Newman responding to the occasion with his most creative performance

Rating: 9/10 (14 October 2005)

Director-scriptwriter Robert Rossen provides a realistic glimpse into the dirty world of the pool hall, and makes it a battleground on which strength and courage are tested
Fast Eddie is not the traditional, heroic white knight He's a crafty pool hustler, a man who makes his money by tricking opponents into thinking he's not as good as he really is But he wants more than cheap hustlinghis ambition is to beat the country's top player, Minnesota Fats, and this places him with Newman's other obsessed seekers of grand goals
Newman really gets inside the charactermakes us feel his desperate drive In the opening scenes, depicting Eddie's marathon match with Fats (Jackie Gleason), he personifies overwhelming confidence, coolness and conceit; as Eddie puts it, he's "fast and loose." He grins, moves with assurance around the table, and baits Fats: "I dreamed about this game, fat man. I dreamed about it every night on the road. Five ball. You know, this is my table, man. I own it."
But there's an underlying insecurity, and a self-destructive tendency He doesn't know when to stop, and even though he's $18,000 ahead, he won't quit until Fats is demolished His cockiness leads him to become careless and eventually to fall into a drunken stupor Fats, in contrast, remains casual and emotionally serene, and he takes all of Eddie's money As Fats' manager, the crafty, snake-like Gordon (George C. Scott), says, Eddie's "a loser."
Eddie's arrogance is unpleasant and his lack of restraint is pathetic, but he's partially redeemed by his affair with Sarah (Piper Laurie), a self-pitying, sore, worn-out alcoholic, whose vulnerability attracts him It's a splendidly enacted relationship between two derelicts, beginning as a casual pickup and developing into tentative affection Initially all they do is drink and make love, and, even though Sarah (Piper Laurie) realizes he is not much better than a bum, she (like many women in Newman films) wants more The turning point occurs when Eddie again loses his restraint and shows off to some men he's hustling, whereupon they break his thumbs Now, for the first time, he needs Sarah's help, and their relationship deepens as he realizes his dependence upon her
And she's the only person he can talk to about what most moves him In a picnic on a hillsideone of the best scenes in Newman's careerEddie explains that he lost his restraint with the small-time players because he had to show them what pool is like "when it's really great." He says that at times he becomes so immersed in pool that his arm and the cue perform as one beautifully functioning organism This speech is rendered almost poetic by Newman's passionate expression and delivery; together with earlier scenes in which we saw Eddie's movements in the game and his look of admiration at Fats' grace, it convinces us that whether he wins or loses, Eddie is alive only when playing pool
Sarah is moved to express her love, but the closest he can come is: "You need the words?" She does, but he can't say them And ultimately, whatever love he may feel is overshadowed by the all-consuming need to get back at Fats He cruelly rejects his fatherly manager (Myron McCormick), who has no such haughty ambitions, and becomes a slave to Gordon, who says he'll always be a loser unless he rids himself of Sarah
"The Hustler" is Newman's most balanced characterizationon the one hand, ruthless ambition, arrogant confidence and inability to express love; on the other, vulnerability, recognition of dependence and genuine self-realizationand he brings it all off to perfection It was his most critically acclaimed performance to that time The film received nine Oscar nominations, including Newman's second as Best Actor The award went to the vastly inferior Maximilian Schell (Judgment at Nuremberg), but Newman did win the British Academy Award