The Reliable will not return in these pictures
A Year Ten student — who’s honestly burnt out and can’t be bothered — sits idly, staring at a blank essay.
“Wow, so edgy. You’re nothing special. Shut up and write.”
There we go. That’s our jumping-off point. So, here we are again. Alleged second-last Medium post. A comparative piece on The Hustler and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. This won’t be easy. I still hope it will be. I like film analysis anyway.
“Such a pretentious ponce anyway. ‘Oh, I’m a cinema-goer’ — Jesus.”
“Bring back the Reliable”, they said. Nah. I think he’s had his time in the light. The Reliable’s done. But The Student, he still has to go on. Of course I do.
“Oh, I’m not done yet. Still up here. And look how you’re doing without me.”
The Hustler is a 1961 American film about pool hustler “Fast Eddie” Felson, who wants to make it big in the pool world. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner is a 1962 British film about juvenile delinquent Colin Smith and his rise through the ranks of his borstal as an athlete. I won’t try and up the word count too much with plot summaries. There’s no time for that. Wikipedia pages with the plots of both films respectively are here and here.
“Oh how very nice and considerate of you.”
I’ll also say that I did enjoy these movies. Both of them genuinely intrigued and entertained me. Was I thinking about them a lot because we were in English class? Yeah, but as I said, I like film, so I really just had to switch that part of my mind on.
Narrative
First up, we’ll look at the differences in the films’ narratives.
“Hypocrite.”
If you were to plot Eddie’s and Colin’s emotional character graphs over the course of their films, I think they’d look very different. The inverse of each other, actually. Eddie Felson starts out great. He’s pumped up. He feels as if he can take on the whole world. And he certainly tries. Taking on legendary pool player Minnesota Fats is a gamble, and the movie wastes no time in knocking Eddie down. And it doesn’t stop. I’d say Eddie’s character graph trends downwards the whole movie.
“Haha. Like your life.”
Colin’s character graph, however, trends upwards. He starts pretty low. His dad is dead, he’s blown his money on a trip with his friends and has been arrested for a burglary. The borstal seems like it could be a path upwards (That’s what they tell themselves). And although Colin’s social standing in or out of the borstal doesn’t change for the better, he himself does. More on that later.
“Let’s see if that actually does pan out.”
Eddie makes a bold claim at the start of the first act: He is going to win $10,000 that night. Eddie’s partner Charlie describes the pool hall as they first arrive: “It looks like a morgue to me. Those tables are the slabs they lay the stiffs on.” This foreshadows Eddie’s own figurative fate.
Both films, in terms of their protagonists’ emotional arcs, also subvert their respective countries of origin’s stereotypical mindset.
“I’m sorry, what did you just say?”
This video about The Office explains what I mean. The British were always told to keep their heads out of the clouds, that they couldn’t do what others could. The Americans, though, were told they could be the next president. This deep-rooted pessimism and optimism within the respective societies is showcased classically in their interpretations of the same comedy. But of course, the dramas are where they’re flipped. The British protagonist rises up and learns to be satisfied with himself, whereas the American falls down a slippery slope, learning a numbing lesson too late.
Shot geography
Character journeys are further enforced with how people are placed within the frame of the shot.
“En anglais, s’il vous plait?”
The opening shot of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner is a medium-wide shot, with Colin placed on the left of the frame with his back to us the whole time. Not only is the stark isolation highlighted by this shot, if we refer to the convention of and our association with the movement from left to right in terms of literal movement across the frame and link it with character development, the shot can tell us a whole lot more.
“Wow. What a load of-”
Even though he’s physically running, he’s mostly still in the frame due to the camera moving with him. So, he’s always on the left of the shot. Convention says your protagonists, and I think characters in general, should move left to right. This stage of his life at the Borstal, despite his position there, is getting him nowhere (or that’s what he sees, anyway). This idea is set up from the very start and permeates the whole film.
At the end of the film, where Colin decides not to win the race for the borstal as a big middle finger to the governor, he is placed the right of the shot, whereas his rival runner from the posh school is on the left. Their numbers could even signify their statuses.

“Jesus Christ, how much can you over-analyse this?”
The runner from Ranley School is number seven, whilst Colin is number fourteen. I know it’s a stretch, but this could be because, in terms of character, Colin is now double the man his opponent is, and not in spite of, but because of the fact he chose to lose the race.
“That much, I guess.”
The second time Eddie meets Sarah in the Hustler also shows smart placement of people within the frame. As Sarah approaches Eddie, she is kept right of frame. This signifies where she thinks her story ends: drunk and alone. Eddie, too, is kept to the right. And I think that’s a very subtle, yet effective way to show their similarities and why they bond. Both think it’s the end of their respective story. Where can they go from here? Apparently to a somewhat stable life.
Subversion and Irony
“Someone learnt fancy words, didn’t they?”
Both films end with an occurrence that’s seemingly the opposite of the protagonists’ emotional journeys.
What’s thrown around in The Hustler is the character that Eddie lacks, according to Bert Gordon. Gordon also calls Eddie a loser. When Eddie finally beats Minnesota Fats and confronts Bert about Sarah’s death, he calls him a loser, and I think at least some of his character has been built. His victory seems empty and hollow. His opponent in the game isn’t who he actually wants to beat. His opponent isn’t who he’s proving a point to. Despite winning, Eddie realises it isn’t about the pool. One of the final wide shots of the film punctuates it as everyone goes about their business around Eddie, really isolating him.
As touched on earlier, Colin’s deliberate loss in the cross country is a victory for him. It’s a victory against the system, and really that’s as Colin Smith as you can get. He’s knocked back into this mindset once his friend Mike from the outside asks him, “Whose bloody side are you on now?”. And that’s when he realises. He’s not “the governor’s blue-eyed boy”, nor does he want to be. A shot reverse shot of a closeup on Smith’s and the Governor’s faces punctuates the victory.
“Jesus that was thrown together, quickly wasn’t it?”
I’ve brought The Reliable back, haven’t I?
“You locked me up. I’ve had to watch what you do. This is as much fun for me as it is for you, okay?”
Okay.
“But, that’s it?”
Yeah. That’s it. That’s the essay.
“Not great. Though, is it? And as if you didn’t consult other sources. ‘Oh, I just think like that anyway’ — Shut up.”
Okay, you know what, actually get out. The essay is done.
Bibliography:
En.wikipedia.org. (2019). The Hustler (film). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hustler_(film) [Accessed 31 Oct. 2019].
En.wikipedia.org. (2019). The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (film). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Loneliness_of_the_Long_Distance_Runner_(film) [Accessed 31 Oct. 2019].
Listal.com. (2012). Picture of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962). [online] Available at: https://www.listal.com/viewimage/3623283 [Accessed 4 Nov. 2019].
Youtube.com. (2016). YouTube. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zyv4jGWEzxY [Accessed 4 Nov. 2019].
Youtube.com. (2009). YouTube. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXMS5ZXKvYA [Accessed 4 Nov. 2019].
Youtube.com. (2011). YouTube. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b73K9c0_UW8 [Accessed 4 Nov. 2019].
Youtube.com. (2017). YouTube. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQnXoNlB8Ys [Accessed 4 Nov. 2019].
Youtube.com. (2019). YouTube. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh11WnVW1H8 [Accessed 5 Nov. 2019].
