I'll preface this post by saying that 'The Hustler' is my favorite movie. For a long time I always said 'Pulp Fiction' was my favorite movie. After the first time I saw 'The Hustler' that changed. The first time I saw it, it was my junior year of college. I Skipped class and just randomly turned on Bravo. It was 9am. I was totally entranced.(Spoilers)
The Hustler opens with Fast Eddie Felson(played by my man Paul Newman) pulling a grift at a small town pool house. The point of the scene is to inform us that Eddie is a pool shark and obviously very good at pool. Eddie and his manager have been travelling around to save up enough money to get a game with legendary pool player Minnesota Fatts(Jackie Gleason). They meet up with him in some unnamed big city. I like to think it's Chicago.
The game goes well. Eddie starts to beat Fatts, multiple games. But in the game of pool like in anything it's not over till your opponent says uncle. So they continue to play, hours into the night. Around this time Eddie has some of my favorite lines...
Fast Eddie: I've been dreaming of this game Fat Man. I've been dreaming of this game every day I was on the road. This table is mine. I own it.
Eddie and Fatts order drinks. Eddie gets drunk and loses. Despair. Eddie isolates himself after his lose and meets up with Sarah Packard(Piper Laurie) and they hook up. This is where the movie really starts to cook. The movie uses pool as a metaphor and the focus of it is the relationship between Sarah and Eddie. They're co-dependent, they're alcoholics, they're both flawed and self destructive. That is a main part of their attraction but also a main part of their downfall.
Bert Gordon(George C. Scott) propositions Eddie to be one of his hired hands, he's a local shady professional gambler. Bert gets Eddie a gig out of town. Eddie tells Sarah and after she's upset he guiltily invites her on the trip. Bert is sick, manipulative, and twisted. He's trying to use Eddie. Eddie ends up choosing the game over Sarah and as a result Sarah commits suicide. After that Eddie gets iron in his bones. He's hard, he's world weary, he's strong. Losing the woman he loves makes him the best pool player that has ever lived. Another favorite line...
Fast Eddie: Here we go. Fast and Loose.
I always say fast and loose when talking about improv because I think of this scene. I like to improvise hot and fast and inspired. I like to play as if I'll never play again. So my conclusions. Sarah and Eddies relationship is the focus of the film, pool is just a filter, it could be anything. The movie is about love and obsession and addiction. The movie is about drive and skill and ability. I identify with it cause I believe I got skill, I got ability, and all I want to do is take my shot. I want to go up against the Minnesota Fatts equivalent and see what I'm made of. My grandfather Irv Nelson...
Played pool with the real Minnesota Fatts.
Fast Eddie has a monologue halfway through the film which I love.
Fast Eddie: I just had to show those creeps and those punks what the game is like when its great, when it's really great. Anything can be great. If the guy knows. If he knows what he's doing and why and makes it come alive. When I'm going, when I'm really going, I feel like a jockey whose coming into the home stretch. He knows. He just knows. When to let it go and how much. He just feels. He's got everything working for him timing, touch...The pool cue's a part of me. You don't have to look you just know. You make shots that nobodies ever made before.
You play the game the way its meant to be played.
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