The Baron and the Kid - decent pool movie!

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I just watched the Baron and the Kid starring Johhny Cash for the first time. I expected a horrible pool movie with a bunch of trick shots and cliches.

Instead I found a pretty gritty movie that tackled some deep subjects which was a fairly accurate assessment of the pool scene.

Johnny Cash plays an older professional player who was a money player back in the day. He discovers that a brash young hustler is his son and tries to set him straight so that the young guy doesn't go down the same path.

I don't want to spoil the movie so I will stop there. As a work of art it's not in the same league as the Color of Money or The Hustler. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that they didn't make the standard "pool" movie either. It was obviously low budget with some stereotype jokes thrown it but the lingo was right on.

I was left wondering why Johnny Cash would do this movie. I guess it could be seen as a metaphor for his own life on the road.

Well anyway, I was happy with the movie. See it if you can, I bought mine on DVD from Amazon Used for $5.
 
I'll second that. Its been a while since ive seen that movie but i remember i liked it. I going to watch it again.
 
I have copy and enjoyed. I like all things Cash and pool so maybe I am biased. :smile::smile:
 
The movie was actually made for TV back in 1980. I remember watching as a young un :smile: Later, I looked for the movie for several years and finally found a copy from Burt Kinister. Since then, it has made it's way to DVD.

When Johnny Cashed passed away, they put his estate up for auction. He had 2 cues for sale from his estate. The first one, was a McDermott made specifically for him and the movie. The other cue was a plain adams. I put in a bid with Sotheby's for the McDermott. They valued the cue at 600.00. I put in a bid at around 1000.00. The day of the auction stuff was going sky high! The plain adams with no value other than he owned it went for around 1400.00 :eek: The McDermont went for around 5000.00.

I would love to see some close up pictures of the McDermott if the buyer is on here. It is a neat piece of billiard history.

Darryl
 
I'll have to keep my eye open for this one. Always loved the Hustler and Color of Money.

I also saw a movie like this (really good but not great) a while back called Pool Hall Junkies or something to that effect. A pretty good movie that I'd like to watch again.

Cheers,
RG
 
MN Kid said:
I'll have to keep my eye open for this one. Always loved the Hustler and Color of Money.

I also saw a movie like this (really good but not great) a while back called Pool Hall Junkies or something to that effect. A pretty good movie that I'd like to watch again.

Cheers,
RG
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OMG....THE worst POS movie of all time! Biggest disappointment. When I published "All About Pool", me, and all the magazines shilled for this thing without seeing it because it was a movie about pool. How could it be bad with that cast? So we all published gushing things about it before it came out. I repeat myself, but what a POS movie!
 
doitforthegame said:
OMG....THE worst POS movie of all time! Biggest disappointment.
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People seem to have very polarized opinions of Poolhall Junkies. Personally, I think it's an excellent pool movie. If it didn't have those stilted Adam Sandler-like scenes with the teenagers (who don't have much to bring to the story in general), I reckon it'd be right up there with The Hustler, in its own genre. Mars Callahan did a great job, considering how hard it is to make convincing pool movies that are also interesting to the general public.

My own biggest disappointment is The Color of Money. It's not a bad movie per se, but it suffers from its ties with The Hustler (which is simply in a class of its own) and from the presence of Tom Cruise.
 
I have a copy of the baron and the kid and I also thought it was good.
it definitely has the "Dukes of Hazzard" TV feel to it, but overall, I think it was a decent movie.

A remake would be a good idea, if done well.

Another one to throw in the mix is Shooting Gallery. REALLY good movie in general, and they don't get all unbelievable with the pool playing. The twist at the end, well, all of them really, is great!

http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Gall...ef=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1263419453&sr=1-1
 
Cool.

I cought a piece of it on TV once (one of the movie channels I guess) and was hooked.

I own a copy now!:grin:
 
I liked it. I bought it on Amazon for like $5.

I like it better than "Shooting Gallery," thats for sure.
 
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