The Color of Money (1986)

Starring: Paul Newman, Tom Cruise, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, John Turturro, Forest Whitaker and Bill Cobbs, with a voice cameo from Martin Scorsese
Grade: A

Is Paul Newman the only actor to not complete two trilogies? As Lew Harper, he starred in Harper and The Drowning Pool, and as “Fast Eddie” Felson he starred in The Hustler and this film. On another strange note, both sequels were made a minimum of nine years after their predecessor. This is sort of random to point out, but I don’t think any other leading man has ever done this.

This is something you could put in a trivia contest.

Summary

After a quick intro narrated by Martin Scorsese about a game of 9-Ball and how luck itself is an art, we cut to an aged “Fast Eddie” Felson (Newman) who has given up the game of pool and is now a successful liquor salesman in Chicago. He tries to sell this new bourbon he has in a pool hall to bartender and friend Janelle (Helen Shaver). He talks about how he can get Janelle a case for $35.50, less than her wholesaler could get for Jack Daniel’s, but she’s more interested in him rather than the liquor. Julian (Turturro) interrupts to talk with Eddie about how he’s been playing some guy named Vincent (Cruise), and he’s been hustling him. He just needs a little more money to continue, so Eddie hands him some cash to help him. Vincent isn’t even paying attention, playing on an arcade game as he waits. Eddie gets back into his conversation with Janelle where they flirt some more, and Eddie notices how great Vincent’s break was. Once Eddie gets back into the conversation, Julian asks for another $20 because he already lost, though he insists he has Vincent on the ropes. Vincent is playing around with his pool stick like it’s a spear, makes out with his girlfriend Carmen (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), and pulls off another break that makes Eddie get out of his seat to turn around and watch. Eddie goes over and sits to observe Vincent win again, forcing Julian to pay up and quit for the day. Vincent still wants to play though, so he offers to have a game with Julian for no money. Eddie takes notice of this. Despite Carmen’s apprehension, Vincent doubles down and says that if he wins, no money will be involved. If Julian wins, he’ll throw him $20. Julian refuses and leaves, and Eddie smiles at Vincent’s confidence. Vincent goes around the room challenging anyone to a game, but no one is interested.

Carmen turns around and asks Eddie if he’d play Vincent for $20 a rack. He accepts but makes it $500 a rack instead, giving her the cash right out of his suit jacket. This startles Carmen, and he knows it. Eddie can see the two’s inexperience at hustling a mile away, mentioning how he is the unknown and he offered a lot of money. If they were doing it right, Vincent would be the unknown. He offers $500 again, but she declines and jokingly calls him crazy. Pivoting, Eddie offers to take them both out to dinner tonight. She tells him to ask Vincent, but Eddie tells Carmen to ask Vincent instead. The three go to a sit-down restaurant together, and Vincent talks more about the arcade game he loves called Stalker rather than the “easy” game of 9-Ball because his reflexes might be good enough from the arcade game to get him into West Point. Eddie goes on about how one can become rich at anything if they’re the best at it and how Vincent is a natural character. Vincent thinks this is a compliment, but Eddie explains that he’s an incredible flake. Even so, it’s a gift. His attitude will have a lot of people wanting to beat him in pool halls, but this same attitude won’t get him to the big time. It won’t let him reach pool excellence. He has to be a “student of human moves”. All the greats were students of human moves, and that’s Eddie’s area of excellence. Vincent isn’t buying it, so Eddie decides to prove himself. He points out a guy at the bar who’s been hustling some woman for half an hour. Eddie bets that the man will give up in 30 seconds for a $1. Vincent takes him up on it and times it. Unfortunately, Eddie is off by seconds, but the man does leave. To up the ante, Eddie bets he will leave with the woman at the bar in two minutes for the bill of the meal. Vincent laughs while accepting, and Eddie goes right over to the woman. He doesn’t say anything outright but asks her to come outside to take a look at his car, admitting he knows it sounds weird. She goes along with it, and the two walk out together. On the way, Eddie stops by Vincent and Carmen.

Mentioning the importance of human moves, he points out how Vincent was studying the watch, but Eddie was studying him. He tells them to get the check and gives them money for a cab. Unbeknownst to Vincent, Eddie actually knew the woman as she’s friends with Julian, and Eddie just acts like he didn’t like seeing her sitting alone. She adds that Julian wanted to talk Eddie about something, but Eddie said he was busy.

While in bed with Janelle that night as she fawns over him, Eddie is still fixated on Vincent’s play. The next day, Carmen approaches Eddie at the bar to inquire further about his vague talk of making big money, so Eddie takes her outside and the two sit in his car. Eddie says that he got this car by investing in excellence. He thinks Vincent has the eye, the stroke, and the flake thing down pat. The question is if he’s able to turn his flake attributes on and off. He’s not sure if that can be taught saying, “He’s got to learn how to be himself but on purpose”. Eddie asks if Carmen is cool with traveling and such and she laughs when Eddie asks for her to help him with Vincent. She smiles and outs him for knowing the girl from the bar the night before, which is how he was able to pull it off. She guesses that Eddie knew the first guy’s schedule, and Eddie laughs, noting she’s a tough one. Carmen talks about how they’ve been together for a year, and Vincent is the one who pushed for them to live together. Her old boyfriend last year got busted for breaking into Vincent’s parents’ house, and she met Vincent at the police station. She got busted too because she was the one who was driving the car. Actually, she still has Vincent’s mother’s necklace from the robbery around her own neck. The innocent Vincent hasn’t suspected a thing. He just told her that his mother has one just like it. Sometime later, Eddie goes to Child World, a toy store where Vincent works as a salesman. Eddie stands close by after Vincent closes a sale, and he comes to Eddie right after. They go and talk privately, with Eddie bringing up a 9-Ball tournament at the end of April in Atlantic City that they should go to. However, he wants Vincent to take things seriously by leaving tomorrow to go on the road for six weeks of seasoning. Vincent suggests he take Julian instead, but Eddie knows he’d get better bets with Vincent.

Finding an angle, Eddie tells Vincent that he’s starting to lose Carmen and how she’s starting to get bored with his life. Going on this six-week trip of excitement could be what saves it. Knowing he’s got Vincent’s attention, he tells him to go back to work and to not worry about it. When he wants to talk, he can come and find him. At a pool hall, Eddie is talking with Janelle, and he sees Vincent and Carmen walk in. Right away, he goes to the back office and tells Janelle to tell anyone who asks where he’s at. The plan is already coming together in his head. Soon after, Vincent comes to his office to talk about what he said. Eddie turns and hands him a high quality Balabushka cue stick. Vincent can’t believe it, but he also doesn’t want to accept it because he’s still not sure about the whole idea, even though it’s the only thing on Eddie’s mind. Even so, he tells Vincent to keep it and play with it. If he doesn’t like it, he can bring it back to him. Before Vincent leaves the room, he tells Eddie that he thinks he’s wrong about Carmen because he talked to her and felt her out and such. Accepting a call in the middle of the conversation, an uncaring Eddie says he’s glad that he’s wrong. Vincent leaves the room and shows his friends that Eddie gave him a coveted Balabushka while Carmen exits the bathroom and gets a drink at the bar. Eddie surveys the scene, goes over to Carmen, and whispers something to her. She takes a sip of her drink and walks outside. Immediately, Vincent walks around looking for and even asks Julian, who tells him she went out. Right after, Carmen walks back in with cigarettes she just bought, but Vincent starts hurdling a series of questions about where she was and how he was worried, especially since they sell cigarettes at the bar. It’s clear that Eddie’s words from earlier have started to get to him, and Carmen is looking more annoyed with Vincent’s overprotectiveness in this particular situation. After a frustrated Vincent breaks on a new game, he goes over to Eddie at the bar and tells him he’s down.

Following Eddie dancing with Janelle and the two having a drink at the bar, Julian interrupts with a girl to see if Eddie set anyone new up for him, but he explains he’s going out of town for a few weeks. Julian correctly assumes he’s taking Vincent and is offended, saying he’d beat him and Eddie in 9-Ball. After bringing up how Eddie hasn’t been on the road since 1960, he wonders if Eddie is banging Carmen. Eddie laughs it off, so Janelle leaves. Julian wants to face Vincent tonight and the winner gets to go with Eddie, but Eddie deflects and says he’ll see him in Atlantic City. Eddie runs down to catch Janelle before she goes and has to explain himself. She thought they were going to the Bahamas for a vacation, but she now knows that Eddie is going to be on the road because of Julian. Eddie insists they’re still going to the Bahamas. He just doesn’t know when. He also didn’t want to tell anyone about the trip with Vincent because it might not work out. Just then, Julian bangs on the window from outside and yells that Vincent sucks and so does Eddie. Eddie ignores it and tries to explain things, but Janelle kicks him out of her place. Soon after, Eddie is explaining the details of their trip to Vincent and Carmen. Eddie will cover food, room, and everything in-between much like Bert Gordon did for him in The Hustler. With this, Eddie will keep 60% of Vincent’s bets. He also lays the bets, so he will be taking 60% of the losses if Vincent loses. Carmen balks at his slumlord prices, but he dares her to find someone with a better price. Vincent isn’t worried because he’s not going to lose much. However, Eddie assures him he will because that’s what he’s going to teach him.

“Sometimes, if you lose, you win.”

The three discuss Grady Seasons (real-life professional pool player Keith McCready) being the one pool player making the most money on paper, but Eddie argues that the real money is in the practice room. A guy can get wiped out in the first game of the Atlantic City tournament, hang around the practice room for a couple of days, and make more money than the guy who won the tournament. Eddie, Vincent, and Carmen officially hit the road and go to a diner for breakfast where they send food back early for their orders being fucked up. They talk about Carmen and how she was a waiter, and Vincent asks why Eddie doesn’t play anymore. Initially, Eddie says he quit, though he admits somebody retired him because he got in with the wrong kind of people. If you remember, Bert Gordon threatened to have him killed at the end of The Hustler if he ever walked into a pool hall again. Even so, Eddie says this part of his life was a long time ago, it’s all dead and buried, and he’s won his share of medals. Vincent wonders if he ever gets the itch since he hangs out in pool halls, but Eddie considers it a young man’s game now and he’s too old to keep up. Plus, everyone is playing while on coke and speed. He admits that in his day, it was about booze, but “Somehow, it was more human”. He relates his point to wine and the Bible when Vincent questions this. On a drive, Eddie talks about how having the most money makes you the best. They pull up to a pool hall Eddie knows, and Eddie has Vincent put the Balabushka back in the trunk. He wants him to use a house cue because if he shows up with a Balabushka, no one is going to play him for money. They get inside, and Eddie is having goosebumps, as he hasn’t been this excited in quite some time. Unfortunately, once they get in, they see that the place Eddie knew is actually a department store now. Getting back to the car, Vincent makes a series of jokes and Eddie is pissed. They head to the next place, and Vincent plays some old guy with a hole in his neck. He could easily beat him, but he goes over to Eddie and talks about how he feels bad for the guy.

Eddie wants him to win and leave, but Vincent isn’t feeling it. So, Eddie wants him to “dump” it like a professional and make a real performance out of it. Vincent agrees and goes to play the old guy for $30. Feeling a change in the air, Eddie gives Carmen the keys to bring the car around front. He goes upstairs to observe the game from the upper deck, and Vincent hams it up in a loss. When he looks around for Eddie to pay the guy, the man and his friends think Vincent is trying to stiff them, so they all attack him. Eddie waits for a moment, so they get some shots in, and then he runs down and acts like he’s Vincent’s father who is ready to discipline him. Along the way, Eddie gets a couple of punches in on the other guys while grabbing Vincent by his shirt. He drags him outside, and they run into the car, with Carmen driving. While in the backseat with him, Eddie gives him the important lesson of never easing off someone like that, especially when there is money involved. He says this is the problem with mercy. It just isn’t professional. Despite his bloody lip, they are able to laugh things off after Carmen adds on with “Nice guys finish last”. That night, they get a spot at the Traint Motel. The next morning, Eddie barges in their room so they can get going to check out Chalkies, another local pool hall he knows about. After making eye contact with a naked Carmen from the bathroom, he tells them to get ready and to forget about breakfast. Eddie exits but yells back through the door for Vincent to leave his cue and to wear his work shirt. The name “Vince” is emblazoned on it, and he thinks it will be a nice touch. They head to Chalkies, and it’s headed up by Eddie’s old friend Orvis (Cobbs). He’s very aware of Eddie’s past exploits. Usually, he steers for 20% but offers to steer for 10% because he’s dealing with “Fast Eddie”. However, he changes it to 15% once Eddie reveals he’s stake horsing for Vincent.

After Carmen looks around at the people inside the place, Vincent suggests she go back to the motel because it could get dangerous, but she has no interest. Eddie joins the two and points out a player named Moselle (Bruce A. Young) and to stay away from him. If Vincent beats Moselle, it will scare away a guy like Earl (Robert Agins), someone who shows up with $5,000-6,000 and doesn’t mind losing. For now, Eddie and Vincent will just play at a table, as Eddie foresees Moselle coming to Vincent. Vincent still wants to send Carmen away because of the people inside potentially being dangerous, but she gets mad, and they start arguing. Finally, Eddie takes her by the arm and walks her over to the front and tells her to get Orvis to send her a cab to the motel. Eddie breaks and shows he’s still got it, but he says straight pool is pool, not 9-Ball. The latter became more popular because it’s better for TV. Eddie wins the first game and tries to call a 9 on the break on the second game but doesn’t get it. As Vincent takes over, Eddie thinks about taking on Moselle himself because he doesn’t think he’s that good. Vincent starts doing great, and Eddie tells him to cool it because there are eyes on him. However, Vincent doesn’t listen and continues to talk shit while knocking every ball in. Following the game, Eddie storms out to his car, tells Vincent this is a waste of his time and money, and drives off. That night, Eddie gets out of his room and goes over to Vincent’s to talk, but he’s gone. Carmen answers the door in her underwear and lets him in, uncaring of her appearance in his presence. He politely asks her to put some clothes on, but she doesn’t see it as a big deal. Moving on, he tells her to not get Vincent all flustered like she did at Chalkies. Trying to test her, he grabs her and brings her in the bathroom and acts like he’s trying to have sex with her. When she starts flipping out, Eddie tells her that he’s not her father or boyfriend. They are partners, and she is not to play games with him. When she showers, she needs to shut the door, referencing their eye contact earlier. She tells him not to flatter himself, but he counters by saying not to bullshit him.

After things calm down, he refers to Vincent as a thoroughbred. She should make him feel good, and Eddie teaches him how to run. Carmen understands and agrees. Before Eddie leaves, he sees the Balabushka is gone, and he flips out on Carmen for letting Vincent take it. They both know he went back to Chalkies to play with it, fucking up a lot of potential money-making bets.

“Child care!”, Eddie exclaims, as dealing with Vincent and Carmen and their inexperience is going to be much more frustrating than he thinks. The goal is to get to Atlantic City, but with the way Vincent is acting, they may not make it out of Chicago.

My Thoughts:

Twenty-five years removed from The Hustler, Paul Newman makes his long-awaited return to the world of pool in The Color of Money, managing to secure the services of Martin Scorsese to direct it as well in one of the rare times he took an outside project. In doing so, cinemagoers of the 1980s were treated to another great sports drama that also helped ignite the rise of one of the biggest movie stars of all time in Tom Cruise.

This movie and Top Gun in the same year? What luck!

The Color of Money seemed like a personal passion project for Paul Newman. Just as he decided to return to play the iconic role of “Fast Eddie” Felson because there was still more story to tell in his older age, it mirrored the character of Eddie himself, as the elder statesman also decides to re-enter the world of pool hustling after being reinvigorated by the energy of a young and excitable Vincent (“It was over for me before it really got started, but I’m hungry again and you bled that back into me”). After all of these years following the death of Sarah Packard, Eddie finally came to terms with reality and overcame the game of pool itself in his volatile face off with the powerful Bert Gordon. More than likely, he didn’t want to stop playing the game and could have just wanted to balance it with a more fulfilled life, but as we remember in the darker ending of The Hustler, Bert told him to never walk into a big-time pool hall ever again. With this, Eddie accepted life for what it was because he had no choice, with the wealthy gambler forcing his retirement on the threat of injuring or even killing Eddie. Eddie’s big problem in The Hustler was that he didn’t know how to quit. Even in victory, he still had traces of this in his DNA, but he accepted his personal loss and was finally forced into the direction to quit. Now, years later, Eddie is happy and content with being a liquor salesman. He’s put the game behind him and has come to terms with everything. Plus, it’s a young man’s game, as he explains to Vincent and Carmen. Though he still frequents pool halls to sell his liquor to the bars and because he still has younger friends that know of his previous reputation and look to him for mentorship like Julian, Eddie hasn’t picked up a pool stick in years, staying true to his agreement all those years back. Even so, a real competitor who competed at the highest level will show flashes of that old spirit from time to time, as there will be moments where he is reminded of how good he used to be or how much he used to love playing.

Just the sound of Vincent’s break for a new game prompts him to turn around to watch, something he seemingly hasn’t done in years.

It doesn’t need to be said either. His lack of enthusiasm about pool or Julian’s playing shows how far past his old life that he is. Observing Vincent brings the fire back in him, and he sees dollar signs, along with the chance of something special happening. With this, a new partnership is born, and we get excited just as Eddie does when they start hitting the road again just like how he used to do with Charlie. In a way, he’s back. For huge fans of the original film, you find yourself having flashbacks of watching the young “Fast Eddie” taking over pool halls with ease just as Eddie does in real time when he starts training Vincent, and they start hitting the new pool halls. Though the first place is a dud because it has been turned into a department store which Eddie didn’t know, watch Eddie before they enter the place. The exuberance and jitters Newman expresses in that moment is that of a superstar athlete going back in time to relive his glory days, and he can’t help but smile and reminisce like he’s going there to play himself. Eddie taking in Vincent to mold him into a new superstar of pool is much like a father/son mentorship in a way, like a dad getting his son ready to play high school football for the first time while giving him pointers and excitingly telling him old stories about how he used to play. When they walk into Chalkies, Orvis immediately points out “Fast Eddie” and hearing that nickname for the first time in a while is everything to him. It vindicates him and his reputation, especially to Vincent and Carmen who may not have been immediately convinced of his prowess. Without having to do much, Eddie still commands the respect of his fellow pool players just by entering the room, despite not having played since 1961. They don’t have to do to many callbacks to the film’s predecessor, but it’s the little details like these that connect the two films enough for fans of the series.

With that being said, watching The Hustler isn’t essential to understand The Color of Money, as nothing in this sequel is directly affected by the first movie other than explaining the long hiatus Eddie took in playing. Even then, he downplays why in the diner scene. For those that never watched the first movie, it is a good enough explanation but quite the understatement. As a massive movie fan however, I would still argue that The Hustler should be viewed beforehand because it allows you to watch The Color of Money with a corrective lens and appreciation for who Eddie was and is today. It helps in understanding the devastation he faced in his younger days and how much he’s learned and grown since to put everything behind him for the most part. He doesn’t need to go on a depressive monologue in this sequel to explain his backstory, even if the character has every right to in trying to explain to Vincent why he needs to listen to him. If you watch the first movie however, the frustrations are felt even more in Newman’s performance because he’s channeling those past events that character has been through with every glance or understated expression. Basically, it makes everything he does in this sequel mean more, along with making your heart warm as you smile ear to ear when Eddie states the final line of the film, making this long-awaited sequel worth the endeavor. Despite a concerted effort to make this a sequel that isn’t too dependent on the first movie, a lot of credit goes to screenwriter Richard Price who respectfully acknowledges the previous film through little subtleties to shape who Eddie is now, what he’s learned over the years, and why he is the way he is. During their first sit-down conversation, Eddie is quick to point out Vincent’s character, much like Bert Gordon did to him when labeling Eddie a “born loser” and lacking character all those years back. This time around, Eddie sees Vincent as a “natural character” because of his brash style and calls him a flake, though adding that he can use this to his advantage since Vincent is still extremely talented.

Eddie’s “loser” tendencies and not knowing when to quit were his noted weaknesses, but Bert funded him because he knew how to use Eddie’s character flaws to his advantage. Now, Eddie is doing the same with Vincent. He knows Vincent’s cockiness and punchable smile will have people lining up to beat him at pool, but he needs to learn how to turn this part of his personality on and off to find a path to the “big time”. Vincent needs to understand the opponent just as much as the game itself. Because of those interactions and life-altering moments with Bert, Eddie internalized what he learned regarding these points all these years later. Just like Bert was as the expert professional gambler, Eddie has now become the master of studying people, or what Eddie considers his “area of excellence”. If Vincent can become a student of human moves, it will allow him to reach the level of the greats instead of just hustling for small-time payouts. It’s all about the strategy and how to play the opponent. Minnesota Fats taught Eddie this with the way he beat him the first time, and Eddie is now using the wealth of experience he has behind him to make sure Vincent doesn’t screw up his own potential. Unfortunately, Vincent is cocky as hell, very good at the game, sees no problem with playing to win against all comers, and has trouble with just lying down for the bigger cash prize. Watching Vincent smile with every shot or pulling his hair back and singing the lyrics to “Werewolves of London” as he mops the floor with Moselle or playing with his pool stick like it’s a double-sided lightsaber, we are let in on how much fun pool can be but also what is exactly wrong with being the player that Vincent is. When Orvis just looks at Eddie and shakes his head as the two are well-traveled and experienced on how to play the game the right way, the audience starts to cringe because they know the impact of what Vincent is doing but he still doesn’t. Again, it’s not just about winning and losing. Sometimes when you lose, you win, which is only confirmed by Earl leaving after Vincent beat the best player in the room, killing the town for him.

Once the word is out on a player, they can’t hustle there anymore. Eddie learned it when Turk Baker broke his thumbs in The Hustler, and he’s trying to make sure this naive little idiot doesn’t find himself in the same situation. He’s bragging about making $150, but Eddie has to shout at him that they could have made $5,000 had Vincent not caused a circus adding, “You walk into a shoe store with 150 bucks you come out with one shoe!”. With any passionate, emotional, and inexperienced player, Vincent listens but he doesn’t “hear”. He is too full of himself to sit back and listen (“You got to have brains, and you have to have balls. You have too much of one and not enough of the other”). Unfortunately, when he shows that he has learned later on, it leads to an unforeseen backfiring on Eddie. Thankfully for him, it was arguably necessary to revive Eddie and give him motivation once again. Strangely enough, it was like a solid quid pro quo without the two officially agreeing on it. Vincent’s cockiness does get under your skin though like his knife-to-the-heart delivery of “You are a very, very good player” during the big reveal, though in his defense he did think Eddie would appreciate his tactics. His smugness isn’t nearly as bad as Glen Powell’s recent work in Top Gun: Maverick, but Janelle is right. He’s kind of a prick. The young Tom Cruise does a fantastic job alongside screen legend Paul Newman, understanding exactly what was being asked of him as the naive, fun-loving, and hungry Vincent. It’s like a precursor to Top Gun: Maverick, with Cruise taking over the Newman role and keeping a watchful eye over stars like Miles Teller and Glen Powell. In a perfect world and once Tom Cruise becomes too old to do action movies anymore, we’ll get a third and final film to complete this trilogy that started with The Hustler in 1961. In this hypothetical movie, Cruise’s aged Vincent can take over the mentorship role Paul Newman’s Eddie was for him, and he can train someone like Glen Powell or another movie star on the cusp of super stardom in a passing of the torch type of film.

You could practically visualize the finish of Cruise’s Vincent alongside Powell deciding who will break between the two just like how Newman passed the torch to him at the end of this movie. Actually, call this review my official pitch. I’ll write the treatment.

Going along with certain callbacks made to the previous film like Eddie hustling for the first time in a while and ordering his signature J.T.S. Brown, I really liked Eddie’s acknowledgment of the tendency to drink while playing, as he lambasts the present because everyone is doing cocaine or speed (“Wipe your nose, will ya Julian?”). Eddie refers to drinking as being somehow more “human” and refers this idea to the Bible and wine hilariously commenting, “The Bible never said anything about amphetamines”. Despite alcoholism being bad in its own right, you kind of see where he’s coming from and how the world Eddie used to know is almost unrecognizable, which makes this journey such a daunting task. In another unofficial callback, he calls Janelle during the tournament and asks her to fly to Atlantic City because he has no grief, and he wants her to come down and “give me some grief”. Though it’s more treated as a way for him to rekindle things with Janelle during a tense tournament, I see it as almost half-serious joke in relation to the first movie. When he was fueled with the grief of Sarah Packard’s death, he walked straight into Ames, made the challenge to Fats for a rematch, and busted his ass until Fats called it. Though he’s not nearly as troubled as he was in the first movie, it’s as if he’s asking for Janelle to bring the fire with her to add some stress and anger, fueling him like a boxer going into a heavyweight title match. It’s extra motivation to fight, and Eddie needs it to get to the finals.

One interesting thing to note that isn’t touched on enough when discussing these two films is how the game has also changed. Eddie’s specialty was straight pool in The Hustler and even struggles with billiards when he faces James Findley in the second act. It was a big plot point in the first movie and is a point he reiterates when he plays Vincent at Chalkies, saying straight pool is pool, not 9-ball. However, 9-ball is the entire focus of The Color of Money. The film opens talking about it, and every game played in the movie is that of 9-ball, mirroring the new world of pool that Eddie is unaccustomed to. It’s quickly forgotten about in the grand scheme of things however, as Eddie takes his reinvigoration to the next level by getting back to the table and playing again and that is when are minds are put at ease. This whole time we are dying to see Eddie play to see if he still has it. It’s like he said before, things were ended back in the day before they really got started. He was young when he was forced to quit after beating the best in the country. Why not go for it now? What starts as an inspiring mentorship that breathes life into a retired player, who finds an avenue of redemption by becoming a coach, turns into the old dog returning late in the game and trying to prove to himself that he’s the best there is. Maybe he does still have it! Though that devastating loss to Amos does temporarily break Eddie because he felt like a rookie, it reignites the fire in him to overcome the adversity of his age and he works to tighten the screws to master 9-ball on the way to the 9-Ball Classic. He doesn’t shy from his age either, as he starts wearing glasses. He even adds a sweater vest when facing off against Vincent in the tournament, and it somehow works. This is the type of stuff that would look stupid on literally anyone else, but the iconic actor makes it a fashion statement because of how smooth and confident he is as he hustles old ladies and beats people like Moselle. It’s a new look and mentality, but it’s the return of Eddie Felson that we have been craving from the opening.

He may not be “Fast” anymore, but he’s back.

All it took was for him to drop Vincent from the equation entirely, along with the subplot at the same time. After his loss to Amos, he says it was his last lesson for Vincent and essentially tells him he’s ready (which turned out to be true despite the heated moment), letting Vincent know he can hit the 27 pool halls between there and Atlantic City in three weeks to make enough money to get there. In reality, the ultimate goal changed. Eddie started to recognize he just needed Vincent to get back into the game, get the energy to compete again, and bring out the fire that he buried deep inside him in 1961. After we see the usually collected Eddie go outside the door to celebrate privately to himself before calmly walking back in, you could see how this journey truly meant the world to him. In the practice room in the finale, Vincent correctly guesses that Eddie used him and Carmen, and Eddie isn’t ashamed in admitting it. He doesn’t take pride in it because they no doubt had a bond he valued (with the hug Vincent gave him meaning a lot despite his uncomfortableness), but the overall importance of it was that it got him to the big dance at a much older age. Eddie turned a selfless thing into a selfish thing, but he doesn’t regret how things turns out because it gave him life once again. Plus, they both know how much he appreciates what his mentorship to Vincent has done for him. Though it’s not lost on us that Eddie is only mad because he got mentally hustled at the tournament, it’s such a great moment that makes the film. In The Hustler, he won by quitting and leaving that life behind him. In The Color of Money, Eddie won, but it was a sham, and he refused to move on until he knew he was the best, putting him in a similar situation he had with Fats all those years ago. We take solace with this notice because we know the old Eddie is still there. Just like he couldn’t move on without beating Minnesota Fats soundly, he (SPOILERS, SPOILERS, SPOILERS) can’t move on until he knows he can beat Vincent. If he loses, he’ll see him in the next city and the next until he does it. Sarah may have been right in that he doesn’t know when to quit, but in the second half of your life, this motivation can make everything worth it.

Not knowing when to quit doesn’t always have to be perceived as a bad thing. When you get older, sometimes it can aide you.

As soon as he sees his reflection in that ball before facing Lorenzo Kennedy in the next round, he knows he can’t move on without earning that spot in the tournament. It’s not about the money at this point (“You want to play for the envelope?”; “Whatever”,). The most defining line of the first half of the movie is famously “Money won is twice as sweet as money earned”, but this initial mentality leads to him understanding the value of having earned something. This contradiction shows us who Eddie truly is. It’s good to save face and to show his protégé how to work the hustle, but in the big picture that is life, it’s hard to accept an achievement if you haven’t earned it. (SPOILERS, SPOILERS, SPOILERS) He was fine at first because he thought he did, but when it turned out to be untrue, he learned the value of earning something. He needs to know he can beat the best, just like twenty-five years ago. It’s the type of stubbornness real competitors have and what separates the good from the great. To be great, you have to beat the best, and he wants the challenge. No matter how old he is and how old we become, there’s always room to improve, learn, evolve, and most of all, win. “Fast Eddie” Felson taught us that.

Not knowing nearly as much about pool as I’d like to, I liked how they treated the Balabushka cue stick like it was a sword from Hattori Hanzō in Kill Bill. When a player walks into a pool hall with a Balabushka (or “Doom” as Vincent calls it), everyone knows that guy is legit. It’s a great tool to add to the story, as well as for the novice or casual fan of the sport looking to understand the culture. With the way it is treated and how others react to it, it feels special, which makes the moment when Eddie tells Vincent he doesn’t deserve it after fucking up their potential earnings in the city for destroying everyone in Chalkies and throws it, the viewer balks at Eddie’s audacious response. The same could be said during the argument on the staircase after Eddie flips once he realized he was hustled by Amos. Vincent tries to stop him from leaving, but Eddie’s confidence is shot and offers the rest of the money to him. In a rage, Vincent tells him to keep it and throws the Balabushka down and goes up the stairs after breaking the railing. In that moment, it feels like heresy after such a buildup around the stick. As the viewer, you oddly find yourself hoping that it didn’t break in the case. It’s funny how attached you can get to things you didn’t know existed before you watched the movie. That is the power of storytelling.

Did Paul Newman deserve the Academy Award for Best Actor, or was it a “Thank you” Oscar? People get hung up on the latter, but considering the whirlwind of emotions and the back-and-forth evolution of the character, he still had an argument regardless that year. The race was much closer than people give it credit for, as Newman was superb no matter which way you slice it. In addition, it goes without saying that Martin Scorsese did a wonderful job too. How he shot some of the actual pool games, with some being from the perspective of the ball during the montage sequences or how he follows the game in the heat of the moment like when Eddie faces off against Vincent, was a work of art. Scorsese could have gotten away with phoning it in for the paycheck, but he frames so many scenes in such a picture-perfect way that it raises the movie and the love of the sport to the next level. Just the hair-raising overview shot of the playing room for the 9-Ball Classic is magnificent work. Also, Keith McCready was a natural as son of a bitch Grady Seasons. His trash talking of Vincent when Vincent is fighting every instinct in his body to try and dump the game (“It keeps getting worse and worse doesn’t it?”) makes the audience’s skin crawl.

Though The Hustler will rightfully go down as the better film, revisiting this world, this main character, and this sport for a sequel so many years later was everything we hoped it would be. The Color of Money is a great film with wonderful direction, an awesome cast, and a story worth telling. It may not cover a single iota of the book it was based on, but it didn’t need to. This was the rare case of a filmmaker, a screenwriter, and the lead actor taking the story in a different direction and making it a thousand times better.