The Hustler (1961)

If Paul Newman wasn't already a star, The Hustler would have made him one overnight. "Fast" Eddie is a Paul Newman trademark role: smart, quick, sexy, and just as likable as he is bad. Newman has played this character many times, and it never gets old. This time around, he plays a pool hustler who gets himself into trouble by challenging a well-known pool master when he's still small-time.Even if you don't know the rules of pool, The Hustler will hold your hand and explain the rules to you so you don't feel lost by the time the major game sequences start. If you already know and love the game, you'll find yourself in heaven while watching this movie. It's a total classic, full of drama, tension, and a steamy romance that's easy to root for. Paul Newman gives an excellent performance, showing vulnerability in the highs and lows of performance gambling. It's worth it just to watch him, but chances are you'll probably come away liking the entire movie, too!

The Hustler is my favourite movie ever so let me start off by facing the fact that I'm a bit bias. This movie should make any top 10 movies of all time. Every cinema fan out there who are worth their salt ought to know this movie; if not, should rush to watch it immediately or purchase it right away.It's got everything I ask for in a film: loneliness/loss, success/failure, redemption/emptiness and so on. The plot depicts all these emotions by showing us the life of "Fast" Eddie, a pool player coming out of OKC. Brilliantly played by a superb Paul Newman, he's an up and coming young man who cons other to make a living, tricking them into thinking he's the worse pool player around and then beating them almost effortlessly. Now he happens to be looking for a new rival: Minessota "Fats", who's got a legendary reputation as a pool player too (Jack Gleeson is, without a doubt the best supporting actor in the history of cinema and would deserve a review of his own). Slowly but incessantly "Fast" Eddie is dragged into the underworld where nothing seem to be what it looks like at first sight. Not that he doesn't fit these world crammed with losers and drifters seeking out a new opportunity in life or just a chance at all; actually quite the opposite, but as he'll learn later on every decision has consequences.

Overrated, yes, when I read these reviews. Sure, there are lot's of good moments. But too much seems just hackneyed and frankly there is a lot of scenes that are just unintentionally comical when you watch them today. I am a great fan of older movies, but this is predictable melodrama most of the time. I guess this is what a "deep" movie looks like to people who need to have it all spelled out for them in such a simple way that there is no chance to miss the point. The way the female lead is treated in the film by the protagonists and the scriptwriter is interesting. We can see that feminism has after all, thank God, left its mark on us and our societies. A bit like watching Mad Men. And please, stop calling this "film noir". It's not. Well, it is not a bad movie, as a period piece, and with it's original milieu choices the film has a lot going for it. Kind of an earlier Fat City type of movie. And in it's context of time, compared to many other US-films of the period, it probably is a masterpiece after all. But not by today's standards. Seriously.

One of Paul Newman's all-time great roles was that of pool shark Fast Eddie Felson in "The Hustler". It's a seedy world of pool halls and high-stakes gambling. Eddie's aim to be the best leads to some self-destructive actions, but he perseveres. Fine support comes from Piper Laurie - later known as the fanatical mom in "Carrie" - as a woman who gets Eddie to realize his full potential amid his damaged lifestyle, as well as George C. Scott, Murray Hamilton (Mr. Robinson in "The Graduate" and the mayor in "Jaws") and Michael Constantine (the patriarch in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"). I guess that we in the 21st century will be less inclined to admire Jackie Gleason's performance, given what we now know about him,* but it's still an intense role.The movie is not just about pool and the specific effects that it has on Eddie. There's the issue of what it means to be human: a tragedy forces Eddie to attain self-awareness. Another thing is that director Robert Rossen used the movie as a sort of confession. Much like how he named names to HUAC, Eddie figuratively sells his soul for prestige. It was one of the first movies to take this sort of an unvarnished look at ego-affirmation. One of the many movies that represented the new direction that cinema was taking in the 1960s.All in all, a true masterpiece. Maybe not Newman's greatest ever, but one that any movie buff owes it to himself/herself to watch.*In the book "Riders on the Storm", John Densmore recalls a time when Jim Morrison got charged with indecency. Jackie Gleason testified against him, as did Anita Bryant.