| | | The Masterpiece That Propelled Newman to Stardom!
Features: DVD, Sensormatic
Newman is a top-notch pool hustler who gets cocky and challenges Gleason''s Minnesota Fats to the match of his life.
"A wonderful hymn to the last true era when men of substance played pool with a vengeance." Derek Adams, Time Out
"...so much better than Martin Scorsese's belated sequel The Color of Money that they don't even belong in the same category." Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
"Newman is outstanding...in this incisive film." Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
"Dingy atmosphere and great performances make this a standout." Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle
"Rivetingly atmospheric, and exquisitely photographed." VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever
Editor's Note
An arrogant and amoral hustler haunts pool rooms to get a crack at bringing down Minnesota Fats. When he starts to have real feelings for a woman, he's faced with a dilemma. See THE COLOR OF MONEY, an excellent sequel made 25 years later, for which Newman won Best Actor. Academy Award Nominations: 9, including Best Picture; Best Director; Best Actor, Paul Newman; Best Adapted Screenplay.
| Features | How To Make The Shot Featuring Five Scenes | | Audio Commentary By Paul Newman, Film Historian Jeff Young, Film Critic Richard Schickel & More! | | Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo | | Audio: English, French, Spanish Dolby Digital Mono | | Dubbed: French, Spanish | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, Spanish | | Three All-New Featurettes: Life In The Fast Lane - Fast Eddie Felson & The Search For Greatness, Milestones In Cinema History - The Hustler, & Swimming With Sharks - The Art Of The Hustle | | Trick Shot Analysis Of Five Scenes | | Two Additional Featurettes, Photo Gallery & More! |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Foxvideo |
| Release Date: 6/12/2007 |
| Running Time: 135 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1961 | | Catalog ID: 2237228 | | UPC: 00024543372264 | | Number of Discs: 2 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English, French Dubbed, Spanish Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: Spanish | | Video: B&W |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Winner (1962) | | | British Academy Awards, The Hustler, Best Film from any Source | | | British Academy Awards, Paul Newman, Best Foreign Actor | |
Nominee (1962) | | | British Academy Awards, Piper Laurie, Best Foreign Actress | |
Winner (1962) | | | Oscar, Gene Callahan, Harry Homer, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-And-White | | | Oscar, Eugene Schufftan, Best Cinematography, Black-And-White | |
Nominee (1962) | | | Oscar, Paul Newman, Best Actor in a Leading Role | | | Oscar, Piper Laurie, Best Actress in a Leading Role | | | Oscar, Robert Rossen, Best Director | | | Oscar, Robert Rossen, Best Picture | | | Oscar, Jackie Gleason, Best Actor in a Supporting Role | | | Oscar, Sidney Carroll, Robert Rosen, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material From Another Medium |
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| | Professional Reviews | Entertainment Weekly
"...Newman bravely reveals the demons lurking beneath his devil-may-care exterior..." 06/07/2002 p.53Total Film
"...Shot with virtuoso pace, the tussles between Eddie and Minnesota Fats are superb..." 11/01/2003 p.128 Uncut
4 stars out of 4 -- "[A] powerful character study of a man at war with himself, wrestling win back his self-respect." 10/01/2006 p.156 Ultimate DVD
5 stars out of 5 -- "THE HUSTLER marks the birth of an anti-hero in Newman, and is a dazzling, provocative and seminal piece of American cinema." 10/01/2006 p.120 ReelViews 10 of 10
There are some who wrongfully assume that The Hustler is about pool. It is a natural assumption: much of the action takes place in billiards rooms and pool halls, but this movie is no more about pool than Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull is about boxing. Lead character Fast Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) is a pool shark, but change him into a poker player or a golfer, and The Hustler would play out pretty much the same. Robert Rossen's film is far less about Fast Eddie's confrontations with other players than it is about his war with his own demons and his struggle to define the intangible meaning of "character"...The public's fascination for Fast Eddie was so great that Martin Scorsese teamed up with Newman (and Tom Cruise) to bring back the character in 1986's The Color of Money, an inferior film that nevertheless offers its share of small pleasures...Yet, as intriguing as the character is in the Scorsese film, that cinematic representation of the pool shark pales in comparison with the one presented in Rossen's The Hustler, one of the most compelling character-based films to emerge from the decade of the 1960s. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
There are only a handful of movie characters so real that the audience refers to them as touchstones. Fast Eddie Felson is one of them. The pool shark played by Paul Newman in "The Hustler" (1961) is indelible--given weight because the film is not about his victory in the final pool game, but about his defeat by pool, by life, and by his lack of character. This is one of the few American movies in which the hero wins by surrendering, by accepting reality instead of his dreams...The film provided Paul Newman's breakthrough into the first rank of Hollywood actors, but it is instructive to see how important the other actors are..."The Hustler" is one of those films where scenes have such psychic weight that they grow in our memories...Among the male faces in the movie, most of them old, weathered, cold or cruel, Paul Newman's open and handsome looks are a contrast. But the casting is correct. He isn't too handsome for this ugly world, but a hustler who trades on his boyish grin and aw-shucks way of asking if anybody feels like a game. His face has gotten Eddie almost as far as his pool skills. He doesn't look like a hustler, but then the best ones never do. - Roger Ebert
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