In the long tradition of 'self-discovery' works, it touches on a host of vital themes.

Rating: 9/10 (20 October 2002)

Like most great works, 'The Hustler' presents behind stark simplicity (e.g. one could simply the film is about a 'loser' who makes good, just as one could say that the great book Madame Bovary is about a bored wife who commits adultery, etc.)a number of themes that are handled all the more powerfully by being either hinted at or gone into by the director using all the power of the medium: when Eddie gets back again with Sarah, not a word is said, the camera flickers over the faces, holds certain expressions for a second more, gestures are understated (they hold each other as they walk off). Dialogue is either taut (George C. Scott is great), as in Bert Gordon's very few but essential exchanges with Sarah; or, poignantly penetrating, as when Eddie opens himself about pool(wonderful expression of the supreme joy and satisfaction of anyone who really loves what he does and is a master of his craft - whatever that may be) and Sarah quietly says what we all think: 'you're not a loser'. In the circumstances, her words 'I love you, Eddie' acquire a resonance and depth hardly every acquired by other pathetic speakers of that deathless line. There is the counterpoint with Bert Gordon who is 'dead inside': a hint at one of the sides to the nature of evil. The 'good' ending is not the all-too-often Hollywood syrup, and to call it the triumph of positive values over empty vice would be so simplistic as to be laughable. You do not have to be a pool/billiards/snooker player at all to enjoy this aspect of the film: the focus is not on the table; the seediness of the place and players are part of a social comment which is so light yet so penetrating - the external furniture of the souls of those concerned, especially Eddie's, naturally. One thousand words are not enough to analyse this film (what about Sarah's character and the acting of Piper Laurie, for example?). It is a masterpiece.