Life can be a cruel mistress when moving from innocence to experience; from curious to aware; or, to borrow from the dialogue of the Robert Rossen directed The Hustler (1961), from loser to winner. In the movie based on the Walter Tevis book The Hustler, billiards, ambition and love mingle into a socially conscious take on the emotional cost each activity has in relation to the others.
The sport of billiards, or pool, offers insight into the human experience that I didn’t see coming when opening The Hustler. Paul Newman stars as “Fast” Eddie Felson, a young yet emerging pool hustler supported by Charlie Burns, as portrayed by Myron McCormick. The relationship between Burns and Felson was close, financial, and mutually beneficial.
The relationship along with Felson’s billiards skill offer Burns the confidence needed to sponsor a high stakes player-on-player pool game between Felson and famed billiards professional Rudolph Walter Wanderone, Jr., aka Minnesota Fats. Jackie Gleason portrayed Minnesota Fats. Based strictly on game play, both Eddie Felson and Minnesota Fats prove themselves of similar pool playing talent. A bottle of bourbon and 25-hours left Felson’s $18,000 advantage lost to Minnesota Fats.
In the shared sleeping space of Burns and Felson following the session, Felson left half of the money he had left and stowed his belongings at a bus station. Felson meets Sarah Packard, as portrayed by Piper Laurie, in the terminal there. They bonded over alcohol, mutual life experience, and not much else. Circumstances and a stay at a boarding house for Felson build into something of a relationship between the two. Felson’s choice between his sense of love for Sarah and his sense of ambition for billiards prowess begin emerging.
Bert Gordon, as portrayed by George C. Scott, takes clear interest in Felson at the match between Minnesota Fats and Eddie Felson. The notion of losing and winning, as Gordon and Fats understand it, are on the table. As Felson works to regrow his stake through small time hustling in order to pursue another tournament against Minnesota Fats, the hustling gambler Bert Gordon puts the gambler’s understanding of the psychology and costs of high stakes, high pressure gaming on love based relationships. After a particularly cruel public humiliation, Sarah Packard and Eddie Felson both realize a truth that reaches its full expression in the closing acts of the movie.
The social messaging of The Hustler made the film a touch more serious than many made around Hollywood in the era wherein this film was released. The human message of the film, despite or in the face of the fact that Rossen had been blacklisted ahead of this film, perhaps offers the achievement of this film further relevance. Ultimately, its the human stories that lead me to the value present in the movie. I give Robert Rosen‘s The Hustler 4.5-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
Matt – Wednesday, April 28, 2021
Matt Lynn Digital 