"He's his own worst enemy." You hear it all the time in describing athletes who have all the talent in the world but can't seem to put it all together. That's "Fast" Eddie Felson, a brash but supremely talented pool shark who travels to New York City set out to prove he's the best pool player in the country. Upon setting foot at a local pool hall, he confidently proclaims for everyone to hear that he'll win $10,000 that very night. He sets up a match against the legendary Minnesota Fats, who everybody says is the best in the world. From the onset, it's clear that Eddie is indeed as good as he says he is and after playing $200 a game for a couple hours, he's up $1,000 and wants to bump it up to $1,000 a game, ordering a bottle of booze at the same time. Fats, unperturbed, quickly agrees. Even when he's down $11,000 many hours later, Fats looks perfectly calm as he watches Eddie get increasingly arrogant, tired, and drunk. Eddie tells everybody that he's the best anybody's ever seen and at that point, Fats' manager encourages Fats to keep playing the young kid, telling him, "The kid's a loser" and maintains his poise even as Eddie is up $18,000 after 25 hours.
Needless to say, Eddie loses it all back to Fats save for $200 and literally begs him to keep on playing. He won't ever stop, even if he turned that $200 into a million. He won't be content until he loses it all. This lengthy introduction to Eddie's character is especially poignant to me because I see it all the time in the gambling world, people set out on a path of self destruction with no hope of ever succeeding. One moment they are on the top of the world, laughing, drinking, having fun, tipping the waitresses $25 chips and a couple hours later they sit there silently, miserable, wondering where it all went. I know the sinking feeling Eddie has because I've been there and it sucks.
Some people simply can't handle success. They work their entire lives to achieve a goal, but once they reach the mountain top they don't know what to do. There's only pressure at the top, none at the bottom. Eddie, for all his talents, for all his pride and ego, doesn't know what it really means to be a winner, not just in a competitive sense, but in a broader worldly context as well. He is in denial over what happened against Fats, blaming his manager for holding out on the extra $1,000 he could have used, full well knowing he would have simply lost it all. He develops a relationship with a troubled woman and cannot reciprocate her feelings because he can't even care for himself, let alone another human being. He holds on to the belief that as long as there is a cue stick in his hand, he can control his own fate and anything else in the world is extraneous.
On its surface, The Hustler is a movie about pool, but it is really a movie about how to win at life, as Charlie Sheen would say. No matter how well Eddie plays pool, he will never succeed without taking a hard honest look at himself and must go through trials and tribulations. It is only through personal pain and admitting to his weaknesses and faults that Eddie is finally able to truly win. He's no hero, but the struggles he faces to simply learn to be human is heroic enough.
Oh yeah, Paul Newman is really good here.
Grade: A-
No comments:
Post a Comment