One Good Movie 12

Nine-ball is rotation pool, the balls are pocketed in numbered order. The only ball that means anything, that wins it, is the 9. Now, the player can shoot eight trick shots in a row, blow the 9, and lose. On the other hand, the player can get the 9 in on the break, if the balls spread right, and win. Which is to say, that luck plays a part in nine-ball.

But for some players, luck itself is an art.

Midwest winter. An aging star. A young star still willing to play a character instead of a superhero.  A brilliant screenplay by a street novelist collaborating with his central actor and director. 

And the director felt he was on the ropes, trying to get back in the game. 

But back to the Midwest winter. Chicago. The dark shadows of pool rooms. Stale smoke and daytime beer. 

Who would ever want to hang out here? 

Me, for starters.

It's both depressing and desperately alluring. Who would ever want to work a day job if you could master the green ocean? 

Remember what Felson teaches: "Money won is twice as sweet as money earned."

My father was aping Paul Newman's style throughout the second half of the 1980s. We can have the Cartier Aviator knock-offs and the threads, but none of us will ever look as good as sixty-one-year-old Paul Newman.

Still, Dad pulled off the silver fox mustache. Or that's how I'd like to remember it. 

I watch this movie every year. When it came out I was told it was lesser Scorcese, but I loved it. Now, it resonates deeper. It's an artist doing work for hire, who ends up baring his soul within the confines of a studio picture.

Scorcese is all about guilt, sin, and redemption. The world of the pool and hustlers is the perfect environment.

Cruise now only plays Cruise. But in 1986 he was less cautious, less protective of his image. Here he plays naive and sometimes just plain dumb. 

It's a shame Mary Elizabeth Mastrantoni has been relegated to TV. She's as lived-in as Newman's Felson. 

It's a movie that gets better with age. Time has transplanted a minor work into a major one. 

The Color of Money

It's about aging. It's a con movie. It's a father-son story. It's a road movie. It's a sports movie.

It's pure entertainment. 

-Guy

Epilogue

The Color of Money is the title of the novel that Walter Tevis wrote as a sequel to his book The Hustler. Tevis surged back into culture recently with the success of Scott Frank's wonderful adaptation of The Queen's Gambit.

Newman didn't shine to Tevis' sequel, so he kept the title and sought out the talents of director Martin Scorcese and novelist Richard Price. Together they birthed the cinematic sequel to The Hustler.

RIP