“I was wondering whether sports movies weren’t a little more complicated than a football match”
Well, I’m supposed to write a film comparison between two films on sport. My job today is to inform you about the similarities and differences in meaning, and film techniques between two films The Hustler directed by Robert Rossen, and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner directed by Tony Richardson.
My main purpose today is to inform. By the end of this post (well, if you haven’t fallen asleep because movie analysis bores you to death, although I have tried to put insightful analysis to help keep you awake), you will have gained a thorough understanding of the themes, ideas and messages presented in both movies
What happens in each of the movies? (**SPOILERS WILL BE IN THE FOLLOWING SECTION**)
Well, let’s start with a brief overview of each movies. The Hustler presents a pool shark “Fast” Eddie Felson (Paul Newman), who is a very smart and cunning character, while still being a very talented and passionate pool player. At the beginning of the film, we see Eddie and his partner Charlie (Myron McCormick) execute their strategy to earn money. Charlie and Eddie have a bet if Eddie could execute a particularly tricky shot, and Eddie fails deliberately to trick bystanders, making Eddie seem drunk. Then Eddie encourages bystanders to bet and Eddie makes the shot, forcing the bystander to pay up.
Things start to go downhill when Eddie challenges one of the best pool players in town, Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason). Eddie loses his first game to Fats, commenting on how amazing Fats’ shots are. However, he starts to come back in the later games where he beats Fats constantly. However, at the end, he becomes so drunk and arrogant that he loses so many games until all the money he earned is back in Fats’ pocket.
Eddies problems only increase since this point in the film. He leaves his long-time hustling partner Charlie and finds a girlfriend, Sarah Packard (Piper Laurie)who really likes him. However, Eddie doesn’t treat her very well, as he is too focused on the game of pool and has anger management issues. He is not doing well in terms of pool either, getting his thumbs broken once for humiliating another pool shark.
Things really start to go downhill, when Eddie partners up with Bert Gordon (George C. Scott). Bert is a typical ‘gold digger’, and profit is his main objective. He previously called Eddie a loser due to the fact that he lacked character. Bert organised a game of Billiards between Eddie and a wealthy man named Findley in Kentucky. He wasn’t very happy when Eddie brings Sarah along. However, the game is Billiards, not pool, so Eddie is unfamiliar. Sarah tried to convince him to stop playing, due to the “perverted, twisted, crippled” people that are in the game, but Eddie angrily declines her request. Sarah suicides, which causes Eddie to be very angry at Bert and very angry at himself.
In the end, Eddie beats Minnesota Fats, and Fats admits that he cannot beat Eddie. However, it’s a hollow victory, as Eddie admits “We really stuck the knife in her”. He calls Bert a loser and refuses to pay him his share.
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner is also a film related to sport. Adapted from Alan Stiltoe’s short story, it focuses on the life of Colin Smith (Tom Courtenay), who is a great long distance runner, albeit with being a very grumpy and angered young man. However his talent in running wasn’t because he was a professional athlete, it was because of his experience of running away from the police.
Colin gets taken to Borstal (called Ruxton Towers), because he “didn’t run fast enough”. He starts off just like any other inmate of Ruxton Towers, being bossed around all the time, and getting no respect from the staff there at all. Ruxton towers focuses on discipline and hard work, in order to reshape these men into something useful. However, when the Governor (Michael Redgrave) realises Colin’s athletic ability, they treat him differently. Ruxton Towers was competing against Ranley School at an sports carnival, and the Governor wanted Colin to win the cross-country cup, as a way to demonstrate the success of Ruxton Towers.
Colin is now one of the primary focuses of the Governor. Colin is granted good jobs in the garden, as opposed to dirty jobs in the machine shop, and even allows him to practise running unsupervised outside the campus of Ruxton Towers. However, Colin also witnesses the poor treatment of other inmates, such as beating them or giving them dirty jobs in the machine shop. He also sees a lot of inmates becoming jealous of his treatment.
This is mixed in with many flashback scenes. We see the grumpy Colin with his poverty-stricken family. We see the death of his father when he refuses to go to hospital. We also see the trip he made with his best friend Mike (James Bolam), his girlfriend Audrey (Topsy Jane) and Mike’s girlfriend Gladys (Julia Foster), which shows a complete change in character of Colin, who seems very happy, calmed and relaxed, rather than his usual grumpy, aggressive self.
We also see the process of the robbery that he and Mike committed which caused him to land in Borstal. This occurred after his mother asked him to leave the house and not to comeback until he has earned some money. They rob a cashbox in a nearby bakery, and hide the money in their drain, believing that they’ll never get caught. The police suspect Colin of a robbery, but they couldn’t find the cash. However, when the police came on a rainy day, the rain pushed the money out of the drain, and Colin got caught.
And on the day of the big race, Colin gets off to a good start. He overtakes Ranley’s best runner mid-race. During the last stretch, it is almost certain that he’ll win. However, he gets flashbacks from his life before Borstal: his father’s death, his treatment from the police, and the neglect from his mother. He suddenly stops, and despite all the yelling from the crowd, he allows Ranley’s best runner to pass him. He gives the governor a smug smile of rebellion. and the governor gets really angry, sending him straight to the machine shop when he gets back to Borstal.
Comparing the themes and ideas presented in the films
The Hustler, which appeared to be a simple film about pool, was in fact a lot more about what a true winner and a true loser was. Eddie was a winner in terms of pool. He was one of the best players in the country, and had really accurate and precise technique. But, is he a winner in life?
This movie would have a similar effect if Eddie was a tennis player, a golfer, or an athlete. He abandoned his good friends for his love of his sport. All he cared about was winning, and this attitude forced him to become a loser in life. He doesn’t respect what he has (Charlie, one of his best friends, and Sarah, his girlfriend) and only cares about winning money in pool. He doesn’t really care much about Sarah and Charlie, and doesn’t appreciate their support towards him. Roger Ebert, American film critic, says that the movie is “not about the victory in the final pool game, but about his (Eddie’s) defeat by pool, by life, and by his lack of character”. Bert calls Eddie a “born loser” because of his lack of character.
So, what does this lack of character refer to, and why is it such a big part of the film? You can see the lack of character in both Eddie first by the way he speaks. He speaks in a very plain, simple English most of the time.
The lack of character is mentioned a couple of times in the film. Gordon calls him a “born loser” after he lost against Fats. When Eddie explains “I told you, I got drunk”, Gordon replies:
“Sure you got drunk, you got the best excuse in the world for losin’. No trouble losin’ when you got a good excuse. And winning — that can be heavy on your back too, like a monkey. Drop that load too when you got an excuse. All you gotta do is learn to feel sorry for yourself. That’s one of the best indoor sports, feelin’ sorry for yourself. A sport enjoyed by all — especially the born loser.”
This shows that he lacks character, and that he is a loser because he feels sorry for himself, and is trying to find an excuse for losing. He is afraid of losing, and always finds excuses to help explain to himself how he lost. He always wants to win and wants to succeed in pool, which eventually leads to him being unsuccessful in life.
In life, you can see, he’s not a very ‘successful’ or has a good character. We can see this in some encounters between him and Charlie and Sarah. He is often aggressive and in a bad mood, and other people have to deal with his anger and his character. In a particular scene, where Charlie finds Eddie in Sarah’s home, Eddie completely ignores Charlie’s pleas to take a break from pool and lashes out at Charlie at one point.
We also see his lack of character in a particular scene where Eddie is having a picnic with Sarah, and they talk about the character Bert.
Sarah: What does he do, this Bert Gordon?
Eddie: He’s a gambler.
Sarah: Is he a winner?
Eddie: He owns things.
Sarah: Is that what makes a winner?
Eddie: What else does?
This quote shows his characterless side, and how he only cares about winning and ‘owning things’, and that’s his only definition of a ‘winner’. His character didn’t change, until in the last scene, where he finally realises what he’d done to Sarah, but it was too late. He’d beaten the best player in the country at pool, and he’d won a lot of money, but still it doesn’t make him a winner, as it cost him his girlfriend’s life. Rather than a movie that focuses on a character’s success in sport, The Hustler questions what it means to be successful and what it means to be a winner.
However, at the end, Eddie has ‘come of age’ and has realised what he had done to his girlfriend Sarah. He confronts Bert, calls him a loser, and accuses him of lacking character. He finally finds his ‘character’ and he doesn’t single-mindedly focus on pool.
The Loneliness of the Long Distance runner was also more than just a simple film about running. It features a grumpy and angry young man as the main character, just like The Hustler did. Both Colin and Eddie had girlfriends, too, which significantly impacted their narratives in the movie, and showed the romantic, slightly happier and more relaxed sides of the main characters (some of the time in Eddie’s case). However, the similarities between the two films start to end.
The loneliness of the Long Distance runner is the opposite of a coming of age movie like The Hustler, as Colin’s personality remains the same almost throughout the whole movie. Colin was a very angry and grumpy boy throughout the movie, and we see his life go downhill. His father died, and now he had to be the breadwinner of the family. His mother found a new lover who Colin doesn’t like much, and then he got caught stealing money from the baker’s house.
Colin’s principle in life remains the same throughout the whole movie and it is shown when he says “I’m not having anybody boss me around”. He wants to take control of his own life, and he wants to make all his decisions in life, and not want anyone tell him what to do. He likes having authority over himself, and being able to do what he wants to do.
We can see this in the flashbacks that are shown in the film. When his father dies, the company who previously employed his father wanted to employ him, but Colin refused the offer, as he wanted to do things differently. He does this for small issues too. For example, in a scene when Colin and Mike were watching television with the sound off, laughing at the news presenter’s mouth movements, his mother’s new lover turns the sound on, which causes an argument. Colin argues that it is his house and challenges his mother’s lover’s authority, but in the end his mother kicks him out of the house.
The only time when Colin is portrayed as ‘happy’ rather than ‘grumpy’ is when he is hanging out with his mates: with Mike, Audrey and Gladys. This is clearly shown on their outing to Skegness, where they have a lot of freedom about what they did.
Therefore, the borstal, with its “if you play ball with us, we’ll play ball with you” motto, does not fit Colin’s tastes, as he doesn’t like to ‘play ball’. Colin also doesn’t like the fact that the Borstal staff think of Colin as their ‘property’ rather than a human being. This is shown with this quote:
“They’re training me up as a racehorse, only I don’t get as well looked after as a racehorse”.
Another time he said that “I’m going to let them think they’ve got me house-trained, but they never will, those bastards”. This shows how he wants to be rebellious and defy the Borstal staff’s instructions. It shows Colin’s rebellious and defiant nature, and is the reason behind his loss. He stops running at the end as he gets flashbacks, reminding himself of his freedom being oppressed by his mother, the police, the governor and the diminishing chance of a future with his beloved girlfriend, Audrey. He sees this as a one of his only chances to take control, to have his freedom. The governor cannot do anything about the situation, and he is in full control. This is shown by his ‘rebellious sneer’ that he shows towards the governor.
This is a significant difference between the two films. While Colin oozes character, with his rebellious and ‘you can’t tell me what to do’ attitude, Eddie lacks character, with a narrow-minded focus on his favourite sport. This directly correlates to the outcomes presented in the endings of the film.
In Eddie’s case, his pool skill makes him win against Minnesota Fats. However, in the end, he was a loser, as he throughout his journey, he lost his girlfriend, and lost one of his best friends, Charlie. He’d abandoned people he love for his sport, and although he realised it in the end, it was too late. However, this is completely opposite to Colin’s case. He’d chosen to lose the cross-country cup due to his rebellious character, and he got severely punished at Borstal afterwards (we see him getting sent to the machine shop). However, he was pleased with his decision, as it represented his opportunity to be rebellious and to show the governor that he wasn’t the governor’s racehorse. This shows that while Eddie won the final match but was a loser in the end, Colin lost the final race but was a winner in the end.
Analysis of some film techniques
Both films were created in the 1960s and both films are in black-and-white. However, there was still great shots captured in both films.
The Hustler presents us with many shots of Eddie and Fats playing pool, demonstrating their talent with a few medium shots. You can see their actions and their faces, which show concentration yet effortlessness. You can also see the pool table, and the execution of the shot. An example of this is in the clip below, when Eddie plays Minnesota Fats.
Also, there are some shots that relate Eddie to his ‘natural environment’, the pool halls. There are shots which include many elements of the pool hall, with the many pool tables, the people play.
However, some of the best shots in the film show the relationship between different characters. The intimacy, admiration, frustration, neglect, hate and anger shown between different characters are clearly seen in these shots. For example, shots below show the scene where Sarah and Eddie are having a picnic. The way the characters are sitting and positioned close to each other show the intimacy between Eddie and Sarah at that particular moment.
Another example of a shot where the relationship between the characters are clearly shown is when Sarah tries to convince Eddie to stop playing. First we see the dramatic tension between Eddie and Bert, who are fighting as Eddie is losing the game of billiards. We can see the anger in both of the characters, and in a particular moment Eddie crouches down, which gives this sense of Bert having power and authority over Eddie. Then, Sarah comes in from the stairs, overlooking the situation, and then we see this scene where Sarah is the voice of reason and Eddie is neglecting her. This is emphasised in the film shots, where you can see Sarah, passionately trying to explain to Eddie why he should stop playing, but you see Eddie, right next to her, looking away from her like he doesn’t care what she says.
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner opens with a shot of Colin running. He is shown to be running in a very empty area, with almost nothing and nobody in the shot except for the road and a few trees here and there. It is a long-medium shot and gives a sense of emptiness and loneliness, but also gives a sense of freedom. There are many other long shots of Colin in the scene when he is allowed outside the premises of the Borstal to practise his long-distance running. This also emphasises the freedom that Colin feels during his run.
Another good use of a long shot is when Colin, Audrey, Mike and Gladys are on the beach when they go to Skegness. There are many long shots used in that scene. These long shot create a sense of freedom, due to the lack of people and the quiet, empty environment.
However, there are also good uses of close ups and medium shots, which show Colin’s facial expression clearly. Most of the time, he is shown as a grumpy, young man, which is clearly demonstrated through his facial features. There is one shot towards the end of the film (mentioned above) which shows Colin’s smug smile showing his defiance towards the governor. This shot clearly captures what he is trying to say to the governor.
I know 3000 words is more than enough to put any person to sleep, but I’m nearly finished babbling on. While both films on the surface look like traditional sports movies, where the hero/heroine faces a challenge and in the end wins the particular race/game, these two films presents a different take on a sports movie, where the protagonist doesn’t necessarily win in the end. Theoretically, Eddie won his final pool game against Minnesota Fats, however his neglect for Sarah caused him to lose his girlfriend, which he loved dearly (although it may not have seemed like it until the ending). Theoretically, Colin lost the race that ‘mattered the most’, but he won as he took the opportunity to exercise his freedom and defy the governor. These films both questions what it means to win and lose, which is not only a big part of sport but a vital part of life.
References (including images, videos and links I used briefly)k
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