Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

If Paul Newman wasn't already a star, The Hustler would have made him one overnight. "Fast" Eddie is a Paul Newman trademark role: smart, quick, sexy, and just as likable as he is bad. Newman has played this character many times, and it never gets old. This time around, he plays a pool hustler who gets himself into trouble by challenging a well-known pool master when he's still small-time.Even if you don't know the rules of pool, The Hustler will hold your hand and explain the rules to you so you don't feel lost by the time the major game sequences start. If you already know and love the game, you'll find yourself in heaven while watching this movie. It's a total classic, full of drama, tension, and a steamy romance that's easy to root for. Paul Newman gives an excellent performance, showing vulnerability in the highs and lows of performance gambling. It's worth it just to watch him, but chances are you'll probably come away liking the entire movie, too!

THE HUSTLER is a sport drama about a bitter life and an unscrupulous competition. Film is based on Walter Tevis novel of the same name.A small-time pool hustler travels cross-country with his partner and earns, on fraud, some money. His attitude and his big mouth forcing him to challenge the legendary player "Minnesota Fats". A challenger and legend finally meet each other. Straight pool duel can begin. Their game attracts the attention of a professional gambler. The young challenger has, despite a noticeable talent, lost the match. He leaves his partner and he meets, at the local bus terminal, a girl, who is an alcoholic supported by her father, attends college part-time, and walks with a limp. They start a strange relationship. However, the pool hustler wants again to challenge a famous rival. His talent does not seem sufficient, he needs a strong character...A restless, irritable and evil protagonists are perfectly integrated into a dark atmosphere. Their greed for a fame and money has ruled out any form of love and nobility in this film. The plot is brisk and exciting. Every word or move is full of passion and has its price.Paul Newman as Eddie Felson is a passionate and violent pool hustler. The protagonist, who is, at one point, on the top of his life goal, and then drops down until he touches the bottom. He was intoxicated with his ambition. The loss of a loved person and a bitter life knowledge are his brutal sobering. Mr. Newman has offered a quite good performance. Piper Laurie as Sarah Packard is his girlfriend, who has lost in her unclear past. However, when Eddie comes into her life, she revives her pathetic reality. She is a dominant character in one part of the film, in which she emphasizes their tragic fate. George C. Scott as Bert Gordon is an antagonist on duty. He is an evil which trades with feelings and souls. His performance is very convincing. Jackie Gleason (Minnesota Fats) is a cool as a legendary player. However, he has become a prisoner of his talent and money.Maybe this movie is a strong projection of the real world, which is complemented with a cynical reviews and a tragic-ironic end. The protagonists have condemned themselves to a bitter taste of life.

Produced and directed by Robert Rossen, who co-wrote the screenplay (with Sidney Carroll) which was based on Walter Tevis's novel, this above average drama about pool players, pool halls, and those that frequent them also includes a dysfunctional romantic relationship between two of its lead characters, played by Paul Newman (in the title role) and Piper Laurie. Newman plays a confident "up and comer", Eddie Felson, who's come to town to challenge the great Minnesota Fats, played by Jackie Gleason, who hasn't lost to a challenger in 15 years. Eddie's longtime road partner Charlie Burns (Myron McCormick) provides the stake money, but Eddie ignores any offered advice. After the two players get a "feel" for each other's games, their match lasts 25 hours, during which both drink plenty of alcohol and Eddie gets up $18,000 on the "fat man". However, despite Charlie's pleadings, Eddie refuses to call it a day and proceeds to lose all but a couple of hundred dollars to the old master before passing out. A wily businessman, Bert Gordon (George C. Scott), witnessed the whole affair; Bert's "business" involves setting up these kind of gambling situations, for the side betting action, playing the percentages, and winning large sums of money as the result. All this happens within the film's first 30 minutes!Unfortunately, except for a couple of other (much) later sequences, the exciting action drops off as the story ploddingly becomes introspective, delving into Eddie's character (his motivations, etc.), and that of his drunken girlfriend's, Sarah Packard (Laurie), for 100+ more minutes. After his "fall", Eddie meets Sarah, pulling her out of her "funk" as their relationship begins & becomes "romantic" (though she'll later describe it as one of degradation); it continues until Bert is able to pull Eddie out of his (Bert becomes Eddie's new moneyman). Then, eventually, after a private party billiards match, during which it's unclear who's hustling who, and a somewhat absurd denouement to the romance (and more), the anticipated rematch between Eddie and Fats is finally played out.Rossen received the last of his Academy Award nominations: for Best Picture, Director, and Writing (Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium); Eugen Schüfftan won his only Oscar (on his only nomination) for his B&W Cinematography and Harry Horner and Gene Callahan (his first) also won for their B&W Art Direction-Set Decoration - both perfectly capturing the seedy atmosphere of pool rooms, where sunlight is unwelcome. Newman and Laurie (her first) received lead actor nominations; Gleason (his only) and Scott (who refused his recognition) were nominated in the Supporting Actor category. Additional, excellent support was provided by Murray Hamilton, Michael Constantine, (raging bull) Jack LaMotta (a cameo, really), and Vincent Gardenia. Real life pool expert Willie Mosconi, who performs at least one of the trick shots as a double, also appears as an uncredited character in the film.

There are so many great reviews of this amazing film (which easily belongs in the top 50 ever made) but I would like to point out two key scenes that no one seems to have really noticed that each show the incredible artistry of Paul Newman and Robert Rossen.First, the opening scene before the credits role and Kenyon Hopkins' incredible musical score begins when "Fast Eddie" and "Charlie" pull into the small Pennsylvania bar to hustle a few dollars.Next time you watch it check out the smile on Newman's face as he suddenly changes from wobbly drunk to absolutely confident, consummate pool hustler and makes that impossible shot (I've tried it 100 times with no luck). How can a momentary change in an actor's countenance constitute one of the of the great moments in film? I don't know, but Newman manages it here.He just smiles, he manages one of the most classic 5 mile stares ever, and doesn't even appear to notice the outcome. He KNOWS he made the shot before he even made it. Just that one moment is so brilliant every time I watch the film I play it through about 5 times before I go on.And then there is the great ending as the credits role and everyone vacates the pool room, one by one. Kenyon Hopkins should have won some kind of award for the music he provided for just that one scene.The final sax note and strummed guitar chord when the film stops rolling is like the end of a great symphony. A never to be matched ending to one of the greatest masterpieces ever in the history of American film making.