The 3-Act Paradigm at Work: The Hustler

written by Sydney Carroll and Robert Rosen


The Hustler, a classic poolroom drama, is a hero's journey story, about a lowlife sort who through personal tragedy learns how to care about people.

Structural Analysis

  1. Hook (3-5 min.)
    • Fast Eddie and his partner hustle unsuspecting pool players in a small town pool hall.
  2. Complication (11 min.)
    • Fast Eddie wants to play Minnesota Fats, the best pool player in the game. He wants to win ten grand in a single night. He is ambitious and cocky.
  3. Call to Action (15 min.)
    • Fast Eddie challenges Fats to play at $200 a game. The game begins.
  4. Act One Plot Point (35 min.)
    • Eddie blows a big lead to lose a marathon match to a refreshed Fats. Then he falls down drunk. Later he meets a woman at a bus station (39 min.) and will move in with her (55 min.).
  5. Midpoint Plot Point (74, 79 min.)
    • Eddie turns down is old partner. Later he gets caught hustling and has his thumbs broken.
  6. Act Two Plot Point (115 min.)
    • Back in form, Eddie is winning - but he loses Sarah, who sees him being used. She leaves him. When Eddie goes looking for her, he finds her dead (121 min.).
  7. Climax and Resolution (124, 130-3 min.)
    • Eddie plays a $300 game rematch with Fats and wins. He refuses to pay up an old debt and gets banned from pool halls but is ready to walk away from the hustler's life. He feels guilty about Sarah; he loved her.

Notes

The Hustler has one of the best examples in film of pure visual storytelling. After Eddie hustles Sarah at the bus station, she initially rejects him at her apartment ("you're too hungry"). Later, however, she returns to find him again drinking coffee in the bus station (52 min.). Beginning writers would fill this scene with dialogue, probably poor dialogue at that. Here there is no dialogue at all. Their eyes meet. Eddie gets up and walks to her. They turn and silently leave, arm in arm. It's an emotionally powerful moment, two loners giving in to one another, the catalyst for Eddie's transformation, and it's all communicated without a single line of dialogue.


MODULE 4: SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting

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