The Color of Money

The Color of Money is gold. No kidding. The Hustler is better, but The Color of Money gives its predecessor a run for its money.

The melodrama of the first is toned back. Scorsese puts together a great cast, minus the big pro Cruise battles at a pool hall and in the tournament. When I first saw The Color of Money, I resisted liking it. Paul Newman won his only Best Actor Oscar for the film, and part of me was just bitter he didn't get it for Cool Hand Luke and The Hustler. But Newman deserved his Oscar. His Fast Eddie Felson is older, but not necessarily wiser. He still is suceptible to the rush of the pursuit of the perfect pool shot and knowing you're the best player out there. Newman again shows the rise and fall of pride. But he learns how to pick himself up again. And that's where wisdom gained comes from.

Cruise is great as a player even more cocky and talented than Fast Eddie, if that's possible. When I first saw the movie, I thought his performance was too "out there," too over the top. But it fits. It actually fits. His Vince is over the top, a ball of egotistical energy. His black T-shirt with his name in big white letters across the chest is splendid. It captures the character's drive - to be front and center all the time. I want a "Vince" t-shirt for myself.

Mary Elizabeth Mastriantonio is a spit fire gal with a manipulative streak. Her three way mental match between Vince and Fast Eddie provides most of the drama. She's good and so young. It's weird to think that not too long after she was Ed Harris' wife in The Abyss, still a spit fire, but somehow so much older than in The Color of Money.

Drawbacks: The film's score. I get what soundtracks do. They set the time. They let us know when and where we are. That's why the music in the pool halls and bars works. However, the obvious 80s music pulses throughout the score in driving scenes and the like. I've always thought that a score should be timeless, well mostly timeless. I can't imagine how old Run Lola Run's score will sound in 20 years. Another drawback was short and bitter. Scorsese chooses to slow down to a freeze frame when a newly reinvigorated Fast Eddie leaps out of a swimming pool's water. I get it. He's back. Born anew. Good idea. Poor execution. The short break bumped me from the story. It's corny. Old men bursting out of pools with deep, loud breaths don't really work on a dramatic level for me.

I watched this movie a third time with Andrew Siragusa and my brother. They said they liked the movie because it took a different approach to the ending. They said that instead of the usual change-for-the-better story arc, Fast Eddie Felson and Vince remain approximately the same throughout the film. There are obvious times when each could have turned a corner and gone in a different direction, but they don't take it.

SPOILER:
I agree on the one hand. Vince doesn't change dramatically. If anything, he's more cocky, hardened to the world. But Fast Eddie definitely changes. At the beginning of the film, he's been out of the game for twenty plus years. He watches from a far with a yearning for the fast life again, hustling hustlers for their cash and pride. But he does it by proxy through Vince. He changes. He fights back. He joins the fray, putting himself back into the game. And he has to overcome his pride. It's easy to say he doesn't in fact overcome it. After all, the film ends with him cockily slamming the cue ball into the other balls at the end of the table, saying "I'm back." But I think the tell tale sign that he has in fact overcome his pride comes just prior to this moment. He basically admits that Vince is better than him, and may beat him time after time again, but he won't bail. He can win one. Until he does, he'll take the losses and get right back in the mix to get his win. He's "back" because he learned his lesson. Pride in pool will get you bad if you let it. It took his love away from him in The Hustler. It left him in The Color of Money (schooled by a young hustler played by Forest Whitaker), but he can keep going. He's smarter. Finally, he's wiser. In the end, he wants to teach Vince the lesson he learned. Maybe with some bitterness involved, but still that wisdom that makes Felson better even if Vince has more talent.

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