|
Hard Eight (Sydney) (1996)
Starring Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Gweneth Paltrow, and Samuel L. Jackson. Cinematography by Robert Elswit. Edited by Barbara Tulliver. Produced by Robert Jones and John Lyons. Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.
Sydney, a professionally dressed middle aged man, finds John lurking outside of a Las Vegas coffee shop. John is unshaven and unkempt and appears to be homeless. Sydney offers John to come inside and join him for a cup of coffee and a cigarette. After hearing John’s sob story about the loss of his mother and all of his money, Sydney offers to help him out.
He teaches him a thing or two about how to take advantage of the local gambling. He shows him the best odds of winning what games and how to get comps from the casinos. He even funds him a few bucks to get him on his way. Why all this charity for someone who is seemingly a stranger? That question is answered later in the story so you’ll have to be patient.
Hard Eight is a remake of sorts of Paul Thomas Anderson’s short film “Coffee & Cigarettes” and is heavily inspired by Jean-Pierre Melville's Bob le flambeur (Bob the Gambler). “Coffee & Cigarettes” was shown at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival and earned Anderson a spot in the Sundance Institute’s Filmmaker’s Workshop. There he was able to shoot some of the necessary shots for his feature film version, but finishing Hard Eight proved to be as dramatic as the story itself. Money finally became available when Samuel L. Jackson, then hot with Pulp Fiction fame, came on board.
Sydney, renamed to Hard Eight by the production studio in fear that people would mistake it to be a film about Australia, is a fantastically written character drama that ushered PT Anderson into the filmmaking spotlight. It was screened at 1996’s Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals and earned a spot on many respected film critic’s top ten lists for that year.
The story is a fantastic balance of a drama and noir with its darkness always balanced by its tenderness. There was a time when a copy of the film was nearly impossible to locate, but since its release on DVD it is readily available to all. So go on, give yourself a treat.
Budget: $???
Total US Gross: $142,356
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 102 Minutes
US Release Date: 2/28/97
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Awards: none
Tagline: When Good Luck Is A Long Shot, You Have To Hedge Your Bets.
Quote: “You know the first thing they should've taught you at hooker school? You get the money up front!”
|
