The Color of Money did one thing: give Newman the Oscar for his portrayal of "Fast Eddie" Felson which he should have won in '61. The Hustler is a far superior movie on every level. Better cast, better story line and more authentic. In The Color of Money, towards the end at the tournament, Vincent plays position for a bank??? That never happens in a real world 9 Ball tourney. Nice expert, technical advisor work "Machine Gun".
Actually people do play position for banks in real world tournaments but no pool movie will ever be about "perfect pool".
Neither movie is about pool, both are about character, who has it, who doesn't who can change for the better and who can't.
A good movie wouldn't want Tom Cruise. He was a caricature. One of the worst roles he's played. It was a good story line and Paul Newman played it very well but Tom Cruise ruined the movie for me. His character, Vince, played great pool and he was cocky. But Cruise went overboard. Scorsese should have reined him in. Could have been a great movie but Scorsese and Cruise ruined it. "The Hustler" was infinitly better.
Wow, so much hate for Tom Cruise? I thought he played the role perfectly. His role was to be the cocky player with no real clue about big time pool. We all know that guy, the league player who plays pretty sporty and thinks he can beat anyone but who really knows nothing of the "real" world of pool. In the movie he goes from being a know-it-all punk with a straight stroke who is naive and jealous, to being a calculating and controlling hustler who doesn't mind dumping a tournament match to beat the rail out of money.
I have watched the Color of Money a dozen times at least and the Hustler as many times, both are on my Ipod and sometimes I just listen to them.
There is so much nuance in Scorcese's film that it's impossible to pick it all up in one shot in my opinion.
The movie was about Eddie Felson's character. He stopped playing big time pool but he didn't stop hustling as evidenced by the fact that he was peddling counterfeit liquor. He was a minor stakehorse and not really involved in the pool scene although he kept informed of who was who.
The whole thing with picking up Vince to take him on the road was for Eddie to try and relive his own youth vicariously though Vince. And instead of teaching Vince to play his best which is all Vince wanted to do and what Vince THOUGHT they were going to do Eddie manipulates him and teaches him to hustle, to con in order to get the money. And Eddie goes even lower by using Vince's girlfriend, the one rock that Vince is leaning on, against him.
Tom Cruise plays this role perfectly morphing from the eager go-get-em let's see who is best racehorse into a cynical hardened hustler.
Eddie reprises his role as the hustler who once wanted out of the lifestyle of hustling but didn't make it and who finally, finally after all those year rediscovers his burning desire to be what he almost destroyed in Vince. And that is simply, to be the best, no laying down, no con, no lemon, just the best.
The Color of Money and the Hustler were both great movies.
The ending of The Color of Money was just as it should have ended.
