The Color of Money -- 22 years later.

I just finished Jay's book, pool wars. Somebody should make a movie of that about Jay....... sure to be a hit..................:wink::)
 
Does anybody know the background of the following scene in the movie ???

When Newman and Cruise arrives at the pool room and newman stands next to the black guy. And the man says something to him mentioning his name Fast Eddie.

then Newman looks in surprise to him and says "you son of a *****".
Well it looks to me as this scene is not in the script and Newman is surprised in reality and they wanted to capture his surprised reaction.

Who is that Guy ??? Is he maybe from the Hustler Movie back then.
It looks like they knew each other from the past because Newmans reaction is definitely not acted but real.
 
Does anybody know the background of the following scene in the movie ???

When Newman and Cruise arrives at the pool room and newman stands next to the black guy. And the man says something to him mentioning his name Fast Eddie.

then Newman looks in surprise to him and says "you son of a *****".
Well it looks to me as this scene is not in the script and Newman is surprised in reality and they wanted to capture his surprised reaction.

Who is that Guy ??? Is he maybe from the Hustler Movie back then.
It looks like they knew each other from the past because Newmans reaction is definitely not acted but real.


I'm not sure if it was scripted or not but I believe the black man was the guy who cleaned the tables at Ames in the Hustler.


P.S. I just checked on IMDb, ihe was not the same guy from the Hustler, just looks like him.
 
Last edited:
I'm not sure if it was scripted or not but I believe the black man was the guy who cleaned the tables at Ames in the Hustler.


P.S. I just checked on IMDb, ihe was not the same guy from the Hustler, just looks like him.
It's not him. He didn't start acting till 10 years after the Hustler was made. He was I believe in the Air Force at the time they were making the Hustler.
 
Probably the only actor in history who could accurately portray a real pool player.

Jerry Orbach (from Law and Order) could shoot pretty good pool and was a regular at Amsterdam Billiards. He'd have been just fine in some role in a pool movie. If I remember right there's a youtube clip of him playing Toasti.

JerryOrbach.jpg


As a movie in general, TCOM is well-acted and enjoyable. I had no trouble buying into Vince. Tom did exactly what he was supposed to... play a brash, immature kid who lacked culture and seasoning and was full of himself at the table. He is irritating to some because he is meant to be irritating as a character. That's why all his opponents are sick of him and scowl as they hand over the cheese =) If Tom Cruise annoys you here, he's doing his job. If you want to see him not play the hot young talented kid, try Valkyrie.

I enjoyed Newman and Vince's girlfriend was sort of an interesting character too... not as serious and dramatic as piper laurie (which I think makes her more believable... a chick you can imagine knowing in real life).

The Hustler is a great film because it's one of the first to expose people to an underworld they didn't know. It's an interesting subculture and this was the first proper treatment of it. So it automatically becomes more interesting. If it were one pool movie among hundreds it wouldn't seem as fascinating. Even if you ignore that though it stands on its own as a pretty good film.

Pool is still a sort of under-exploited niche in the movie industry. Most people can name only two pool movies, tops. The pool nerds here of course can also think of Poolhall Junkies (painfully bad, and a misuse of Walken) and The Baltimore Bullet (pretty good for what it was. Not a 'film' as much as a movie you take a date to see. Closer to a dukes of hazzard episode than anything that's gonna get an Oscar).

We're about due for another fresh treatment of pool.
 
Does anybody know the background of the following scene in the movie ???

When Newman and Cruise arrives at the pool room and newman stands next to the black guy. And the man says something to him mentioning his name Fast Eddie.

then Newman looks in surprise to him and says "you son of a *****".
Well it looks to me as this scene is not in the script and Newman is surprised in reality and they wanted to capture his surprised reaction.

Who is that Guy ??? Is he maybe from the Hustler Movie back then.
It looks like they knew each other from the past because Newmans reaction is definitely not acted but real.

bill cobbs
only other movie i can place him in was, "that thing you do"
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0167850/


for me, TCOM's greatest contribution to pool,

was to demonstrate to guys how to
act like idiots by twirling thier cue like a ninja
:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
how many of you have seen that in poolhalls?
5 rolleyes = sarcasm
 
Last edited:
it is imopssible to compare the two movies. two different eras.
older movies depended on acting where new movies can get out a bit. there are only lie 5 7 or 8 scenes in the huetler. you needed acting... it is a very accurate statemant to say it was slow at times. there is no part of TCOM that was slow... for me atleast

i feel like captian obvious the last few days.
 
I was in Greensboro, NC, looking for Bakers, I think was the name, me and a road player named Geese.

Geese drove up to the joint, and when we opened the door, it was a sewing shop. We asked the locals where the pool room was, and it had moved down the street a mile or two in a new location.

Careful what you walk into lol, that was Earl's hangout back in the day...
 
We're about due for another fresh treatment of pool.

We may be getting a small one. I got an e-mail about a month ago from the producer of one of those reality shows, I think it was Wife Swap, looking for a family (parents and kids) who play pool to appear on the show. I've never watched the show, so I'm not sure how they plan to incorporate pool playing into the show, but at least someone is thinking about it.

Steve
 
We may be getting a small one. I got an e-mail about a month ago from the producer of one of those reality shows, I think it was Wife Swap, looking for a family (parents and kids) who play pool to appear on the show. I've never watched the show, so I'm not sure how they plan to incorporate pool playing into the show, but at least someone is thinking about it.

Steve

I have seen that show. At best they will depict them a bar flies and make pool look like something for degenerates.
 
Tcom

TCOM is very flawed from a POOL PLAYERS perspective - but for the masses - it is generally an entertaining movie. As I watched the movie - I found myself nitpicking the poor depiction of actual pool shooting. There was an extended scene where the audience is treated to closeups of balls flying into pockets. It's just fluff for the NON-pool playing audience to which the movie is targeted. Were the movie to remain true to the 'real' pool player it would lose its mass appeal and thus be a box office bust. So we are treated to 'dramatic effect'. The Cruise character was completely over the top but I would still rate TCOM the second best pool movie ever made.
 
At best they will depict them as bar flies and make pool look like something for degenerates.

I resemble that remark!:thumbup:

But on topic, I agree the Hustler is a far better movie. I appreciate that the Color of Money was supposed to be a sequel, but when I saw it the first time, I did not make the connection right away. It wasn't a horrible movie on it's own, but I agree as a sequel, it fell horribly short.

I did not dislike the older fast eddie charecter, but I really didn't like Vince. All people change over time, and Fast Eddie was no exception. Out of the game for so long, he was working a new hustle- selling booze. The come back was good; now he's a different person, still on his game hustling, but not so on his pool game maybe (so he gets taken by Forrest Whittaker) which is the piviot point in the movie.

I would have liked to see Gleason make a small appearance. "Hi Eddie" is all he would need to say, in that way he did it in the Hustler, to really drive that nail home. Eddie would not even need to respond- just a bit of long eye contact...
Vince: "Who was that Eddie?"
"Never mind".
Easy stuff, but I think that detail would really make it a proper sequel...

I saw another movie "Shooting Gallery" that I think is a really good hustler move. If you haven't seen it yet, get it now. Famtastic! More hustle than pool, but great on all accounts for the most part.
 
Color of Money Sucks

I remember that time clearly... I was working in a pool hall at the time and there was quite a bit of talk about what we all thought it would be like.

Martin Scorsese was one of my favorite directors/producers, so I had originally had high hopes for it. So the night it comes out, about 10 of us players head on out to see it.

Now I'm the type of guy that loves movies that are realistic. Since pool was the most important thing in my life at the time, I was unrealistically thinking it might show what it was really like in the pool world.

Man, was I disappointed. I hated the Vince character, I hated Tom Cruise's acting, I thought Paul Newman was cheesy, I hated the pool scenes and I was knew what was going to happen after the mainstream public saw it.

Sure enough, it wasn't but a day or two before people starting coming into the pool room and doing the twirling of the cues, the yelping, the lining up a shot and then looking the other way when shooting it.

I understand that just about any movie, there has to be creative license taken, to make it appeal to the masses. I was just holding on to the hope it was going to be minimal. Everyone with me was very disappointed too.

I will be the first to say, that it sparked the creation of all the "strip mall pool halls". You could find one every few blocks it seemed. Brand new buildings with large floor plans... music blaring (werewolves of london being a staple) teens and 20 something's being the main crowd. Needless to say, alot of people made money from those establishments, for many years.

It did bring pool to the masses and take it out of the dark pool hall or the crappy table in the back of a bar. It made it popular again and made it "cool" to play pool.

On the flip side, I love The Hustler. Filmed in black and white, portrayed the old pool halls, Jackie Gleason was fantastic, Paul's character was very in depth, Piper was great. It's by far, the best pool movie out there.

I never understood why pool scenes always have to be some sort of trick shot. Some shot that's setup so 5 balls go in and as long as you make contact with the head ball, you can't miss. Or some jump shot or masse, where you have a ball hanging in the pocket or froze to a ball that's dead in a pocket.

I would think it would be more entertaining to watch someone cut a ball down the entire length of the table or watch the many stroke shots that have massive draw or force follow or loads of english to make the cueball dance and bend to a specific spot on the table.

Hey, but I understand I am in the minority, I am a PoolPhreak (one of my old nyms on the Net :grin:) I am a person desperate for the masses to see what is close to my heart, what real pool is like, what kind of shots deserve a "tap, tap, tap" and to give some insight into what would possess a grown man to watch a onepocket game for 20 hours straight and walk away with a feeling like he's just witnessed the Super Bowl, the NBA championships, the World Series and Live Aid/Live 8, all rolled into one.

Now that I'm all worked up, I think I will take my COM dvd and use it to shim up a table at SidePockets.... damn thing rolls bad to one side and it's the only way the COM dvd could contribute to my enjoyment of pool.:thumbup:
 
I remember that time clearly... I was working in a pool hall at the time and there was quite a bit of talk about what we all thought it would be like.

Martin Scorsese was one of my favorite directors/producers, so I had originally had high hopes for it. So the night it comes out, about 10 of us players head on out to see it.

Now I'm the type of guy that loves movies that are realistic. Since pool was the most important thing in my life at the time, I was unrealistically thinking it might show what it was really like in the pool world.

Man, was I disappointed. I hated the Vince character, I hated Tom Cruise's acting, I thought Paul Newman was cheesy, I hated the pool scenes and I was knew what was going to happen after the mainstream public saw it.

Sure enough, it wasn't but a day or two before people starting coming into the pool room and doing the twirling of the cues, the yelping, the lining up a shot and then looking the other way when shooting it.

I understand that just about any movie, there has to be creative license taken, to make it appeal to the masses. I was just holding on to the hope it was going to be minimal. Everyone with me was very disappointed too.

I will be the first to say, that it sparked the creation of all the "strip mall pool halls". You could find one every few blocks it seemed. Brand new buildings with large floor plans... music blaring (werewolves of london being a staple) teens and 20 something's being the main crowd. Needless to say, alot of people made money from those establishments, for many years.

It did bring pool to the masses and take it out of the dark pool hall or the crappy table in the back of a bar. It made it popular again and made it "cool" to play pool.

On the flip side, I love The Hustler. Filmed in black and white, portrayed the old pool halls, Jackie Gleason was fantastic, Paul's character was very in depth, Piper was great. It's by far, the best pool movie out there.

I never understood why pool scenes always have to be some sort of trick shot. Some shot that's setup so 5 balls go in and as long as you make contact with the head ball, you can't miss. Or some jump shot or masse, where you have a ball hanging in the pocket or froze to a ball that's dead in a pocket.

I would think it would be more entertaining to watch someone cut a ball down the entire length of the table or watch the many stroke shots that have massive draw or force follow or loads of english to make the cueball dance and bend to a specific spot on the table.

Hey, but I understand I am in the minority, I am a PoolPhreak (one of my old nyms on the Net :grin:) I am a person desperate for the masses to see what is close to my heart, what real pool is like, what kind of shots deserve a "tap, tap, tap" and to give some insight into what would possess a grown man to watch a onepocket game for 20 hours straight and walk away with a feeling like he's just witnessed the Super Bowl, the NBA championships, the World Series and Live Aid/Live 8, all rolled into one.

Now that I'm all worked up, I think I will take my COM dvd and use it to shim up a table at SidePockets.... damn thing rolls bad to one side and it's the only way the COM dvd could contribute to my enjoyment of pool.:thumbup:

In the Hustler there were trick shots, even illegal shots. Gleason does one where he shoots the object ball in with the cue on a push. Another time Gleason calls a ball cross side with an open table to shoot at. Newman does a Masse with the two balls at the corner pocket, you know the shot. Nothing really changes when it comes to pool in the media. It's all staged for the suckers. The Hustler was just a better movie, but the plot was full of holes from a pool stand point.
 
Last edited:
Read the book

You have to read the book, the movie was a complete departure from the story. The movie sucked, bad. The Hustler was very close to the book, and made sense, but not this horrible bad movie. The book sequel continues on the theme of 'born losers' and 'born winners' that has nothing specifically (and everything) to do with pool. The books stand, the original Hustler was great, and that's about all I can say.
 
The Color of Money was Cruise's turn to play a "rain man" character. I guess if you like fiction and lots of wired shots, TCOM is a decent movie. The Hustler was well made and the cast was great. Of course, this is all my opinion.

BTW The Hustler is fiction and full of wired shots, but it was just much easier to watch than some fool jumping around every time he made a shot.
 
Last edited:
The hustler

TCOM was an ok flick.Did a great deal for pool exposure when it came out.I like Paul Newman's character of"fast eddie" in The Hustler better even though the movie drags a little.
 
Recently I caught The Hustler on cable, and enjoyed it immensely for the first time in probably 20 years. Jackie Gleason is at minimum Paul Newman's equal as an actor, and he shoots a mean stick (or did then) in his own right.

That whetted my appetitie for the sequel. I'd seen Color of Money soon after it came out, and if I rememember correctly, I stalked out of the theater before it was over. I'd never seen a Tom Cruise movie before that -- I had no idea who Tom Cruise was -- but I was so offended by his character I couldn't stand to watch him.

But I've mellowed since then, and I was especially interested in seeing a young and skinny Keith, at a time when he was on top of his game. Also some good footage of some infamous pool halls, and other characters, such as the Miz, who jumped out at you.

But once again, I was revolted by Cruise. His character was just abysmal. And even Newman fell down, in my opinion. Without Gleason to guide him, he looked much less the player and more the banger. And let's not even get into Cruise and his clumsy technique.

Help me here. Am I being overly biased because I can't get past my revulsion for the Vince character, or am I being realistic? All I know is that any punk who walked into our poolroom in Denver and carried on like that, he wouldn't walk out. He'd be hobbled, or better. And there would be no witnesses.

And Newman. He gets ready for the pool hall by putting on a silk tie? You gotta be kidding me. A guy on his way home from work, sure, play in a silk tie, but to dress up for a game that way? Never seen such a thing, and I've known some dapper players.

Is this really a better movie than I give it credit for?

Yes...............
 
Back
Top