I watched this film hoping to see more of the often broodish, rude and cocky Fast Eddie from the Hustler but came away feeling they were 2 different characters. In Color of Money he seems entirely too personable.
Anyone else feel the same?
"The mainframe is out of the coolant!" Mace (Sunshine 2007)
I can understand your desire to see the same character from The Hustler reprised in this movie, but just think of it this way: you most likely aren't even the same person you were even five years ago. Eddie has lost all the venom of youth. He knows his limitations and more importantly is a wiser man. He is (unsuccessfully at most times) manipulating Vince into acting the way he'd be acting if he were 30 years younger.
shareI've heard the theory that if you look back on your life - or even if you can't for that matter - that every seven years we have evolved to a point that we are a completely different person in many important ways than we were at the beginning of any seven year period. Makes sense to me.
If true, that means Eddie would've "evolved" 3+ times since Bert Gordon retired him. Just think about the fact that he wasn't allowed to play big time pool immediately after 1960-61 - just that one thing happening in his life would've instigated major change for Fast Eddie.
I wanna find one face that ain't lookin' though me...
I wanna spit in the face of these...Badlands
"If you still behave at 47 the way you were behaving at 24, you'd be a bit of a d---, wouldn't you?"
-Noel Gallagher.
^ if you substitute Paul Newman's respective ages in both films (36 and 61) the saying still holds true
By the way, I can't believe that he WASN'T in his twenties when they made The Hustler, but whatevs. Good aging until the '80s, I guess.