Whitaker tore up Eddie on the hustle and would have definitely gotten into Vince's head...easily.
shareAgreed. I love Whitaker.You watching on HBO as well? :)
shareYup. I stumbled upon it last night.
Also, not to change my on topic but I wish there was a character who displayed the same class and craft as Minnesota Fats in the original.
yeah, he was in the zone.
A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.
Good point, schoollydee11. So much of competitive pool can involve head-games and sometimes outright "sharking". Amos would indeed have gotten inside of Vince's head completely, especially the Vincent we see through the first 3/4 of the film.
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"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."
When Grady Seasons got in Vince's head at the bar, Vince proceeded to play some awesome pool and would have kept on winning games from him if Carmen had not intervened.
Vince was well above Amos' level and would have beaten him easily.
Eddie was trying to win a lot of money from Amos but got taken because he was drinking. Vince would have just wanted to beat him.
^ Fair point. Still, not sure I agree that Vince would have taken Amos easily - we don't really know Amos' actual skill level since he was likely hiding his speed. Some of the "best" pool players I have ever seen were road-players or "hustlers", not necessarily the big name tournament players.
I still feel that Amos would have quite effectively gotten into Vince's head, especially at that stage of Vince's "development" as a seasoned shark.
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"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."
1. A point I've seen made elsewhere and agree with, is that the film sets up Vince to be an almost superhuman pool player who is all but unbeatable. So in that sense a victory over Amos and anyone else in the world is a near certainty.
2. On a more character based, real world level- Lets face it, the only people who ever really "got into Vince's head" were Eddie and Carmen. Anyone else was just another person to be beaten. Seasons got in his head cuz Vince was trying Eddie's method and reign in his habit of making every ball on the table. As I pointed out, When Vince got annoyed by Seasons' banter, Vince quickly started playing world class pool and was more than a match for the best player on the circuit.
I get what you're saying, but there's no evidence in the film of Vince's skill at the table eroding due to his opponent trying to get in his head. In fact, quite the opposite was true. If it's a best 3 out of 5 winner take all for a million bucks, I'd take Vince 3-0, for the above reasons.
^ Fair points indeed! I am clearly guilty of imposing "real-world" rules, human characteristics and responses against the framework of a fictional movie universe. Mea culpa :)
So your point#1 is totally valid and makes complete sense in the universe of the film. In this context then, yes, I would agree that despite Amos' superior skills at pool "hustling", "sharking" and at playing head-games, Vince would have beaten him.
But out here, in the "real-world" of competitive pool/hustling, I still say a guy like Amos would beat a guy like Vince [at that point of Vince's development], at least for a while and for a good deal of money. :)
Thanks for the discussion - you play pool or do anything competitively?
cheers,
-mariusar
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"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."
But out here, in the "real-world" of competitive pool/hustling, I still say a guy like Amos would beat a guy like Vince [at that point of Vince's development], at least for a while and for a good deal of money. :)
Eddie had only started playing again when he played Amos
Didn't have the glasses or anything
He would have destroyed him in a rematch
Agreed.
shareThe scene in the film when Vince plays the guy with a hole in his throat, Vince feels sorry for him and lets him win.
It's not exactly the same but Vince's game is physiologically affected for the worse.
That said, I am not saying Amos would win, I don't think he would beat either Vince or Eddie's best game. Definitely not Eddie in Hustler era form.
You must be delusional. Whitaker's character was just a small time hustler and Eddie was completely unpracticed, old and drunk. Vincent would have destroyed that guy. At the end of the movie, Vincent was about to completely wipe out Eddie's ego in their final match but fortunately for us the movie ended so we didn't have to see it. Guys like Vincent suck. They have pure unvarnished talent at something with little or no effort or practice, and little intelligent thought put into it. It's like playing against a robot. Eddie could spend the rest of his years practicing just to try and win a few games off Vincent but it would really be a waste of his time. We never got to see Vincent's "best game", but based on how good his regular game was I'd say he was correct in saying that Eddie couldn't handle it.
share