The Color of Money

Scorsese’s greatest commercial success prior to Cape Fear is essentially a film of the 1980s in many respects. As a sequel to The Hustler, The Color of Money fits in with the fashion of sequels at the time, with Tom Cruise, enjoying his new-found fame thanks to Top Gun, in the second-biggest role of his career to that point, and is a very cool spectacle thanks to the music and cinematography. The Colour of Money is not a typical, somewhat forgettable product of the eighties, but a distinctive work by a filmmaker with a rather clear vision. Scorsese’s films have been cool at least since Mean Streets, so the (audio-)visual style here was not a reaction to the period demand for outwardly bombastic spectacles; in fact, the opposite was true – the times finally caught up with Scorsese. The casting of the ascendant Cruise could also have led to false conclusions. Though the screenplay doesn’t favour either him or Newman, it definitely isn’t the then-desired variation on the story in which a young pup learns new tricks from an old, incorrigible dog. Furthermore, the relationship between the cynical Eddie and the brash Vincent reflects developments in the film industry as such, specifically the redistribution of power in Hollywood: from the hands of the old guard into the paws of eager young yuppies. So, whereas Newman, who doesn’t have much room to rise (and, at the same time, doesn’t want to fall) practically has nothing else to do but recapitulate his career with nostalgia and put his life priorities in order, Cruise, who fittingly works in a toy store at the beginning, demonstrates with monumental arrogance and zero respect that, as he himself believes, no one has anything on him. Both of them are stubborn, but only the younger one is incorrigible. Because if I understood the last shot correctly, Eddie, after his plan to gain control of his apprentice (and as a bonus, make some money off of him) fails, not only returns to the game, but mainly returns to the game for the sake of the game itself. After many years of cynically hustling others and proving god knows what to himself, he is finally becoming a real king of pool. It doesn’t matter than his kingdom is roughly two square metres in size – it is where he has won and lost the most important battles of his life. The importance of this object covered in felt with the colour of money for both players is constantly emphasised by the camerawork, often at table height and reminiscent of the stroke of a pool cue with its abrupt approaches to the characters. Just as Newman can steal a scene in a moment with his charisma, Scorsese is able to create the necessary atmosphere in a just a few seconds and prepare us for the importance of the event that is about to happen. However, the truth is that the individual scenes, however imaginatively directed, are quite similar to each other in their resulting feeling and after two hours I was immensely grateful to finally get out of those smoky pool halls. Even so, The Color of Money is still a very, very stylish film with one of Newman’s best later performances. 75% (07/10/2012) (less) (more)