Hard EightSomeone who cannot rule their impulses is ruled by them. Hard Eight is a neo-noir thriller about professional gambler, Sydney Brown (Philip Baker Hall), who takes the naive John Finnegan (John C. Reilly) under his wing after finding him literally sitting penniless on the street. Sydney helps John with his financial hardship by teaching him insider knowledge about the casinos in Reno, Nevada, and the two become friends. Fast forward two years, and Sydney continues to watch over John as he gets involved with some new friends of his own--a pretty cocktail waitress named Clementine (Gwyneth Paltrow) and the suspicious Jimmy (Samuel L. Jackson).
|
|
When Sydney offers to buy John a cup of coffee and give him a cigarette, it is a gesture of kindness to a total stranger, although John is understandably suspicious of Sydney's motivations. He's just lost all of his money after failing to win enough at gambling to pay for his recently deceased mother's funeral. Sydney observes that this wasn't a good idea, but John isn't a forward-thinking kind of guy. Hard Eight teases that Sydney's generosity is the groundwork to exploit John at a future time, but that moment never comes; John shows his gratitude for Sydney's charity by following him around like a puppy dog, as Clementine points out. John is sweet and is too easily swayed to do what other people tell him, which gets him in way over his head. John and Clementine had been casually going out for a couple of months, and he carries a torch for her. Sydney knows this and keeps an eye on Clementine as a way of looking out for his prodigy. Sydney catches Clementine leaving the trailer of some customers one night, and looks abashed because he's discovered that she's been turning tricks for extra spending money. Clementine doesn't seem to be saving up for anything special; she talks about financing her lifestyle--including a Camaro--which just goes to show that she cannot control her impulses. Ever the altruist, Sydney takes her in and cleans her up, arranging for John to take her shopping for some new clothes; he has to clarify that it is not in exchange for sexual favors. Sydney is still looking out for John, trying to bolster his heart by pushing the two kids closer together. But Sydney's plan backfires when he gets a call from John late one night that leads him to a hotel room. He finds that Clementine has prostituted herself yet again, that her client that didn't pay her, and that she and John have handcuffed the man to a bed, beat him unconscious, and are holding him for ransom. (The coup de grâce to this insane scene comes when John reveals that he and Clementine were married that afternoon.)
Despite John and Clementine's extremely poor decision-making skills, Sydney continues to help them out of this desperate bind, and gives them an alibi via an impromptu honeymoon to Niagara Falls. Sydney's patience is thoroughly tested; yet like a father, he helps them even when they can't help themselves. Sydney is not a fool, but is determined to protect John--and Clementine, by association--against further tragedy. Conversely, John is a fool, losing his head for a girl who should know better; he often fails to recognize the reality of his situation or the people who surround him. Consider when Clementine casually asks John why he has two TVs in his room, and he explains--as a child would--how Sydney showed him how to steal free pay-per-view movies from the hotel. Why does Sydney do all of this for John? Jimmy's blackmail of Sydney during the final act of Hard Eight provides the necessary exposition, but there are numerous hints beforehand. Little is known about Sydney; he tells Clementine that he has two children, roughly about John and Clementine's ages. When they gift Sydney a VHS copy of their shotgun wedding, he watches it with the wistfulness of a father looking on at his children passing the threshold into adulthood. Sydney likes to play the role of the cool professional gambler, and sticks to his traditional values with class. When Jimmy vulgarly comments on the attractiveness of a cocktail waitress while she is in earshot, Sydney chides him on it. Jimmy protests that cocktail waitresses are familiar with that kind of talk and even exploit their sexuality for profit on the side--which turns out to be true in Clementine's case. When Sydney first takes John to the casino, he shows him a sly trick to convince the casino to comp him a room, begging the question as to just how many would-be gamblers started asking for a "rate card" after watching Hard Eight. Sydney comes across as a world-wise man, and a capable enough gambler to live comfortably and maintain a fancy room at one of the casino's hotels for him and John. But the implications of Sydney's backdoor knowledge about the world of gambling suggests a criminal past, one which he is determined to keep buried. Sydney is "haunting" the casino like the ghost of a bygone era, when the mob reigned in Vegas; he has survived his unsavory past, which might have been as a compulsive gambler or even a mobster. The pervading question in Hard Eight becomes who Sydney was before he became the man who helped John in the first place. One of the most revealing scenes happens at the craps table, when he is goaded into betting on the difficult "hard eight" (from which the film draws its title) by an exuberant craps player (Philip Seymour Hoffman), subsequently losing two thousand dollars in one throw of the dice. (A "hard eight" is when both dice must show "fours" for the bet to pay off.) Sydney maintains a cool facade as he makes the bet, but he still does it out of provocation. As with John and Clementine at the hotel, this scene underscores that everyone has a button to push that makes them do something foolish or risky--a gamble by any other name.
Recommended for: Fans of a crime thriller that explores people's motivations for acts of goodness, and whether they are truly selfless. Hard Eight was the first feature length film by Paul Thomas Anderson, foreshadowing leitmotifs from his later work, and featuring several actors who would return in those subsequent films.
Despite John and Clementine's extremely poor decision-making skills, Sydney continues to help them out of this desperate bind, and gives them an alibi via an impromptu honeymoon to Niagara Falls. Sydney's patience is thoroughly tested; yet like a father, he helps them even when they can't help themselves. Sydney is not a fool, but is determined to protect John--and Clementine, by association--against further tragedy. Conversely, John is a fool, losing his head for a girl who should know better; he often fails to recognize the reality of his situation or the people who surround him. Consider when Clementine casually asks John why he has two TVs in his room, and he explains--as a child would--how Sydney showed him how to steal free pay-per-view movies from the hotel. Why does Sydney do all of this for John? Jimmy's blackmail of Sydney during the final act of Hard Eight provides the necessary exposition, but there are numerous hints beforehand. Little is known about Sydney; he tells Clementine that he has two children, roughly about John and Clementine's ages. When they gift Sydney a VHS copy of their shotgun wedding, he watches it with the wistfulness of a father looking on at his children passing the threshold into adulthood. Sydney likes to play the role of the cool professional gambler, and sticks to his traditional values with class. When Jimmy vulgarly comments on the attractiveness of a cocktail waitress while she is in earshot, Sydney chides him on it. Jimmy protests that cocktail waitresses are familiar with that kind of talk and even exploit their sexuality for profit on the side--which turns out to be true in Clementine's case. When Sydney first takes John to the casino, he shows him a sly trick to convince the casino to comp him a room, begging the question as to just how many would-be gamblers started asking for a "rate card" after watching Hard Eight. Sydney comes across as a world-wise man, and a capable enough gambler to live comfortably and maintain a fancy room at one of the casino's hotels for him and John. But the implications of Sydney's backdoor knowledge about the world of gambling suggests a criminal past, one which he is determined to keep buried. Sydney is "haunting" the casino like the ghost of a bygone era, when the mob reigned in Vegas; he has survived his unsavory past, which might have been as a compulsive gambler or even a mobster. The pervading question in Hard Eight becomes who Sydney was before he became the man who helped John in the first place. One of the most revealing scenes happens at the craps table, when he is goaded into betting on the difficult "hard eight" (from which the film draws its title) by an exuberant craps player (Philip Seymour Hoffman), subsequently losing two thousand dollars in one throw of the dice. (A "hard eight" is when both dice must show "fours" for the bet to pay off.) Sydney maintains a cool facade as he makes the bet, but he still does it out of provocation. As with John and Clementine at the hotel, this scene underscores that everyone has a button to push that makes them do something foolish or risky--a gamble by any other name.
Recommended for: Fans of a crime thriller that explores people's motivations for acts of goodness, and whether they are truly selfless. Hard Eight was the first feature length film by Paul Thomas Anderson, foreshadowing leitmotifs from his later work, and featuring several actors who would return in those subsequent films.