Metacritic reviews

The Hustler is one of those films where scenes have such psychic weight that they grow in our memories. That's true of the matches between Eddie and Fats.

One of the most compelling character-based films to emerge from the decade of the 1960s.

There's a huge amount of style in this picture, but also a huge amount of substance underpinning it.

A postnoir melodrama with metaphysical trimmings, it does remarkable things with mood and pacing, and the two matches with Gleason as Minnesota Fats are indelible.

The sequences crackle with vitality as well as setting subtly the characterizations and packing the explosives to be detonated later.

Like the best sports films, The Hustler makes the game look exciting even to outsiders, but Rossen's film is ultimately about a more universal subject than impossible breaks and the heavy spin of masse shots. Adapting Walter Tevis' novel, Rossen made a morality tale without the moralizing.

The film is marred slightly by an over-abrupt ending and the irritating device of speeded-up clocks, but these are minor flaws in a film that has grown in stature over the years.

Dingy atmosphere and great performances make this a standout.

With solid performances, a great jazz score by Kenyon Hopkins, and a virtual clinic in how to do black-and-white cinematography thanks to Eugene Shuftan’s camerawork, The Hustler reaffirms your faith in the movies.

Unfoldment of the screenplay, based on novel by Walter S. Tevis, is far overlength, and despite the excellence of Newman’s portrayal of the boozing pool hustler the sordid aspects of overall picture are strictly downbeat.