Review: The Hustler (1 Viewer)

While aimlessly wandering the aisles of a large, national, retail department store today, my eyes scoured through a rack of DVDs for $14.44. Just as if seen through the cross hairs of a riflescope there stood The Hustler. I pulled the trigger at the checkout counter and came home to see how Fox had done with this great movie.
Since it is the only anamorphic DVD I own of a black and white CINESCOPE film, I have nothing to compare it to but I have seen it many times and this disc looks outstanding.
The framing of this film is another example of why P&S just does not fly. Throughout the pool hall scenes there is much activity going on in the background that cropping it would destroy the atmosphere of the shot. The shadowing and subtleties of the art of black and white films are reproduced very nicely.
There is a non-screen specific commentary from Newman, director Robert Rossen's daughter and film critic Richard Schinckel. The documentary The Hustler: The Inside Story is a cool feature touching on everything from the origin of pool to the casting of the actors. Interestingly, Sinatra was first considered for the Paul Newman role.
Also there's a segment re-creating the trick shots used in the film along with an option that displays a pop-up window during the film with a trick shot expert describing how the pool shots were made.
There is the original theatrical trailer in both English and Spanish as well as trailers for Butch Cassidy, Hombre and The Verdict. The film is 2.35:1 anamorphic black and white and has three audio options: English stereo, English mono and French mono with English and Spanish subtitles.
It's a very nice disc with a clean, anamorphic transfer for under $15.00.
Nice job Fox thanks.
-Gary
TV:Toshiba 40H80
DVDanasonic RP-91
Receiver:Yamaha 995

I didn't realize this was released. I thought the release date was 6/4.

Oh man! Thanks for the heads up! I had heard Ebert's review of it last weekend but completely forgot it was being released (I tend to forget everything Ebert says once the show's credits roll). It's always been a must-have, but Paul Newman's commentary should make it very special indeed!

Is Jeanette Lee in the film?

I preordered the Hustler along with Hombre and the Verdict and am looking forward to getting them early next month. Anyone have the other two titles and can comment on the DVDs?

All of these titles release date is 6/4/02. Last September, at the HTF's National Meet in LA, several of us had the pleasure of seeing cleanup work being done to "Hombre" in preparation for it's 2002 dvd release.


Crawdaddy

Thanks again. I had forgotten about this one, so I just ordered this and look forward to watching it on june 4.
Oscar Merkx

I wish they would release Nobody's Fool.

hello
Just received my copy this morning. I only watched the documentary about the making of The Hustler, superlative and an interesting inside in the business of Pool. A lot of footage was shown with Willie Mascone teaching Paul Newman how to play pool as Paul did not know anything about pool
I will be back with more later on