Joanna writes:
> It never rejects the notion of competition
It does at the end when Fast Eddie/Paul Newman makes the choice not to give Bert/George C. Scott the money, thereby exiling himself from competition. He will not be allowed to play again. Rossen's subtler point is that Eddie must allow the destruction of another (Sarah/Piper Laurie) AND still go through the empty competition, before he gains any (if slight) insight. As Eddie says at the end: "I traded her in on a pool game."
> the triumph of the underdog loser (Newman) is won over the dead body of a woman and expressed, to the end, as a pissing contest between men and exclusively defined by men.
I do not see Fast Eddie as the underdog and I do not believe that Rossen does either. I believe that Eddie is a self-hating coward. He is not the conventional Hollywood hero with whom the audience identifies and takes as its moral compass. I think it is to misinterpret Rossen to view Eddie through the prism of Rocky movies and their mentality rather than his own work. Fast Eddie does not triumph -- he completes his compulsion. Also, the final pool game is shot so briskly that any sense of accomplishment/triumph is non-existent (as compared to the excitement of the first match between the two men). The real battle in the final sequence is between Eddie and Bert -- between the the exponent of capitalism (Bert) and the now disillusioned Eddie. The pool game itself seems perfunctory.
> The notion of competition and the level playing field is never rejected, deeply questioned, or transcended.
Competition is rejected and transcended by Fast Eddie walking away at the end. Rossen's adds extra irony by not having Fast Eddie reject the money, but instead keep it. Clearly, Eddie's new-found wisdom is of a minor variety.
Eddie: What if I don't pay ya, Bert? Gordon: (laughs) You don't pay me? You're gonna get your thumbs broken again. And your fingers. If I want 'em to, they're gonna break your right arm in three or four places. Fats: You better pay him, Eddie. Eddie: So you figure you're still my manager, huh? Gordon: I'm a businessman, kid.
In this exchange even Fats is shown as a worker who must go along with Businessman Bert's arrangement. If the boss is not paid, then any opportunity to work is removed. There is no alternative economy/pool hall for Eddie to go to. The system is shown as predatory, murderous and ubiquitous.
> The character who goes furthest to question the competition ethos and the notion of "winners" and "losers" is the woman (Piper Laurie)-- but she is finally sacrificed to a world that cannot understand anything but competition.
Exactly. That is why the movie is her tragedy. Visually, Rossen has Bert place himself between Eddie and Sarah (Piper Laurie) or be shown as dominating Sarah. As the embodiment of capitalism -- the source of money -- he must prevent Sarah (and the humanity she represents) from becoming aligned with Eddie. Eddie and Fats are not independent operators -- they can only play as long as Bert supplies the money and gets his cut (having done nothing to earn it).
Gordon: You see that big car parked out by the fireplug on your way in? Well, that's mine. I like that car. But I get a new one every year, because I make it my business to know what guys like you and Minnesota Fats are gonna do. I made enough off you the other night to pay for it twice over.
> If the movie were cast as _her_ tragedy, it would in fact be a critique of Capitalism
The film is her tragedy. Rossen improved on the Tevis novel by having Sarah accompany Eddie to Lousiville. By making her more central, Rossen shifts the moral weight of the film toward her perspective. The competition between Bert and Sarah's visions occupies the middle of the film with Eddie being the table upon which their game is played.
> but instead, the movie is cast as the triumph of its hero and winds up being more of a "Rocky" type movie, allbeit about a hundred times better than Rocky.
With respect, I do not see the movie as Eddie's triumph. At the end of the film the system/pool hall/capitalism is intact: it has successfully dealt with the threat of Sarah and her values. Eddie is expelled for not following the rules, Bert has not suffered and Fats will still be his minion. The only loss in the film is that of Sarah and her humanistic anti-competitive vision. My emotions at the end of the film are not those of triumph and victory, but of sadness and loss.
Brian Dauth Queer Buddhist Resister