The Color of Money
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The Color of Money This article is about the film. For other uses, see The City and, after several victories, finds himself facing off Color of Money (disambiguation). against a more world-wise Vincent. He beats Vincent, but later, when he is celebrating with girlfriend Janelle The Color of Money is a 1986 drama film directed by (Helen Shaver), Vincent arrives and informs Eddie that he intentionally lost in order to collect on a bet. He gives Martin Scorsese from a screenplay by Richard Price, based on the 1984 novel of the same name by Walter Eddie $8,000 as his “cut.” During his semi-final match against Kennedy, Felson sees his reflection in the cue ball Tevis. The film stars Paul Newman and Tom Cruise, with Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Helen Shaver, and John and chooses to forfeit the game. Turturro. The film featured an original score by Robbie Out-hustled again, Eddie returns the money, saying that Robertson. he wants to beat Vincent legitimately. The two set up Newman won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his a private match, where Eddie informs Vincent that if he performance. doesn't beat him now, he will in the future because “I'm back!" The film continues the story of pool hustler and stakehorse Edward “Fast Eddie” Felson from Tevis’ first novel, The Hustler (1959), with Newman reprising his 2 Cast role from its film adaptation (1961). The film begins at a point more than 20 years after the events of the previous • film, with Eddie retired from the pool circuit. Although Paul Newman – Fast Eddie Felson Tevis did author a screenplay for the film, having adapted • Tom Cruise – Vincent Lauria the storyline directly from his novel, the filmmakers de- cided not to use it, instead crafting an entirely different • Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio – Carmen story under Tevis’ title.[1][2] • Helen Shaver – Janelle • 1 Plot John Turturro – Julian • Bill Cobbs – Orvis Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) is a former pool hus- • Forest Whitaker – Amos tler turned successful liquor salesman. One night he meets Vincent Lauria (Tom Cruise), a young, charis- matic pool player and video gamer who hustles small- Many top American pool players of the 1980s had speak- time nine-ball games while working as a sales clerk at a ing roles, including Steve Mizerak, Grady Mathews, and toy store. Eddie, who still stakes bets for talented players Keith McCready, and there were many cameo appear- like Julian (John Turturro), persuades Vincent and girl- ances, including Jimmy Mataya, Mark Jarvis, Howard friend/manager Carmen (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) Vickery and Louie Roberts. to go on the road, where he can teach Vincent how to Director Scorsese has a cameo walking his dog, and an- make much more money hustling pool. other playing pool. Another notable cameo is that of Iggy With Eddie staking their bets, Vincent visits a series of Pop, who plays one of the many contenders on the road. billiard halls where Eddie tries to teach him that “pool excellence is not about excellent pool.” Although Car- men is a quick study, Vincent chafes at Eddie’s scams, 3 Production which routinely require him to play well below his abil- ities. Eventually, Eddie picks up a cue himself, doing Scorsese has cited the influence of techniques and lighting well in several games before being taken in by a pool in the 1947 Powell-Pressburger classic Black Narcissus in shark named Amos (Forest Whitaker). Humiliated, Ed- making the film. In particular he states that the extreme die leaves Vincent and Carmen with enough money to close ups of Tom Cruise around the pool table were in- make it to the championships in Atlantic City. spired by those of the nuns in that film.[3] Newman said Wearing new eyeglasses, Eddie begins working out and that the best advice he was given by Scorsese was to “try practicing. He enters the 9-ball tournament in Atlantic not to be funny”. Cruise performed most of his own shots. 1 2 5 RELEASE An exception was a jump shot over two balls to sink an- 5 Release other. Scorsese believed Cruise could learn the shot, but that it would take too long, so the shot was performed for The Color of Money held its world premiere at the him by Mike Sigel. Cruise mentioned, to prepare for the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City, NY on October 8, role, he bought a pool table for his apartment and prac- 1986. The film was commercially released in the United ticed for hours on end until it was visible that he was States on October 17, 1986. This release was limited to tremendous at the sport. Standing in for the extremely only select theaters throughout the country, with the film valuable "Balabushka" cue in the movie was actually a opening in more theaters during the next four weeks of its Joss J-18 (which later became the Joss N-07), made to initial release. After its run, the film grossed $52,293,982 [4] resemble a classic Balabushka. domestically.[7] Mike Sigel was technical director, and he and Ewa Mataya Laurance served as technical consultants and shot-performers on the film. 5.1 Critical reaction Absent from the film is the character Minnesota Fats, played by Jackie Gleason in The Hustler. Newman later Upon its release, the film received mixed to positive crit- said that he had wanted the character to appear, but that ical response with many critics noting that the film was none of the attempts to include him fit well into the story an inferior followup to The Hustler. Based on 37 re- that was being written. According to Scorsese, Glea- views collected by Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a 92% approval rating from critics, with an average score son apparently agreed with Newman’s opinion that Min- [8] nesota Fats was not essential to the film’s story. Scorsese of 7.3/10. Siskel and Ebert gave the film “two thumbs down”, Scorsese’s only film to receive such a review from said that Gleason was presented a draft of the script that [9] had Fats worked into the narrative, but that upon read- the team. ing it, Gleason declined to reprise the role because he The film positively influenced the popularity of pool.[10] felt that the character seemed to have been added as “an Ben Stiller, then a film student at NYU and a cast-member afterthought”.[2][5] of the Broadway production of The House of Blue Leaves, created a student film, The Hustler of Money, that parodied the movie. It featured Stiller’s Broadway co-stars John Mahoney, Danny Aiello and Julie Hagerty, 3.1 Opening voiceover with appearances by his parents. The film appeared on an episode of SNL. Reflecting the general theme of the film, director Martin Scorsese delivers an opening uncredited voiceover, de- scribing the game of nine-ball, over a scene of cigarette 5.2 Academy Awards smoke and a piece of cue chalk: Wins[11] • Best Actor in a Leading Role: Paul Newman Nine-Ball is rotation pool, the balls are pocketed in numbered order. The only ball that Nominations 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 • Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Mary Elizabeth can get the 9 in on the break, if the balls spread Mastrantonio right, and win. Which is to say, that luck plays a part in nine-ball. But for some players, luck • Best Art Direction: Art Direction: Boris Leven; Set itself is an art. Decoration: Karen O'Hara • Best Writing (Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium): Richard Price 5.3 Home video 4 Soundtrack The Color of Money was first released onto DVD on June 4, 2002. The film was later released on Blu-ray on June The soundtrack to the motion picture was released by 5, 2012.[12] Neither of the releases contain any special MCA Records in 1986.[6] features pertaining to the film itself.[13] 3 6 References [1] LoBrutto, Vincent (November 30, 2007). Martin Scors- ese: A Biography. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Pub- lishers. ISBN 978-0-275-98705-3. [2] Forsberg, Myra (October 19, 1986). "'The Color of Money': Three Men and a Sequel". The New York Times. [3] “Black Narcissus (The Criterion Collection) (2001) DVD commentary”. Criterion. Retrieved 27 October 2013. [4] Commercial information about the Joss N7 model pool cue [5] Levy, Shawn (May 5, 2009). Paul Newman: A Life. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 978-0-307-35375-7. [6] The catalogue number for the original CD release was DMCG 6023. The soundtrack information was taken from the CD booklet. [7] “The Color of Money (1986)". Box Office Mojo. Re- trieved September 13, 2012. [8] “The Color of Money”. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved September 13, 2012. [9] Ebert and Roeper at the movies [10] “Most Significant Event: The Color of Money (1986)", Billiards Digest, October 2003, page 72. [11] “The 59th Academy Awards (1986) Nominees and Win- ners”. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Re- trieved 2014-03-15. [12] "'The Color of Money' Announced for Blu-ray”. Re- trieved 2012-06-11. [13] Reuben, Michael (June 6, 2012). “The Color of Money Blu-ray Review: We've Been Hustled”. Blu-ray.com. Re- trieved September 14, 2012. Bibliography • Available editions of the book include: ISBN 0-446- 32353-5 (1984, first edition), ISBN 0-446-34419-2 (1986, movie tie-in edition), ISBN 0-349-10150-7 (1990), ISBN 1-56849-689-3 (1997), and ISBN 1- 56025-485-8 (2003).