← Back to Reviews
in
Reviews of the day:
The Hustler (1961)
This movie was on my watchlist for a very long time and I finally saw it yesterday night. It didn't disappoint! Paul Newman was fantastic as Fast Eddie Felson and the side characters were also unbelievably interesting. There is George C. Scott as the frightening top gambler Bert Gordon, Jackie Gleason as the cool pool player Minnesota Fats and Piper Laurie as the alcoholic and self-destructive love interest. Together they create firework on the screen!
Fat Eddie is a very talented pool player and a hustler. Together with his partner, Findley, they go to pool bars and try to win a lot of money by tricking people into betting high against Eddie.
When he hears about Minnesota Fats, the best pool player in the country, he wants to beat him and challenges him in his own bar. After some time he has a profit of 18000 dollars, but his pride and his "lack of character" makes him lose everything at the end of the 30 hours game. After this experience he flees away from his partner and meets a girl, named Sarah. She's clearly an alcoholic, but he doesn't mind and moves in with her. When his old partner finds him, he rejects his offer to go back on the road, but he starts to become obsessed with the thought of beating Minnesota Fats.
After he meets Bert Gordon, who tells Eddie he's a born loser, and rejects his offer to work for him, he gets into trouble in another obscure pool bar, after hustling a guy, and he ends up with broken thumbs.
He starts to grow much closer to Sarah during his rehabilitation and when he's cured, he accepts Gordon's offer to go on the road with him and win money. From that moment on, the darkest themes of the film begin to surface...
This dark story about the underworld of pool and street gambling is shown with some beautiful black and white cinematography and is accompanied by an alarming jazz tune.
This movie is more than just a story about pool. It's a character study of a neurotic man and the dark mess he's getting himself into. It also takes the time to develop the most important side characters, so we can also see everything from their point of view. I rate this movie:
+
The Hustler (1961)
This movie was on my watchlist for a very long time and I finally saw it yesterday night. It didn't disappoint! Paul Newman was fantastic as Fast Eddie Felson and the side characters were also unbelievably interesting. There is George C. Scott as the frightening top gambler Bert Gordon, Jackie Gleason as the cool pool player Minnesota Fats and Piper Laurie as the alcoholic and self-destructive love interest. Together they create firework on the screen!
Fat Eddie is a very talented pool player and a hustler. Together with his partner, Findley, they go to pool bars and try to win a lot of money by tricking people into betting high against Eddie.
When he hears about Minnesota Fats, the best pool player in the country, he wants to beat him and challenges him in his own bar. After some time he has a profit of 18000 dollars, but his pride and his "lack of character" makes him lose everything at the end of the 30 hours game. After this experience he flees away from his partner and meets a girl, named Sarah. She's clearly an alcoholic, but he doesn't mind and moves in with her. When his old partner finds him, he rejects his offer to go back on the road, but he starts to become obsessed with the thought of beating Minnesota Fats.
After he meets Bert Gordon, who tells Eddie he's a born loser, and rejects his offer to work for him, he gets into trouble in another obscure pool bar, after hustling a guy, and he ends up with broken thumbs.
He starts to grow much closer to Sarah during his rehabilitation and when he's cured, he accepts Gordon's offer to go on the road with him and win money. From that moment on, the darkest themes of the film begin to surface...
This dark story about the underworld of pool and street gambling is shown with some beautiful black and white cinematography and is accompanied by an alarming jazz tune.
This movie is more than just a story about pool. It's a character study of a neurotic man and the dark mess he's getting himself into. It also takes the time to develop the most important side characters, so we can also see everything from their point of view. I rate this movie:
+