A great, subtle movie that's really about the woman

Rating: 10/10 (23 December 2007)

With the title "The Hustler," we expect a character study of Paul Newman's pool hustler Eddie Felson. But it is also a character study of Sara (Piper Laurie); of Bert (George C. Scott); and of Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason). Of the four, Sara is the most profound.
The first step comes after Eddie has lost to Fats. Eddie has great talent, but Bert tells him that Fats has more character -- and character is vital. It is interesting that Bert, a brutal, greedy, immoral man, has this insight into human nature -- in movies the greedy men usually aren't the ones who recognize such things. But Bert doesn't see that buried inside, Eddie has character that just needs to be awakened.
Then Eddie meets Sara (Piper Laurie). He talks about the beauty of the game, and the quality of talent -- it is clear that he loves and respects excellence, and loves and respects the game, the way an artist does. Sara sees that Eddie is not just a hustler -- not just a man who uses his talent to take money from others. In fact deep down he isn't really a hustler, he is a man who hustles in order to get the money to keep on doing his art, to try to be the best at his art. At no time in the movie does Eddie show any interest in extravagances -- he doesn't even really mind living out of a bus station locker. In this, "The Hustler" is similar to another of my favorite films, "Babette's Feast." Both movies focus on a very talented person seeking the opportunity to do his or her very best.
Sara is a very sad woman. She has a limp, which she explains as the result of a car crash, and says her source of money (she doesn't work) is regular payments from an ex-lover. But eventually she reveals that her limp came from childhood polio, and her payments come from her father (who, contrary to another commenter, isn't dead) who abandoned her and her mother. Her father's rejection of her, and her polio-withered leg, have meant that from an early age she has felt unattractive to men, a feeling that has only been reinforced by a succession of men she mentions who always end up leaving her. She sees Eddie as her last chance. She loves him for the character she sees in him, and sets out to awaken it.
But Eddie, needing a financial backer to get another shot at Fats, partners with Bert, who says they'll have to go on the road. When Eddie tells Sara over dinner at a fine restaurant, she sees that he is going to slip away from her like all the other men have; but Eddie doesn't want to lose her, so he decides that she should come with him and Bert. Bert and Sara, meeting, instantly sense that they are in a battle over Eddie: Bert, who wants to control Eddie, and Sara, who wants to free him to focus on the art and talent he has. Sara exposes Bert as a man who is so jealous of people with real talent -- talent Bert hasn't got -- that he wants to exploit and destroy those who do have the talent. This reveals the source of Bert's twisted character: bitterness over the talent he wishes he had, but does not.
Ultimately, Sara decides to sacrifice herself in order to expose, for Eddie, the evil that is at the heart of Bert's character, and thus free Eddie from Bert and trigger Eddie's true character to grow. At the cost of her own life, she succeeds. I doubt whether Eddie was really so significant a person to justify Sara sacrificing herself; she was the more insightful, altruistic, loving person. But she devalued herself, due to the careless and selfish treatment of her by other men, including Eddie; she never had anyone come into her life to tell her they recognized these good things in her. Her sacrifice causes Eddie to realize these things about her, and the tragedy is that it is too late to tell her he sees.
With this sacrifice, Eddie's character finally develops into what it can and should be. He goes back to Fats's regular pool hall, challenges him, and quickly beats him. But Bert is there, and Bert demands a cut of Eddie's winnings. Eddie refuses, and Bert signals that some of the other men in the pool hall will beat him up if Eddie doesn't pay.
And here is where we learn something about Fats. Fats just sits in his usual spot when Bert delivers this threat, and he advises Eddie that he'd better pay. And now we know that Fats is a man who surrendered to Bert. Fats's regular pool hall is controlled by Bert, some of the men in it are enforcers in Bert's employ, and Fats is the talent who attracts people to the hall. That's why Fats shows up every night at 8 PM, regularly. It's part of the arrangement he has fallen into with Bert. Bert is hoping that Eddie will take Fats' place, and keep the business going for another decade or two. And it is to help Eddie escape this kind of fate that Sara sacrificed herself.
Eddie faces down Bert, and leaves. He and Fats acknowledge each other's talent as Eddie leaves. Sara's sacrifice has been successful. Eddie will be his own man, not a tool of a greedy soulless man like Bert.
And this is why "The Hustler" is really about Piper Laurie's Sara: a good woman dealt an unfair hand by life, trying to do some good in the world by causing a man to become a better man -- and she succeeds.