Touchstone and Beyond: A History of Disney’s “The Color of Money”

With the start of awards season ‘Touchstone and Beyond’ looks back at the winners and nominees from the Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures library. First up, we look at Paul Newman’s 1986 Oscar winning movie The Color of Money. Though he was nominated multiple times in the past and always came up empty, Newman’s return to the character of ‘Fast’ Eddie Felson would bring home Oscar gold.

The Plot

Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) is a liquor salesman who is getting by in life. His work fulfills him, and his relationship with his girlfriend Janelle (Helen Shaver) is going well. Eddie’s content is upended when he meets Vincent (Tom Cruise) and Carmen (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) in his favorite bar.

Watching from his barstool, Eddie is in awe as Vincent cleans out Julian (John Turturro) in pool. Recognizing the potential, Eddie strikes up a friendship with Vincent and Carmen and proposes that they work together. The old hustler instincts in Eddie have been reborn, and he suggests that they travel the road visiting pool halls, practicing and hustling, while working towards a 9-ball championship in Atlantic City. Eddie would stake them, while helping guide Vincent to success.

While Vincent struggles to follow all the rules that Eddie sets out for him, they bond over their love of the game. For Eddie, spending all this time in the pool halls has rekindled his thirst for success. Not wanting to sit on the sidelines anymore, Eddie breaks up the trio and goes his own way to Atlantic City.

At the tournament Eddie plays Vincent which results in a victory for the elder hustler. After the game, Eddie learns that Vincent didn’t give his best game, and rather than continue in the tournament, he insists that they play one more time to decide who is the best.

Cinematic Compliments

Paul Newman is perfect in this film. Not only does Newman manage to bring new life to a character he played in 1961’s The Hustler, we get to meet an older and wiser Eddie Felson. Newman brings strength and charisma back to a world he knows so well. It’s hard not to like Eddie Felson, because on the surface we see him taking on the role of aging talent trying to bolster the young Vincent (Tom Cruise). What makes Newman so perfect and why he deserved to win the Oscar for this role is that half-way through the film we see the hunger for success come out in Eddie. Newman has spent half the movie repressing that desire to compete and when he can no longer keep it in, Eddie becomes a force of nature that the audience shifts from admiring to cheering for. We want to see ‘Fast’ Eddie Felson win because we love Paul Newman and he makes the audience love Eddie.

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is stunning as Carmen. At first glance you see Carmen as just the girlfriend to the hotshot Vincent, which Tom Cruise lights up the screen as, but Carmen is complex and a little scary. Through Carmen’s conversations with Eddie we get a truer look at the woman behind the pool player. Carmen is ruthless. The story she tells about robbing Vincent’s home with an old boyfriend and how the necklace she wears is the one she stole from Vincent’s mother is frightening. Under the veneer of the ‘girlfriend’ role the audience sees Carmen as someone to respect. Mastrantonio is a talented actress who plays the part perfectly. She deserved her Oscar nomination, and perhaps the win.

Martin Scorsese is a brilliant director who has guided some of the best films of the 20th and 21st century into existence. He is on the top of his game with The Color of Money, employing many standard bits that you see in his films. What makes The Color of Money stand out is that audiences are not repulsed by the characters. Rather, we like them. There is no blood or gore of the mafia world, nor are we watching one of the main characters meet their demise in the middle of a cornfield. Through Cruise we see the hungry young talent that has no direction and is just learning the ropes of the pool hall world. Through Eddie, we see the primal urge for supremacy. Everyone has felt the same as Vincent and Eddie, and audiences can see a portion of their own existence in these two characters. The Color of Money is one of the few films where Scorsese is showing a slice of life that seems to be the most real and genuine on screen. We can all relate to the world we see in the movie in some manner.  

Cinematic Complaints

I cannot think of a single complaint. This film has great actors living a life that isn’t seedy or destructive, rather it’s a championship competition that pushes them to be there best.

Fun Film Facts

  • Paul Newman won the Academy Award for his revisit of Eddie Felson, but he wasn’t in attendance to receive the award. Robert Wise accepted Newman’s statue on his behalf.
  • Prior to winning for The Color of Money, Newman had received an honorary Oscar at the previous year’s telecast.
  • Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio was also nominated for an Oscar in the supporting actress category. She lost to Dianne Wiest.
  • Forest Whitaker has a small role as a pool shark that hustles Newman’s Eddie.
  • In the bar where Eddie meets Vincent and Carmen, there is a Disney easter egg in the form of the Tron arcade game. The movie the game is based on game out in 1982.
  • The video game Doom was titled after the developers of the game were inspired by a scene in this film.
  • Jackie Gleason was going to appear in the film to reprise his role of Minnesota Fats from The Hustler. While Gleason was included in the script, his part was cut with agreement by Gleason because his character didn’t fit into the direction of the film.
  • Martin Scorsese has a couple of roles in the film. He is the voiceover that explains the game of 9-ball and he plays a dog walker in the Atlantic City casino. The dog was also Scorsese’s dog Zoe.
  • Iggy Pop has a cameo in the film as a pool player that Newman, Cruise, and Mastrantonio meet while on the road.
  • Cruise was hot off the success of Top Gun which Newman saw as a glorification of war. Newman, an anti-war activist shared his disappointment with Cruise which may have inspired Cruise to make Born on the Fourth of July.
  • The original film The Hustler was a 20th Century Fox film. Now with the acquisition of Fox, both films fall under the Disney banner.
  • While shooting the film in Chicago, Scorsese learned about a mafia book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, which would become the basis of his film Goodfellas.
  • Newman reportedly got the ball rolling on the film and approached Scorsese about collaborating on the film.
  • Fox was originally going to distribute the film until new management were less enthused about seeing Paul Newman back in the role of Eddie. They were less than excited about having Tom Cruise as Vincent. Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg saw the opportunity and snatched the film up for the Touchstone Pictures label.
  • The movie finished a day under scheduled and almost two million dollars under budget. That’s a good thing because Newman and Scorsese would have made up the financial difference had the film gone over budget and schedule.
  • The Color of Money popularized pool and led to an increase in purchasing pool tables for home use.

The Golden Popcorn Bucket Award

The Color of Money is brilliant. Scorsese has crafted a film that has all the hallmarks of a gritty Scorsese movie with less violence and minimal profanity. As an audience you get wrapped up in the success of Eddie and Vincent, but you are reminded that this is a world that’s not all glitz and glamour.

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is perfect as Carmen. She has the most difficult job in the film. While trying to play the loving girlfriend of Vincent, Carmen must be the strong-willed partner that pushes Vincent to follow Eddie’s lead. The diner scene where Carmen explains how she met Vincent is chilling. The way Mastrantonio delivers her lines shows us how dangerous Carmen can be.

The Color of Money gets a 4 Golden Popcorn Bucket rating. Everyone should see this movie at least once.

Coming Attractions

Awards season continues with a look at Robert Redford’s 1994 film Quiz Show. Nominated for multiple Oscars, does the Redford 90’s film still hold up? We shall see.

Production Credits

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Produced by Touchstone Pictures/Silver Screen Partners II

Starring:

  • Paul Newman as ‘Fast’ Eddie Felson
  • Tom Cruise as Vincent  
  • Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Carmen
  • Helen Shaver as Janelle
  • John Turturro as Julian

Release Date: October 19, 1986

Budget: $13,800,000

Box Office Gross

Domestic: $52,293,982

                     

Bill Gowsell
Bill Gowsell has loved all things Disney since his first family trip to Walt Disney World in 1984. Since he began writing for Laughing Place in 2014, Bill has specialized in covering the Rick Riordan literary universe, a retrospective of the Touchstone Pictures movie library, and a variety of other Disney related topics. When he is not spending time with his family, Bill can be found at the bottom of a lake . . . scuba diving