FILM LIST
The Color of Money (15) (Martin Scorsese, US, 1986) Paul Newman, Tom Cruise, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Helen Shaver. 119 mins. At the end of The Hustler, pool hotshot ‘Fast' Eddie Felson won a historic victory that confirmed his moral integrity but robbed him of a glorious future. He had defeated his legendary opponent Minnesota ‘Fats‘ but had consigned himselffo a life without pool by refusing to appease the money men and throw the game. If he were to play again they would guarantee it would be his last match.
Twenty-five years later, in this belated follow-up, Felson's moral fibre has been slowly eroded underfhe weight of the compromises he has made in order to survive and endure. Now he enjoys a plush lifestyle as a well-off liquorsalesman. He has money, fancy cars and a loyal woman but he doesn't have his self respect and he doesn't play pool. Instead, he latches onto promising young players and finances their education, not in the finer points of how to play the game but in the less noble skills of when to lose and how to pocket the money. He may own the glitzy trappings of success but underneath he is the hollow embodiment of the poolroom parasites he once despised.
Then he encounters Vincent Laurie (Tom Cruise) and it’s just ‘like watching a home movie.‘ Vincent is a naturally gifted pool playerwith a swaggering sense of his own talent and a boundless passion for playing the game. To Felson, he is not only an alarming reminder of his former self but has the potential of an unlimited earner, ripe for the picking. He offers to make Vincent rich and, with the younger man’s girlfriend in tow, the trio hitthe road.
Felson begins the process of disabusing Vincent of his boyish enthusiasms and sense of fair play. However, as the man corrupts the boy he also unwittingly rekindles the fires of his own passion forthe game. Felson picks up a pool cue forthe first time in
THE COLOR OF MONEY
years and without needing to express or analyse his feelings it is obvious that he has returned home and rediscovered his true self. As a major tournament approaches, the two men, master and pupil, are set on a collision course which is resolved through several unexpected but satisfying twists in the plot.
Although The Color Of Money is, first and foremost, a sequel to The Hustler, it is also a Martin Scorsese film. Given his Catholic Italian-American background, guilt, obsession and redemption have been central and recurring themes in Scorsese‘s work. A cathartic explosion of vice in Taxi Driver, a desperate act by a fame-hungry nonentity in King Of Comedy are just two of the incidents through which Scorsese characters have come closerto discovering their true selves. In The Color Of Money, Felson re-establishes contact with all that had given his life merit and, almost in the nick oftime, finds the salvation and redemption that brands him as a worthy addition to the Scorsese collection. Thus, the film is a surprisingly canny fusion of Scorsese’s sensibilities and Hollywood's desire fora lucrative resurrection of one of Paul Newman’s most famous characterisations, and ultimately vindicates the director's decision to
I . UM... ‘work on things that I did not conceive and make it my own in some way.‘
Whether the fact that Felson’s journey of redemption is less brutal and less powerfully depicted than those of say Jake La Motta orTravis Bickle, is a question of compromise or middle-aged mellowness on Scorsese’s part, is a moot point. However, it is a journey well worth making that offers some splendid pleasures along the way from Robbie Robertson’s screechy, bluesy score to Richard Price's salty screenplay, to the acting ofthe principals.
Mastrantonio and Shaver offer strong support and whilst Cruise is still a hunky, walking advert for dentistry he puts up a good effort in a showy, tricky role as the naive young turk with ‘more ballsthan brains'. Newman, it must be said, commands the screen with every telling flicker of his baby blue eyes. His presence dominates the entire proceedings as he delights in relishable reams of dialogue and enjoys his role as both passive observer and reactivated protagonist. It is a beautifully modulated display of what subtle screen performing is all about. Do the basis of Newman's Oscar-nominated performance alone, The Colouer Money is a film to savour.
(Allan Hunter)
Timing must be accounted the most disappointing episode in Roeg‘s career. Glasgow: ABC Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh; ABC 0 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (U) (Ken Hughes. UK. 1968) Dick Van Dyke. Sally Ann Howes. Benny Hill. 142 mins. Extravagantly long. cheap and cheerful children‘s musical based on the Ian Fleming story about a flying car. Edinburgh; Filmhouse o The Colorof Money ( 15) c: (Martin Scorsese. US. 198(1) Paul Newman. Tom Cruise. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. 119 mins. See Caption Review. Glasgow: ()deon. Edinburgh; ()deon. Lothian; ABC Strathclydc; ABC (ireenock. ABC Kilmarnock. ()deon Ayr O The Cotton Club ( 15) (Francis Ford Coppola. 1984) Richard Gere. Gregory Hines. Bob Hoskins. 128 mins. Movie stars. molls and mobsters interact in this loving recreation of the famous Prohibition
wateringhole. Gere is lifeless but Hines shines. Glasgow; (EFT 0 Crimes of Passion ( 18) (Ken
Russell. US. 198-1) Kathleen Turner.
Anthony Perkins.John Laughlin. 107 mins. Russell's debunking of the American way ofsex is an uproariously black satire where moonlighting whore meets dildo-packing clergyman meets ordinary guy who sometimes pretends to be a Human Penis. A strident and courageous piece of filmmaking in that it casts men as the oppressors. this will arouse fierce opinions. Russell‘s best film in years. Edinburgh; Cameo
0 Crocodile Dundee ( 15) (Peter Faiman. Australia. 1986) Paul Hogan. Linda Kozlowski. Mark Bluym. 98 mins. Disarmingly self-mocking. old-fashioned comedy-romance with Hogan as a legendary crocodile hunter in the Northern Territories ofAustralia. discovered by an American
journalist and persuaded to sample the dubious delights of Manhattan.
Glasgow; ABC Clarkston Road. Cinema. ()deon. Salon. Edinburgh: Dominion. ()deon. Lothian; ABC. Regal. Strathclyde; ABC (ireenock. ABC Kilmarnock. Kelburne. La Scala. ()deon Ayr. ()deon Hamilton. Rialto
0 Death in Venice (15) (Luchino Visconti.1taly. 1971) Dirk Bogarde. Bjorn Andresen. Marisa Berenson. 130 mins. Sumptuous adaptation of the Thomas Mann novella with Bogarde superbly inhabiting the skin of an elderly composer who is smitten with the perfect beauty ofa young boy. A ravishing film with music by Mahler. and Bogarde at the peak ofhis screen artistry. (ilasgow; (iFl‘
0 Dim Sum (U) (Wayne Wang. US. 1985) Laureen Chew. Victor Wong. 87 mins. Heartwarming tale of family strife in the Chinese-American community of
San Francisco. An affecting. wistful study ofemotional and cultural conflict. Slight but touching. Strathclyde; Haldane Film Society 0 The Draughtsman‘s Contract ( 15) (Peter Greenaway. UK. 1982) Anthony Higgins. .lanet Suzman. 103 mins. Sumptuous. seductive enigma in which a young artist accepts a commission from a country manor and accepts payment in sexual favours. But is there more to this than meets the eye‘.’ Edinburgh; Cameo o Dreamchild ( PU) ((iavin Millar. UK. 1985) Coral Browne. lan Holm. Peter (iallagher. 94 mins. The aged Mrs Alice Hargreaves. who as a a little girl was the child to whom Lewis Carroll told the Alice stories. is in town to receive an 1 lonorary Degree from Columbia University. The confrontation with a brash New World sends the eight year-old back to the sunny days on the [sis of her childhood. Dennis Potter's first original cinema screenplay is a careful and evocative study of the way in which the memories ofold age can fit together the half-understood experiences of youth. Browne is imperiously outstanding. Edinburgh; Filmhouse 0 El Norte (15) (Gregory nava. US. 1983) Ernesto (iomez Cruz. David Villalpando. Zaide Silvie (iutierrez. 141) mins. 'l‘wo peasant children flee San Pedro after their father is slain and their mother imprisoned by the ruling military elite. Facing untold hardships and privations they strike out for El Norte and 1.os Angeles where the promised streets ofgold contain as many problems as life in the old country. Well-meaning. schematic and fatally over-sentimentalised low-budget melodrama. Edinburgh; Filmhouse O The Evil Dead ( 18) (Sam Raimi. US. 1982) Bruce Campbell. lillen Sandweiss. 95 mins. Pleasurably scary backwoods horror comic. A sequel is due this year. [{dinburgh; Cameo o Ferris Bueller‘s Day fo( 15) (John Hughes. US. 198(1) Matthew Broderick. Mia Sara. Charlie Sheen. 103 mins. A sunny spring day in Chicago is far too good to spend locked in a classroom so the irrepressible Ferris Bueller feigns a malady. cuts classes and promises his two best friends a day to remember. Characteristically uneven Hughes teen comedy that scores with fresh dialogue and appealing characterisations but has the drawback of some laboured farce and the need to make meaningful statements. Glasgow; ABC Saucbihall Street. (irosvenor. Strathclyde; Rialto O The Fly ( l8) ( David Cronenberg. US.1986)Jefooldblum.(ieena Davis. John (ietz. 96 mins. Brilliant ‘reconceptualisation’ ofthe 1958 Vincent Price camp classic. with gifted scientist (ioldblum falling in love with snooping journalist Davis. whose feelings are entirely mutual. 'l'he boffin however. jealously and wrongly suspects the presence of her ex-lover and in a beadrush of emotion drives him to try out the as yet untested teleportation device he has been working on. with himself as
12 The List 6— 19 March