In one of the great American classics, an expert pool-player/con artist nicknamed Fast Eddie (Paul Newman) struggles to be able to play and defeat the country’s best pool player, Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason). This movie is clearly composed of three parts: it blows us away with greatness in Act I, meanders in Act II, and then picks up to become a very good Act III; yet it fails to return to the greatness of the first 35 minutes. This movie is proportional to the amount of screen time spent together by the three great actors in the movie—Newman, Gleason and George C. Scott as Fats’ manager. When just one of them in the scene, it’s meh, with two of them it’s pretty good, and with all three it’s dynamite. While watching the movie, I experienced it as a slice-of-life story exposing the very shady world of pool sharks and the players within. But as I thought about the film afterward, I realized that this movie is really about winning, American-style. In the USA and now in other parts of the world as well, the only thing that matters about a game is winning it—getting that gold medal, becoming the champion. We glorify coaches who embody this must-win philosophy; we create a culture in which players dope themselves, risk their lives and literally do anything to win. This movie dissects the winning-only culture, peels away the surface and exposes the emptiness, showing that being a true winner is not about the number of games you win but how you win and how you lose. We’ve lost that ideal in our society, and we see the results illustrated in this movie and in all the doping scams that occur continually. A great parable, if somewhat uneven in its delivery.

Not For Kids

Extras:

• At the time, Jackie Gleason was famous for his role as Ralph in the TV sit-com, “The Honeymooners.” Despite his talent and success there, that program has been essentially ignored by the passage of time, becoming an outdated fossil of its era and eclipsed by the contemporary yet timeless “I Love Lucy” show. But his excellent performance in “The Hustler” has immortalized him, so he is remembered not so much as Ralph but as the great Minnesota Fats.
• A few years later, George C. Scott won the Oscar as Best Actor in “Patton,” a great war movie and biopic.
• Rod Serling would occasionally borrow (not steal, nah) ideas from the movies for his TV series, “The Twilight Zone.” The essential idea of “The Hustler” is replicated in the episode, “A Game of Pool,” but with a Twilight Zone spin, featuring Jonathan Winters in the Fats part and Jack Klugman in the challenger role. “The Hustler” had still not been released when this episode was produced, but the similarities are too great to be coincidental. By the way, it’s a great episode and a lot of fun.