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The Hustler [Blu-ray]
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Additional Multi-Format options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
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The Hustler | — | — |
Purchase options and add-ons
Genre | Drama |
Format | Multiple Formats, Dolby, AC-3, Blu-ray, Dubbed, NTSC, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled, Widescreen |
Contributor | Stefan Gierasch, Tom Aheame, Robert Rossen, Clifford Pellow, Paul Newman, Myron McCormick, Tom Ahearne, Carl York, Charles McDaniel, Murray Hamilton, Piper Laurie, Sid Raymond, Clifford A. Pellow, Charles Andre, Willie Mosconi, Jackie Gleason, William Adams, Michael Constantine, Charles Dierkop, Don de Leo, Alexander Rose, George C. Scott, Jake LaMotta, Carolyn Coates, Vincent Gardenia, Gordon B. Clarke, Don Koll, Art Smith See more |
Language | English |
Runtime | 2 hours and 15 minutes |
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Product Description
The Hustler - Blu-ray - Paul Newman heads a superb cast featuring Jackie Gleason, George C. Scott and Piper Laurie in the riveting film that received an Academy Award nomination as Best Picture of 1961 and brought all four of it's Oscar nomination. Newman (Best Actor nominee) is electrifying as Fast Eddie Felson, an arrogant, amoral hustler who haunts backstreet pool rooms fleecing anyone who'll pick up a cue. Determined to be acclaimed as the best, Eddie seeks out the legendary Minnesota Fats (Gleason, Supporting Actor nominee), who's backed by Bert Gordon (Scott, Supporting Actor nominee), a predatory gambler. Eddie can beat the champ, but virtually defeats himself with his low self-image. The love of a lonely woman (Laurie, Best Actress nominee) could turn Eddie's life around, but he won't rest until he beats Minnesota Fats, no matter what price he must pay.
Product details
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : NR (Not Rated)
- Product Dimensions : 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 2.08 ounces
- Item model number : FOXS2277194DVD
- Director : Robert Rossen
- Media Format : Multiple Formats, Dolby, AC-3, Blu-ray, Dubbed, NTSC, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled, Widescreen
- Run time : 2 hours and 15 minutes
- Release date : October 11, 2011
- Actors : Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott, Myron McCormick
- Dubbed: : French, Spanish
- Subtitles: : English, Spanish, French
- Producers : Robert Rossen
- Studio : 20th Century Fox
- ASIN : B005FUTCAE
- Country of Origin : USA
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #4,737 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #590 in Drama Blu-ray Discs
- Customer Reviews:
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Most know the plot, of how cocky young pool hustler, Fast Eddie Felson, comes to New York City to challenge the legendary champ, Minnesota Fats, to a game of straight pool in Fats’ regular haunt. It’s youth challenging experience, and though Fast Eddie may well have the raw talent to beat Fats, he does not have the sense to know when to quit while he is ahead, and Fats utterly humiliates Eddie after a 25 hour marathon series of games, stripping the challenger of $18,000 in winnings and leaving him exhausted and drunk on the floor. It is a hard fall, and as brutal as any suffered by any gladiator in the arena, and the middle part of the film concerns Eddie’s quest to get back on his feet, earn enough money, and take on Fats again. Along the way, he meets, Sarah Packard, a damaged young woman and begins a relationship with her, and ultimately makes an arrangement with Bert Gordon, a sharpie with a fat wallet who is willing to stake Eddie because he knows he has talent, if not character. But while Eddie has a chance at love with Sarah, his real passion is the game, and Bert is determined to protect his investment by getting rid of the competition. It does not end well for Sarah, and the sadly wiser Fast Eddie gets what he wants, a rematch with Fats, and a settling of accounts with Bert. In the end, Eddie Felson is a success, but was the price worth it, that is the question the movie asks and it has been challenging audiences ever since.
More than its weighty themes, THE HUSTLER is a masterpiece of subtle film making, and its centerpiece is Eddie and Fats’ initial clash around the pool table, a sequence that takes up nearly a quarter of the film’s more than two hour running time. The genius of it is that you don’t have to know much about the game to follow what is happening, but it is the interaction between the characters that is what bears watching, as money changes hands, signals are sent, liquor is drunk, and how simply the washing of hands, the putting on of a coat, and the picking up of a pool cue is tantamount to putting on a sword and a shield and going into battle. It is in the way Bert Gordon sits like an Emperor in the Ames pool hall, and how he gets up and moves his chair two inches and then sits back down when a drunken Eddie tells him to move somewhere else. More than that, it is in the scene where Eddie has his thumbs broken after he hustles the wrong crew, thus making him a “cripple” like Sarah, and for the first time, he is dependent on someone else, and they both become better people for it. The picnic scene where Eddie talks to her about his love of the game and the satisfaction he gets just playing it better than anyone is a paean to true success, the kind that comes from within. There is the party in Louisville sequence, where the vapid and empty character of the well to do is made plain by the way they ignore a drunken Sarah as she lies on a bed, rolling her out of the way to retrieve a coat, or the how the homosexuality of the aristocratic Findley is suggested in the statues of satyrs and Greek Gods in his basement.
The heart and soul of THE HUSTLER lies in the casting of the four principles and the career best performances they give. Simply put, this is the film that made Paul Newman a superstar, it happens the moment when he flashes that great Golden Boy smile in the cold open scene. Fast Eddie Felson was a different kind of movie protagonist, the first of the wary anti heroes that would grace America’s movie screen as the 50’s faded into the rear view mirror and the popular culture began to more reflect the tensions in American life. Newman makes being tough and being vulnerable look sexy, and does things with this role that Frank Sinatra and Bobby Darin, who were considered for the part, could never have done. He was the front runner for the Best Actor Oscar that year, but lost to Maximilian Schell’s performance in JUDGMENT AT NUREMBURG, he would have to wait a quarter of a century before getting the award, which many consider a consolation Oscar, when he reprised Fast Eddie in Martin Scorsese THE COLOR OF MONEY. I think he should have gotten it the first time around. For those who only know Piper Laurie only as Carrie White’s mother, this movie will be a revelation, her Sarah Packard is Eddie’s true love, a lame woman who clings to her man even as she is losing him; her final scene in the hotel room with Bert, where a vile sexual act is committed, is not to be forgotten. Sarah was a role many big stars of the time would have passed on as inappropriate for their images. Laurie was rewarded with a well deserved Best Actress nomination for taking the risk. This was George C. Scott’s third movie, his Bert Gordon is shrewd and intelligent, but with no moral center whatsoever, he is the Satan of this particular hell, and Scott brings all his skills to the role, with that great voice getting to deliver some equally worthy dialogue; and nobody ever leaned in better than George C. Scott. Jackie Gleason was simply a force of nature, very familiar to audiences in 1961 from his time on TV, especially from THE HONEYMOONERS, but he had spent his many years honing a larger than life persona, and a reputation as a man who enjoyed the finer things in life. All of that is in his portrayal of Minnesota Fats, and it reminds us that this man who’s other great movie role is Buford T. Justice, was one hell of a dramatic actor, if there are any doubts, just watch him in REQUIM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT, made the next year. Murray Hamilton, who will forever be Mayor Larry Vaughn from JAWS, is the smarmy Findley; some might remember that he and Myron McCormick, who plays Eddie’s partner, Charlie, were in NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS only a few years before. And there is a direct Scorsese connection in that the Raging Bull himself, Jake LaMotta, has a cameo as a bartender.
There are some behind the scenes heroes of THE HUSTLER, starting with the director and screen writer, Robert Rossen, who spent some time in the 50’s away from Hollywood because of the McCarthy blacklisters. A onetime member of the Communist Party, he had appeared before Congressional investigators and named names. Some of this finds its way into the story in the way Fast Eddie must make a deal with the devil in form of Bert in order to do what he loves to do best. Rossen had been something of a pool hustler himself in his younger days, long before finding success as a script writer at Warner Brothers and directing such classics as BODY AND SOUL and ALL THE KING’S MEN. This project was his big comeback and he made the most of it, turning it into his greatest critical and financial success. Sadly, it would be his last one, as he made only one more movie before dying much too soon in 1966. And THE HUSTLER would be nothing without the contribution of pool champion Willie Mosconi, who taught the game to Newman before production started, did some of the trick shots himself with the help of editor Dede Allen, and has a cameo as “Willie,” the man who holds the money at Ames Pool Hall.
Scorsese’s sequel, which came out in 1986, picked up the story of Fast Eddie 25 years later, and though it took its title, THE COLOR OF MONEY, from Walter Tevis’s official follow up novel, the sequel did not use the plot of the book, but instead told the story of an older Fast Eddie, who is drawn back to the game he loves when he meets a talented kid, played by Tom Cruise, who is just as deficient in character as Eddie was at his age. My only complaint about Scorsese’s follow up, is that it had so few call backs to the original film, that many young viewers in the 80’s and later would watch MONEY over and over completely unaware that Fast Eddie had first made his appearance on the scene in 1961; their loss.
The DVD special edition is an excellent version, complete with many extras and a commentary track; the transfer is well done, preserving the effect of Cinemascope, which made the pool rooms seem enormous, something seldom done in a B/W movie. My only complaint that the commentaries by various parties – Carol Rossen, Dede Allen, critic Richard Schickel, actor Stefan Giersach, and briefly, Newman himself – do not do a scene by scene breakdown. No matter, it is the definitive version of this classic.
And after all these years, THE HUSTLER still speaks to us, especially to those who see it for the first time. Don’t be turned off by the B/W, watch it and meet Fast Eddie and Minnesota Fats, Bert Gordon and Sarah Packard. They still have a lot to tell us.
If I'm being honest most of the more intelligent movies these days do not come out of America. A lot of them come out of Europe. Take for instance recent gems "The Lives of Others", "Head On" and "Revanche" to name a few which are far superior to such embarrassing Oscar winners as "Juno", "Little Miss Sunshine" and the insipid and idiotic "Her". But back in 1961 at the start of a great boom in American cinema that would run up through the end of 1976, a timeless film came into being that any country and any generation could be proud of. It was based on Walter Tevis' first novel of the same name and it was called "The Hustler".
The best description of the film I've ever come across is "A Greek Tragedy played out in pool halls". And that is precisely what it is. Shot in stark and glorious black and white the story tells a tale about the quest to be a winner and the price one must pay to achieve such a goal. The argument of the story or the premise if you will is "In order to win one must have character". The definition of both what it is to win and what denotes character is argued throughout the script. Eddie, the lead character, thinks winning equates with money and beating the best pool player around; Minnesota Fats whom he loses to in the first act and hungers to beat passionately from that point on. The villain Bert Gordon, who becomes Eddie's new manager, claims everyone has talent but not necessarily character and also believes winning equates with wealth but also that with wealth comes power. But the voice of reason in the story encompassed by Eddie's intelligent polio stricken alcoholic writer girlfriend Sarah Packard argues differently saying because Eddie possesses both a wealth of talent and an uncommon passionate love for the game he is a winner already. And with this the battle lines are drawn.
The names of the characters in the story are paramount. Sarah brings this to light in an early scene where she is sitting in a bar with Eddie whom she has just met. She asks him if he wants to know what the name Sarah means and there is reason for this. The name "Sarah" means "Princess". Her last name "Packard" means "one who packs" which she finds herself having to do in order to keep Eddie. The name Burt means "Illustrious" with his last name Gordon meaning "Large Fortification". The name Eddie means "Wealthy Guard" and his surname Felson may allude to the translation "fallen son". Each name says something about the characters that may on the surface seem less than what they are as they dwell in the seedy and smoky world they inhabit. But do not be fooled. As Sarah points out Eddie is wealthy already. He's a talented winner who has already won her heart and doesn't need to beat Minnesota Fats to prove himself. But Burt, who has money but does not possess talent, passion or princess, is the devil on Eddie's shoulder urging him on to play Minnesota Fats again...and hustle some wealthy billiards players on the way as a means to use Eddie to line his pockets and feed his ego in his own twisted quest to be a winner.
Eddie's drive to beat Minnesota Fats in a rematch makes him desperate and blind to Bert's manipulations. Bert's jealousy of Eddie's talent and the egotistical thrill of using him to make money are threatened by Sarah's intelligence and ability to see through his schemes and he fights to get rid of her. Sarah's insecurities about her deformity and her love for Eddie make her vulnerable despite her insightful ability to see through the haze and distinguish the truth about each of the men. This volatile combination needs amongst the three characters builds a tension that grows mesmerizingly until it reaches its explosive and unforgettable conclusion.
This is an extraordinary film with standout performances all around. Jackie Gleason is perfectly cast as the cool headed pool champion Minnesota Fats. George C. Scott is excellent as a sleazy business man who as Sarah's character marvelously points out is a Roman who has to have it all. Piper Laurie plays Sarah with a convincing pitch perfect balance of brains, strength and fragility. And in one of his best if not his very best performance Paul Newman plays Fast Eddie brilliantly showing us all the power and fissures in this engaging and tragically flawed man. The directing is spot on bringing us straight into a seedy underground of early 1960's pool halls filled with desperation and the struggle for triumph. And the writing is top notch with its complex layers drawing us into its characters and its themes which keep us riveted from beginning to end.
It still shocks me even now that "The Hustler" did not make the AFI Top One Hundred. The movie is a brilliant timeless testament to America's obsession with winning. Possibly the best ever. All one needs to do is turn on a television set where from sports to reality shows to awards shows we can how relevant it's premise remains to this day. Of all the great American films ever made, "The Hustler" may just be the most overlooked masterpiece of them all.
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Todo bien.
ビリヤードの名シーンの数々。1961年の作品なので、やや「間延び」するが
見ごたえのあるヒューマンドラマ。