Equal Measure Of Ambition And Vulnerability

Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2007)

The Hustler had the misfortune to be up against films like West Side Story and Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961. Another year it might have carried away more Academy gold than just for black and white cinematography and for black and white art&set direction.
A lot of people think The Hustler is about pool, what it really is about is obsession at being the best and how it can cost you in other things that really matter.
Paul Newman as Eddie Felson is one such obsessed creature. He wants to be the best pool player ever. To do that in the words of that eminent 20th century philosopher Ric Flair, "to be the man, you got to beat the man."
The man is Jackie Gleason playing the legendary Minnesota Fats, champion pool player of all. They have a marathon match in which Newman seems to have the upper hand, but Gleason pulls it out in the end. Nevertheless Newman comes to the attention of George C. Scott, a gambler who wants to use him for his own ends.
Jackie Gleason and George C. Scott both got nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category, but lost to George Chakiris in West Side Story. Scott is a dangerous and malevolent figure, he was probably at his most evil on the screen in this role.
Piper Laurie got an Oscar nomination for Best Actress and this turned out to be her career role. She's an alcoholic floozy with some dreams that keep her ego afloat, but she loves and respects Newman. They complement each other's needs and Newman finds that out way too late. Laurie unfortunately lost to Sophia Loren in Two Women.
But what I liked best about The Hustler is the contrast between Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason. Gleason is on screen at the beginning and at the end. Note how he sits apart from everyone in the pool room. No social life, no people in his orbit, it's lonely at the top. And to stay there Gleason dedicates himself to pool to the exclusion of everything else.
Yet this is who the ambitious, but very vulnerable Newman wants to be. In creating his character Newman gave it equal doses of ambition and vulnerability, both working at the same time. Not an easy thing to do, but Newman is at the top of his game as Eddie Felson. Sadly Newman lost the Oscar that year to Maximilian Schell in Judgment at Nuremberg.
But eventually some 25 years later Paul Newman got the Oscar for playing a more mature Eddie Felson in The Color of Money. A kind of justice, certainly few players ever get that kind of opportunity again.
The Hustler was also up for Best Picture and Best Director for Robert Rossen. It lost to West Side Story in both categories. Both films hold up well after almost half a century, that was a tough call for Academy voters.
The Hustler is about pool the way Moby Dick is about a whale. And there both classics.