Something to watch tonight: Wednesday 21 August

The Color of Money (Scorsese, 1986)

Apologies to Cruise-o-phobes* for bringing him into the timeline twice in less than five days, but this film is Baby-Cruise and, after watching it this weekend, I was tickled at the idea that the toy salesman hustler Vincent in The Color of Money would eventually become the ice-cold hitman Vincent in Collateral twenty years later.

Like dozens of my Blu-rays, this one was burning a hole in my expensive shelving. It has been sitting around for at least ten years since I bought it – probably in a sale somewhere – and it had landed near the top of my to-watch list thanks to the HBO documentary about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, The Last Movie Stars which came out in 2022.

Newman won an Academy Award for the reprise of his role as “Fast Eddie” Felson from The Hustler in 1961. He personally chose Scorsese as director and then went along as the film changed from an original vision reuniting him and Jackie Gleason, to something that resonated much more for an actor who was looking ahead to his own final act. How much more did he have in the tank?

As it turned out, quite a lot.

Scorsese has always considered this one of his non-personal films. He was in movie jail after blowing budgets on Raging Bull, The King of Comedy and After Hours, and proved on this gig that he could be a good soldier – under budget and ahead of schedule.

But it is one of his best. Lean, mean storytelling and Thelma Schoonmaker’s editing (of the pool sequences especially) is absolutely outstanding. The script from Richard Price (Clockers) is superb, Robbie Robertson’s score and music selection is wonderfully atmospheric, and – of course – Newman is wonderful.

Turns out the 2012 ‘25th Anniversary’ Blu-ray is one of the most derided by collectors. It does indeed look like crap and the film is well overdue for a decent restoration. In case, like me, you thought the version streaming on Disney+ might look better, I can confirm that it is the same grubby and gloomy transfer.

The film does manage to survive this, however, and is well worth a look, not least for the supporting cast including John Turturro, Helen Shaver, Bill Cobbs, Forest Whitaker and a cameo from Iggy Pop as one of Cruise’s hustler victims.

Walking past while I watching this the other night, the editor-in-chief asked “Whatever happened to Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio?” She has been the first choice on so many film of the 80s and 90s –The Abyss, The January Man, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. I had to look her up but she has been working consistently in television for donkeys’ years even though she only has one feature credit since 2000’s The Perfect Storm.

*In The Spinoff, Caroline Shepherd writes about watching all 46 Cruise feature films in one year and manages to do so in the least insightful way imaginable.

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Where to watch The Color of Money