'' was a
1984 novel by American writer
Walter Tevis , continuing the story of Fast Eddie Felson from ''
The Hustler '' (1959). Felson is no longer a
Pool player, but owns a pool hall. He goes on tour versus Minnesota Fats for a cable sports show, while losing to Fats, he regains some of his competitiveness that he lost. Fast Eddie discovers something he has been missing all those years owning the poolhall. Pride.
It was adapted into a
1986 film of the same name, with
Paul Newman reprising his role from the movie version of ''The Hustler.'' The film also stars
Tom Cruise as Vincent,
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Carmen,
Helen Shaver as Janelle and
John Turturro as Julian. The movie was adapted by
Richard Price from the novel, and was directed by
Martin Scorsese . It was given an
'R' Rating by the
MPAA .
The movie won the
Academy Award for
Best Actor In A Leading Role (Paul Newman) and was nominated for
Best Actress In A Supporting Role (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio),
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and
Best Writing, Screenplay Based On Material From Another Medium .
Director Scorsese performed the opening voiceover (uncredited), describing the game of ,
Jimmy Mataya , and
Keith McCready . Another notable cameo is that of
Iggy Pop who plays one of the many contenders who lose to Vincent.
Newman said that the best advice he was given by Scorsese was "Try ''not'' to be funny."
Cruise performed most of the trick shots himself using a Joss N-7 (not a
Meucci as many believe), custom-made to resemble a
George Balabushka cue as it was supposed to be in the film. An exception was a trick shot where Vincent was to jump two balls to sink another. Scorsese didn't mind letting Cruise learn the shot, but he said it would have cost too much and would have taken two days to film. Thus, the shot was performed for him by professional player
Mike Sigel .
John Carmack of
Id Software , one of the authors of the
Computer Game ''Doom'' , stated that the title of the game was inspired by Vincent's response when asked what he carried in his cue-case: "Doom."
The movie has positively influenced the popularity of pool. However, critical reviews remain mixed as they believe the film to be a lesser and inferior remake of
The Hustler and it's regarded by many as one of Scorsese's lesser films. Scorsese himself admitted later on that he agreed to do the film to fund
The Last Temptation Of Christ .
