The Color of Money is my favorite pool movie. In 1986, it encapsulated pool's very real, but ultimately deplorable, underbelly. In the pre-Internet days when people didn't carry cell phones, a player might possibly stay under the radar and hit town after town as a successful road player.
Today, if an unknown beats anyone of note, the pool gambling community will know about it within hours and the unknown's picture will be all over the internet. The information age has, as so many of this forum have noted, made hustling, difficult, and near impossible. The Color of Money did two things: a) it made pool look cool, which gave the game a temporary boost, and b) it made the pool scene look unsuitable for kids. Here we are forty years later, and on AZB, we often wonder "where are the kids in the poolroom?" and "how will we grow the game if the kids are not part of the pool scene?"
The top pool players, as a group, are, at long last, beginning to help shed the seedy image that has always ensured their separation from any significant out-of-industry sponsorship. Finally, parents need not fear bringing the kids to a pool hall as much as was once the case. If this movie is going to undo some of the gains in image that pool has realized, it might serve to rebuild the negative image that has always ensured pool's second-class status among those who sponsor sports.
My fingers are crossed. Let's see what kind of film this is.
