The Hustler

“The Hustler”

Most movies that come out today are practicable, I’m not saying that this is bad thing, but in the movie “The Hustler” the unsuspecting scene’s drove the movie. I really enjoyed watching this movie and I was really surprised to enjoy a film this much that was made in 1961. Robert Rossen was the director of this movie, and I thought he did a wonderful job picking out the cast for this film. Every character was believable, and they all played excellent roles, but the role of “Fast” Eddie stuck out to me because of the strengths in the character.

Paul Newman was the perfect actor to play the role of “Fast” Eddie Felson, I thought he played the role perfection. From the beginning of the movie it is made obvious that Newman plays the role of a cocky young hustler on the rise, trying to prove something to the world. Newman’s character “Fast” Eddie was trying to show people that he was the best pool player, and hustler in the world. His character was almost addicted to gambling, because when he was down he would not stop until he was back up. “Fast” Eddie was the type of person to dig himself a ditch that he could not get out of, and in this movie that’s what he almost did.

“Fast” Eddie felt he needed to prove himself so he set out to look for a man named Minnesota Fats, who was supposedly the best pool player in the world, played by Jackie Gleason. Eddie’s cocky side got the best of him when he played against Minnesota Fats, and things start to go for the worse. Newman shows how this losing gets to his character, but yet he can’t give up so instead of throwing in the towel, he keeps playing until he dough to big of a whole for himself to get out of. Now that Eddie was down and out he needed something in his life to restore his feeling of purpose, he finds this is a woman named Sarah played by Piper Laurie. Although his main motives of being a pool shark don’t decrease, he gets just enough confidence to get back out there on his mission to hustle.

Then “Fast” Eddie teams up with Minnesota Fats manager named Bert, who is not the best man to have on your team. He was not a horrible guy, but he was definitely not a friend, because he was always thinking of himself. However, Bert was the bank for Eddie, so when he won so did Bert. Bert was finding out where all the action was and putting out all the money, but he was also keep a unfair amount. Bert ends up taking Eddie and Sarah to an event that is full of hustlers, it is a party but at the some time Bert introduces Eddie to a big time man to gamble with. Meanwhile Sarah was off getting drunk and she started to make a fool of herself.

Newman’s character started to dig another ditch for himself in a game, when Sarah came down wasted needing to go back to the room. Instead of going back with this woman that he cared so much about, he stayed to try and come back. “ Fast” Eddie ends up losing so much that Bert tells him that he won’t put out any more money for him, so he ends up going upstairs into Sarah purse where he takes five hundred dollars back that he gave