RIP Piper
- Thread starter Poolhall60561
- Start date
“Look, I’ve got troubles and I think maybe you’ve got troubles. Maybe it’d be better if we just leave each other alone.”
Unforgettable performance. The consummate film on life itself. It just so happened it also was about pool.
"Perverted"
"Twisted"
"Crippled"
"Twisted"
"Crippled"
Rest in peace indeed! She was quite a talented actress, have to admit I don't know much about the person. From the pool world standpoint we owe her immensely. As a youngster I just saw the pool angle in The Hustler. It wasn't until I watched it again many years later that I realized that the general public was no doubt drawn more to the love interest making it a couples and almost a chick flick.
Hu
Hu
I never looked at as if it was a ‘chick-flic’. The relationship between Newman and Laurie was more complex than superficial. I always thought it was primarily about the thin line that separates winners and losers and the fact that it’s often blurred.
"chick flick" was speaking of the audience. Without Piper and her interaction with Newman I don't think the show would have had nearly the appeal to females. I barely noticed that when first watching the movie. Not surprising, I missed a lot of the depth of the movie back then. I'm pretty sure this was one of Piper's academy award nominations. A quick look, she was nominated for Best Actress, not just Best Supporting Actress as I guessed.
My opinion even on first viewing was that Newman used his pain caused by Piper's death to beat Fats. Seemed he was still pretty cheap and shallow. Maybe what we were meant to think, that is a pretty black movie all told. George C Scott played the role of scumbag user of others to perfection. Jackie had the power to be seen as a partner, everybody else ...
Hu
RIP. One of the most definitive moments in the entire "The Hustler" film was when Paul Newman realized that a big part of what he had sacrificed in embracing the hustler mentality was his girl, played by Piper Laurie, who gave a very strong performance.
... and, of course, when she asks George C Scott to drop the money on the bed, noting "that's how it's done," it is her heartbreaking acknowledgement that she has been drawn into the same seedy culture as Eddie.
... and, of course, when she asks George C Scott to drop the money on the bed, noting "that's how it's done," it is her heartbreaking acknowledgement that she has been drawn into the same seedy culture as Eddie.
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Piper Laurie is one of the most under appreciated actors of all time - At least the Oscar boards recognized her talents with several nominations - she was just the perfect choice for her part in the Hustler - as was everyone else in that movie - one of the very best cast movies of all times .
The Hustler is one of the movies used in film school's to teach good movie making to students. It may be one of the most widely studied films of all time!
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L.S. Dennis
Well-known member
I thought the part where she came down the stairs at Findley's basement billiard room and begged Eddie to see these people for what they were was particularly poignant . I also really like the part after a beaten Findley asked George C Scott 'Will you take a check Bert?" His response was priceless, CASH!!!!!
We know that Tevis was obsessed with alcoholics being that he was one, but I didn't like how he wrote her as a drunk in the film. He did it with the female lead in The Queen's Gambit, too. Piper Laurie was a great actress and she played the role well, but it didn't paint women in a good light at all. May she rest in peace.
The beauty was it mirrored life.
He didn't paint men in any better light. In point of fact, Piper's character is in the end, a victim of male ego. Eddie's ego. Bert's ego. This is real life, and Tevis simply used pool as the backdrop to write a side story about the challenges a lot of women go through. Pretty easy to take a bad road when you have massive self esteem problems due to a handicap. Her alcoholism had an actual understandable cause. If men took an interest in her, ignoring her handicap, then maybe she never becomes an alcoholic. And before anyone starts in with the "women don't need a man to define them", we are social apes, and we are programmed by evolution to want and need the attention of the opposite sex, and when that attention is withheld for any reason, it can cause psychological issues. The pleasure derived from alcohol / other substances is often used to replace that derived from companion affections.
Same with Queen's Gambit. Would you care to take a guess at how much more often kids raised in foster/group home environments develop substance abuse problems?
I know you can be very thin-skinned on here Fran, but it is reaching a little to say Tevis intentionally wrote those two roles to demean women.
He had choices. The kind of life he chose it to mirror for Piper's character was a lowlife type of person. He didn't have to go that low with her. He could have given her at least some redeeming qualities. He went too dark with her character.