I've always known what this film was but it wasn't until it randomly popped up on my Plex server and I found myself devoid of anything to watch after being seriously let down by Outer Range that I ever bothered to give this one a look. I don't know exactly why that is but perhaps it had a bit to do with the fact that Cruise was pumping out two movies a year in the 80's and there was a bit of a film fatigue as far as the man is concerned. Well last night I wasn't in the mood to be too discerning about what I watch so I just fired this one up and hoped for the best.
I was not let down so if you have a short attention span just know that this movie is good and still looks good and is entertaining even by today's standards in 2024.
This is a sequel to the film The Hustler from 1961 that I have not seen but the character "Eddie" is played by Paul Newman in both. I am living proof that it is not necessary at all to have seen the first one to "get" the 2nd one so don't worry about that. There might be some Easter Eggs for people that have seen both, but it certainly isn't a big part of the overall understanding of the film.
Eddie is all grown up and is a businessman hanging out in a pool hall that he distributes alcohol to when one day he sees a very animated person playing 9-ball pool behind his seat. One of his students of sort is playing against "Vince" (Tom Cruise) and is losing badly on the tables. Eddie takes notice of the talent of Vince and approaches him and his girlfriend about going to dinner with him to propose that he bankroll Eddie on touring the country on their way towards a big 9-ball tournament in Atlantic City 6-weeks in the future.
He tells Eddie and his girlfriend that Vince is in fact very good, but he lacks the talents necessary to become wealthy from playing the game because he doesn't have a strategy to lure in his opponents to win actual money on side-bets. Vince simply plays as best as he can all the time and therefore never is able to lure in the best players that will gamble big money on games. Eddie attempts to introduce Vince to the art of the hustle, but Vince really struggles with this because he hates to lose even if it is intentional.
They travel down the road stopping at various pool halls and Eddie becomes increasingly frustrated with Vince because even though when Vince does trust Eddie's ways and sees that Eddie is in fact correct about conning and hustling other players results in more financial gain, Vince's ego always gets in the way of finishing the hustle. Eddie eventually gets fed up and gives Vince and his girlfriend a bunch of money to help them carry on their way to Atlantic City for the tournament and abandons them. Having felt the frustration of failing on this new student of his Eddie returns to playing pool himself only to discover that he still has a knack for the game himself.
Without spoiling anything major, this new path for Eddie showcases that a lot of his teaching did actually end up getting through to Vince, and in the interim, a lot of Vince's arrogance and desire to win has transferred over to him as he finds himself deviating from his own game plan and getting hustled himself.
Now, the story isn't epic. It's good, don't get me wrong, but it isn't ground-breaking. What is groundbreaking in this film is the way in which it is filmed. I can only imagine how they were able to get some of the amazing shots on film when you consider that we didn't have a lot of CGI available to us in 1986 so all of these wonderful sequences sometimes putting un in POV (point of view) behind the balls that are moving across the table must have been really difficult to get done. Of course the fact that this is a Scorsese film probably has a lot to do with why it ended up getting done because that guy is an absolute visionary when it comes to the camera.
This might seem rudimentary to anyone who knows considerably more than I do about filming, but how do you even get this shot, in a still, without having the camera be visible in the scene?
Another amazing aspect of the film is that unlike other films where some mega-star is meant to be very talented at something, Paul Newman, Tom Cruise, and many others in the film are actually taking the shots in question.
The above is just a minor example but I wonder how many takes a lot of these scenes must have endured so that people could make trick shots including no-look shots like this? There are many that involve several shots in sequence and it's clearly the actor that is actually making the shots. We didn't have the ability to face-swap someone in film back in those days so when you see a majority of the shots that are taking place in a scene it is actually the real actors that are making them. Most of the shots are like this actually and there are only a few instances in the entire film where it could possible be a body double that is a real-life pool expert.
Particularly for Tom Cruise, I admire how some actors will actually develop a skill in order for a role, but something like being an expert at pool isn't something that you can just work out in a 6-month time-period, no matter how much tutelage you have coming to you. We also need to keep in mind that although Tom was all the rage in the 80's he wasn't anywhere near the mega-rich star that he is today and he was making 2-3 films a year. Therefore, this skill that the two stars of this movie portray on film is extremely impressive.
Should I watch it?
I always feel a bit of hesitation when it comes back to revisiting legendary films that were made in the 80's and beyond because technology has evolved so much since then. This one, however, stands the test of time easily and at no point seems fake. The acting is solid, the premise is solid, and the action comes at you in just the right doses to keep you glued to the screen throughout the film's 2 hour runtime.
If you are young, this is a good example of excellent filmmaking in the 80's that didn't rely on technology at all for its production. I am of the opinion that most films that relied on the latest and greatest technology in the 80's all look kind of fake and stupid today, but this one is different. I really admire the people in this movie and think that anyone will be entertained by this very engaging and at times, significantly more emotional that one would expect a movie about playing pool to be. It's just excellent in every way and therefore I think it should be viewed by everyone.
the only legal way to watch this at the moment is to rent it on just about every streaming service in existence. There are other ways of course that I am sure you can figure out on your own.