Hard
Eight (1996) ...
| Released: | February 28, 1997 |
| Running Time: | 102 mins. |
| Cast: | Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow, Samuel L. Jackson |
| Writers: | Paul Thomas Anderson |
| Director: | Paul Thomas Anderson |
| My Rating | ...1/2 |
Hard Eight is a hard hitting movie that really surprises in it's grittiness and downright nasty characters that made the film a cut above expectations. This is Paul Thomas Anderson first stint as a writter/director and he has a way of directing that forces the audience to think.
To tell you the truth, I'm surprised this movie ever got made, and likely wouldn't have without the participation of the all star cast, who all give hard-hitting, realistic performances. This just isn't your every day movie plot that audience flock to see, so it's to the credit of the cast that they would agree to play such unsavory and unlikable characters.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hard Eight is a 1996 film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, starring Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson. Robert Ridgely, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Melora Walters also appear.
The film, originally titled Sydney, was Anderson's first feature; Hall, Reilly, Ridgely, Hoffman and Walters have acted in Anderson's subsequent films.
Sydney, a gambler in his 60s, sees a young man, John, sitting outside a diner and offers to buy him a cup of coffee. When Sydney learns that John is trying to get enough money for his mother's burial, he offers to take him to Las Vegas and teach him how to win the money by gambling. Though skeptical at first, John eventually agrees.
Two years later, John, having finished his task, has stayed in Reno and become Sydney's protégé, and is attracted to Clementine, a casino cocktail waitress revealed to be an occasional prostitute. Shortly after John and Clementine get married, Sydney gets a frantic late-night phone call and arrives at a motel to find the newlyweds trying to deal with a customer who refuses to pay for Clementine's services. Afterward, Sydney advises John and Clementine to leave town and head to Niagara Falls for their "honeymoon".
I won't give away the ending, however, it is strong and the characters never become any more lovable than they were at the outset. I like strong, true-to-life movies that aren't afraid to be realistic in how the story and characters are portratyed, so I enjoyed Hard Eight even though I never really liked any of the characters. That's a sign of good acting and directing, I would say, and Gwyneth is especially good since she's playing a character that is a major departure for her and does surprisingly well.
Trivia
According to Anderson,
Rysher Entertainment attempted to re-edit the film but changed its mind after
disappointing focus tests. Anderson, with financial help from Paltrow and
Jackson, was able to secure the film and release his version, which was retitled
Hard Eight, per Rysher's request.
The film was expanded from a short
film, Cigarettes and Coffee. Anderson was invited to the Sundance Institute
Filmmaker Lab, where he took his expanded short script (then Sydney) and
developed it under the Sundance banner. Cigarettes and Coffee starred Philip
Baker Hall; Anderson met the actor while working as a production assistant on a
made-for-television movie.
In the 1988 movie Midnight Run, Philip Baker
Hall has a small part as a man named Sidney who lives in Las Vegas and is part
of the criminal underworld; all traits which happen to be shared with the man he
plays in Hard Eight. This seems to suggest the two characters could be one and
the same.
Jimmy mentions Floyd Gondolli and Jimmy Gator as people both he
and Sydney know; Floyd Gondolli is the name of Hall's character in Boogie
Nights, and Jimmy Gator is his character in Magnolia.
Michael Penn has
said that Anderson was listening to his album Free-for-All while writing the
script for Sydney, and that the director had spent months trying to get Penn to
score the movie before he finally agreed to do it with producer, composer and
songwriter Jon Brion.
The song that plays over the end credits is sung by
Aimee Mann, who would later inspire and provide most of the music for Anderson's
film Magnolia.
