Thoughts on The Hustler and Color of Money books?

If TCOM was faithfully adapted into film we probably wouldn’t have had the pool boom of the 80’s. Walter Tevis would have been more likely inducted in the International Association of Quilters Hall of Fame for Meritorious Service instead of the BCA HoF.
 
West Point 1987 said:
I'm in the minority...TCOM book was a well written book, kind of a redemption tale--although it really doesn't have much happiness in it, but not really a movie a pool aficionado would like...TCOM movie was actually a better story that complimented the Hustler much better than any movie based on the book. Both movies made pool a centerpiece to a tragic fall from grace and (sort of) redemption...both books were really focused on pathos and tragedy, with pool as a backdrop...and TCOM (book) has very little actual pool in it.

I think we could use a third installment. Used car dealership owner Vincent Lauria is recruited by a European betting firm tycoon to coach a team of U.S. tournament players for a world championship team exhibition. They don't get along, they know it all, yada-yada...Vincent drags them off the Philippines to learn what nerve is, they gamble and get their brains beat in all over, culminating in some lessons in grinding from a legend or two (just think of the cameo possibilities!), find their nerve, and emerge as a team...
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Sounds like a remake of an old Eric Roberts film…..Best of the Best….but pool gets substituted for martial arts.
It wasn’t that good of a film theme to start with and maybe a better idea would be a Bad News Bears theme of
HS misfits that go on to win the Iowa state championship….throw in a bit of the Hoosiers movie theme…..and
one of them on the team goes on to win the singles title even though he never played pool before….a little of
Eddie the Eagle movie theme…..and then on the way home they crash on the bus ride home in a mountain pass
and are lost in the snow and …..Know what? Maybe a brand new movie and characters are what’s really needed.
 
West Point 1987 said:
I'm in the minority...TCOM book was a well written book, kind of a redemption tale--although it really doesn't have much happiness in it, but not really a movie a pool aficionado would like...TCOM movie was actually a better story that complimented the Hustler much better than any movie based on the book. Both movies made pool a centerpiece to a tragic fall from grace and (sort of) redemption...both books were really focused on pathos and tragedy, with pool as a backdrop...and TCOM (book) has very little actual pool in it.

I think we could use a third installment. Used car dealership owner Vincent Lauria is recruited by a European betting firm tycoon to coach a team of U.S. tournament players for a world championship team exhibition. They don't get along, they know it all, yada-yada...Vincent drags them off the Philippines to learn what nerve is, they gamble and get their brains beat in all over, culminating in some lessons in grinding from a legend or two (just think of the cameo possibilities!), find their nerve, and emerge as a team...
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Nice idea for the third movie.
 
And to bring things to the present-day Fats declares he is transitioning to female and plays his part accordingly. Movie ends with Fats winning the women's pocket billiards championship.
jackie-gleason.jpg
 
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Bavafongoul said:
Remake of a great movie always fall short of the mark. That’s why Gone With The Wind has never been attempted or The Ten Commandments, Inherit The Wind, To Kill A Mockingbird, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, On The Waterfront, The Godfather, Bridge On The River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, etc. The movie list is truly longer than one might otherwise imagine go unchallenged.

There are some films that are meant to stand alone as a creative work of art to be appreciated and applauded
over the years by audiences born generations after it was made. This isn’t an action movie like Top Gun’s sequel out
now where Maverick returns and the storyline uses spectacular aerial stunts and computer enhanced scenes. This is
about a game that is today appreciated less for what it is and more for the venue where it’s played. That is why APA, BCA & other leagues flourish. Those aren’t reflective of pool halls, especially back in the 60’s. A remake isn’t a good idea.
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If you thought COM was a great movie we don't have much to talk about.
 
MattPoland said:
I thought TCOM book was a bland story. Not enough pool, gambling, adversity, hustling, etc. Anyone who hasn’t read the book would be shocked at how much of the book is Fast Eddie trying to help a girl purchase folk art and quilts to stock an antique shop. I’m squarely in the camp that the movie did the right thing with ignoring that entire plot and writing it’s own script.

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Fine then make the movie but call it something else. This wasn't changing some stuff to reflect the difference in medium, this was a straight rewrite from top to bottom, with the only thing kept the same was the name of Fast Eddie.
 
KissedOut said:
If you thought COM was a great movie we don't have much to talk about.
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Uh…….I don’t recall mentioning COM in my post which was about The Hustler.
In fact, I haven’t expressed a single comment about The Color of Money movie.

So I really don’t know what your point was other than looking for others to concur.
The Hustler is a cinema classic & with a widely heralded supporting cast of actors.
 
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KissedOut said:
Fine then make the movie but call it something else. This wasn't changing some stuff to reflect the difference in medium, this was a straight rewrite from top to bottom, with the only thing kept the same was the name of Fast Eddie.
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I don’t see how.

The original story falls too flat to be a movie. It’s a poetic concept how the time with Eddie in the story echoes the shape of his life. Stepping back from the glory of pool for more mundane pursuits. The dragging of time and age. The nagging sense of something not being right. The rekindling of that desire, even if out of necessity.

The problem is the execution. The book spent way too many pages on his attempt at going square. And that folk art stuff resolves in the most rushed and awkward way possible. It’s like Tevis wrote Eddie into that situation and couldn’t develop a compelling way out and gave up. Any movie adaption would have to cut that entire subplot out or massively abridge it. The problem is that was the majority of the book, so you’d end up having to write a lot of your own to replace it.

And even in the pool plot, Babes Cooley was severely underdeveloped as his foil. He bumped into him here and there. Couldn’t beat him. Viewed him as both a touchstone and stepping stone to his pool return. But there was no real tension except what was in Eddie’s head. Eddie might as well been nobody to Babes. At least in the movie Grady Seasons antagonized Vince’s ego which was already stressed from having to play on the lemon when he just wanted to shine. There was real conflict there where Babes was just a guy. So anything you do there to develop the characters and build tension would also be fabrication.
 
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Bavafongoul said:
Uh…….I don’t recall mentioning COM in my post which was about The Hustler.
In fact, I haven’t expressed a single comment about The Color of Money movie.

So I really don’t know what your point was other than looking for others to concur.
The Hustler is a cinema classic & with a widely heralded supporting cast of actors.
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I said I'd like to see a remake of COM using the original story and you replied to my post that a remake of a great movie usually doesn't succeed. How was I supposed to know you weren't talking about COM? Maybe the real problem was that you didn't read my post that you responded to?
 
KissedOut said:
I said I'd like to see a remake of COM using the original story and you replied to my post that a remake of a great movie usually doesn't succeed. How was I supposed to know you weren't talking about COM? Maybe the real problem was that you didn't read my post that you responded to?
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How you view, or interpret, my post is irrelevant since I was only commenting about The Hustler, not COM.
 
The COM was based on the dump-which is horrible for pool. However it did create a boom in pool rooms for a period of time. I doubt a pool movie would have such effect today. Pool is a slow analog game that’s too difficult for short attention span kids.
 
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