it all and how we have a main character we actually have a hard time cheering for. I’m fairly confident I will find this a lot better on a second watch and I know how many older movies doesn’t conceal their messages and themes like those of today, so I might be unnecessarily bashing this film for nothing of importance.
++
__________________________