Be cautious to really excel

Rating: 9/10 (31 May 2007)

Any person may have good skills for a particular job, art or sport, and may succeed easily, but the permanent success is only achievable when you cultivate an integrated attitude to the life, probably not spending more than you are earning, being modest and living without excess. This film goes around the life of a skillful man, Eddie (Paul Newman), in billiards but with many personal shortcomings, including a highly chaotic way of life without any sustainable economic position. The interaction of Eddie with Sarah (Piper Laurie), who becomes his woman, and with his rivals in billiards and sponsor is coherently shown; including the contradictions arose from these relationships.
Behind the game of billiards a mafia-like people seems to be involved. The sponsor of all good players, Bert Gordon (George C. Scott), is an unscrupulous man able to exploit any man of the world just for his own interest. Eddie became a real man after so many discussions with Sarah, who was able to understand the malicious and tricky nature of Gordon. Eddie started to understand life after lessons received from his woman and also from Gordon's behavior. The end of the film has a good morale, useful to young people.
The performance of all these actors/actress in addition to Jackie Gleason, who acted as the champion Minnesota Fats, was simply excellent. The film certainly deserves to be among the best 250 in the cinema's history, so our congratulations to its director, Robert Rossen.