The Character Arc of Fast Eddie Felson

DJSTEVEZ

DJSTEVEZ

Professor of Human Moves
Silver Member
THE HUSTLER:

Bert: I don't think there's a pool player alive shoots better pool than I saw you shoot the other night at Ames. You got talent.
Eddie: So I got talent. So what beat me?
Bert: Character
Eddie: (laughs) Yeah. Sure, sure.
Bert: You're damned right I'm sure. Everybody's got talent. I got talent. You think you can play big-money straight pool, or poker, for forty straight hours on nothing but talent? You think they call Minnesota Fats the best in the country just 'cause he's got talent? Nah. Minnesota Fats's got more character in one finger than you got in your whole skinny body.


THE COLOR OF MONEY:

Janelle: I'm a real big fan of character in people. I don't know if you knew that about me.
Eddie: Character, huh?
Janelle: Yeah.
 
C

CocoboloCowboy

Cowboys are my hero's
Silver Member
DJSTEVEZ said:
THE HUSTLER:

Bert: I don't think there's a pool player alive shoots better pool than I saw you shoot the other night at Ames. You got talent.
Eddie: So I got talent. So what beat me?
Bert: Character
Eddie: (laughs) Yeah. Sure, sure.
Bert: You're damned right I'm sure. Everybody's got talent. I got talent. You think you can play big-money straight pool, or poker, for forty straight hours on nothing but talent? You think they call Minnesota Fats the best in the country just 'cause he's got talent? Nah. Minnesota Fats's got more character in one finger than you got in your whole skinny body.


THE COLOR OF MONEY:

Janelle: I'm a real big fan of character in people. I don't know if you knew that about me.
Eddie: Character, huh?
Janelle: Yeah.
Click to expand...


People like to dissect movies, love the experts who find dinky flaws.

Both Hustler & Color were good movies, and entertaining.
 
M

middleofnowhere

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DJSTEVEZ said:
THE HUSTLER:

Bert: I don't think there's a pool player alive shoots better pool than I saw you shoot the other night at Ames. You got talent.
Eddie: So I got talent. So what beat me?
Bert: Character
Eddie: (laughs) Yeah. Sure, sure.
Bert: You're damned right I'm sure. Everybody's got talent. I got talent. You think you can play big-money straight pool, or poker, for forty straight hours on nothing but talent? You think they call Minnesota Fats the best in the country just 'cause he's got talent? Nah. Minnesota Fats's got more character in one finger than you got in your whole skinny body.


THE COLOR OF MONEY:

Janelle: I'm a real big fan of character in people. I don't know if you knew that about me.
Eddie: Character, huh?
Janelle: Yeah.
Click to expand...
In the original Hustler Eddie says
CocoboloCowboy said:
People like to dissect movies, love the experts who find dinky flaws.

Both Hustler & Color were good movies, and entertaining.
Click to expand...
It's fun. In some cases they are just little things but they are often giant holes in the plot you can drive a truck through. COM is a joke when it comes to plot holes. They didn't even care. It was another Paul Newman phone in and he got an AW for it. Tom Cruse was just horrible. He has gotten so much better as an actor since COM.
 
dirtvictim

dirtvictim

Ignore the entitled they haven't earned respect
middleofnowhere said:
In the original Hustler Eddie says

It's fun. In some cases they are just little things but they are often giant holes in the plot you can drive a truck through. COM is a joke when it comes to plot holes. They didn't even care. It was another Paul Newman phone in and he got an AW for it. Tom Cruse was just horrible. He has gotten so much better as an actor since COM.
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The thing is so many of us old guys lived some of that and can relate. Cheesy dialog and plot holes aside. I miss the days of doing the chicago run.
 
Buzzard II

Buzzard II

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
middleofnowhere said:
In the original Hustler Eddie says

It's fun. In some cases they are just little things but they are often giant holes in the plot you can drive a truck through. COM is a joke when it comes to plot holes. They didn't even care. It was another Paul Newman phone in and he got an AW for it. Tom Cruse was just horrible. He has gotten so much better as an actor since COM.
Click to expand...

I think Tom is a lightweight compared to Paul Newman. But my question would be, could he come back and play in The Color of Money following the books version just changing it to a mature Vince? Note: the actual book is way different than the movie version. The characters are older, more complex. The wheeler, dealer hustler personality is there whether dealing art or playing pool.
 
M

middleofnowhere

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Buzzard II said:
I think Tom is a lightweight compared to Paul Newman. But my question would be, could he come back and play in The Color of Money following the books version just changing it to a mature Vince? Note: the actual book is way different than the movie version. The characters are older, more complex. The wheeler, dealer hustler personality is there whether dealing art or playing pool.
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The only relation to the book is the name. They are completely different stories.
 
Jaden

Jaden

"no buds chill"
Silver Member
UMM guys, it's not a plot hole. Eddie developed good character in his travels, especially in dealing with Bert. Remember he says, I've got lots of character now, to Bert when he goes off on his diatribe to him? Hence the title of the thread, The character arc of eddie. The title should have character in quotes as it's a play on words.

The "character" arc of eddie.

Jaden
 
T

tomatoshooter

Well-known member
The Hustler is awesome, but like a lot of movies from that era, it can be a little melodramatic for my taste. It's interesting because Eddie is almost an Ahab like figure. He basically loses everything in his pursuit of Fats. He ditches his longtime friend Charlie, gets his thumbs broken (probably by associates of Bert), his girlfriend kills herself after Bert humiliates her sexually. He basically sacrifices his humanity in pursuit of Fats. If Bert has the influence he claims, Eddie can't really play pool anymore. He achieved his goal of beating Fats and ruined his life doing it. A very pyrrhic victory if there ever was one.

I think when Bert tells Eddie to pay up, Eddie should have stabbed Bert through the heart with his cue and then been killed by Bert's henchmen just to complete the tragedy.

A wonderful performance by Jackie Gleason and he did a lot of the shooting. When Jackie tells Eddie to pay Bert at the end his manner is perfect, as it is all through his scenes.
 
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gerryf

Well-known member
I think Tom Cruise played the character as the director wanted. If he wasn't a 'flake', he wouldn't have been of interest to Fast Eddy. Yeah, Cruise was annoying, but that was maybe the point.

I also agree that a film of the original book would be interesting if they could find the characters.
 
M

middleofnowhere

Registered
tomatoshooter said:
The Hustler is awesome, but like a lot of movies from that era, it can be a little melodramatic for my taste. It's interesting because Eddie is almost an Ahab like figure. He basically loses everything in his pursuit of Fats. He ditches his longtime friend Charlie, gets his thumbs broken (probably by associates of Bert), his girlfriend kills herself after Bert humiliates her sexually. He basically sacrifices his humanity in pursuit of Fats. If Bert has the influence he claims, Eddie can't really play pool anymore. He achieved his goal of beating Fats and ruined his life doing it. A very pyrrhic victory if there ever was one.

I think when Bert tells Eddie to pay up, Eddie should have stabbed Bert through the heart with his cue and then been killed by Bert's henchmen just to complete the tragedy.

A wonderful performance by Jackie Gleason and he did a lot of the shooting. When Jackie tells Eddie to pay Bert at the end his manner is perfect, as it is all through his scenes.
Click to expand...
I loved the way Gleason didn't chew the seanery. He underplayed the character to perfection making for a more powerful performance. This was not Gleason's nature at the time.
I like your take On it by the way.
 
T

tomatoshooter

Well-known member
middleofnowhere said:
I loved the way Gleason didn't chew the seanery. He underplayed the character to perfection making for a more powerful performance.
Click to expand...
Yes, the nuance of his performance elevates the entire movie. I think there's a bit of sadness and regret in his character, I imagine there's some history with Bert that Fats wishes had gone differently. That's what makes the movie great, it's about the characters that play pool more than about the pool. That and Eddie's "triumph" still wasn't a happy ending.
 
S

skogstokig

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
tomatoshooter said:
The Hustler is awesome, but like a lot of movies from that era, it can be a little melodramatic for my taste. It's interesting because Eddie is almost an Ahab like figure. He basically loses everything in his pursuit of Fats. He ditches his longtime friend Charlie, gets his thumbs broken (probably by associates of Bert), his girlfriend kills herself after Bert humiliates her sexually. He basically sacrifices his humanity in pursuit of Fats. If Bert has the influence he claims, Eddie can't really play pool anymore. He achieved his goal of beating Fats and ruined his life doing it. A very pyrrhic victory if there ever was one.

I think when Bert tells Eddie to pay up, Eddie should have stabbed Bert through the heart with his cue and then been killed by Bert's henchmen just to complete the tragedy.

A wonderful performance by Jackie Gleason and he did a lot of the shooting. When Jackie tells Eddie to pay Bert at the end his manner is perfect, as it is all through his scenes.
Click to expand...

i think it's perfect with the ending as it is. i like that sarah is a bit more broken and complex than what characterizations of women had been the preceding decade. to me the hustler was the beginning of two great decades of film making. then it went to crap again in the eighties.
 
M

middleofnowhere

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easy-e said:
I did! I said two brothers and a stranger because I think that was the only thing in the book that I recognized from the movie version.
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I read it when it first came out. I don't remember a lot of it. There was crazy stuff like I think Fats in the FL keys fishing or something. For fun I'm going to read it again.
 
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