Quentin Tarantino owes a lot to the grand film makers of the past. But a lot of great film makers of our time owe a lot to Tarantino, mostly those who took the opportunity given by studios’ and producers’ great interest in independent cinema created by Pulp Fiction. Among those names one that stands out is Paul Thomas Anderson, whose feature debut, 1996 crime drama Hard Eight, despite being relatively obscure in comparison with his later works, clearly shows great talent at work.
Like Billy Bob Thornton’s Sling Blade, another celebrated directorial debut, Hard Eight is an expanded version of author’s short film. In this case it was Cigarettes & Coffee, which in 1993 created minor sensation at Sundance Film Festival. Anderson later developed it in the feature film that has the same beginning and Philip Baker Hall in the main role. The protagonist is Sydney Brown (played by Hall), old and well-dressed professional gambler who finds John Finnegan (played by John C. Riley), a desperate and broke young man, in front of a diner. Sydney invites him for some cigarettes and coffee and learns that John in Las Vegas gambled away money which he needs for mother’s funeral. Sydney offers to take him back to Las Vegas and teach him few tricks that would help him take money back. Two years later John became successful gambler who sees Sydney as mentor and father figure. Sydney encourages John to start romantic relationship with Clementine (played by Gwyneth Paltrow), attractive waitress which also works as part-time prostitute. Sydney’s life begins to crumble when he is confronted by Jimmy (played by Samuel L. Jackson), shady chief of casino security who knows some dark and unpleasant secrets from Sydney’s past.
During its premiere, some critics, mostly due to the presence of Samuel L. Jackson, charismatic character actor who was becoming increasingly busy at those time, recognised influence of Tarantino in Hard Eight. Although Anderson, like Tarantino, employed plenty of static shots and took great care with the dialogues, this film is quite different. There is very little humour, all the characters are very serious and there isn’t any “cool” music to make this rather dark film more attractive. Anderson is less interested in semi-noirish plot and puts more emphasis on character study, putting the small but effective cast to great use. Hall, veteran character actor whose last starring role before this was Nixon in Altman’s obscure drama Secret Honor, simply shines in the role of enigmatic but serious man who conveys his emotions through actions instead of facial expressions and empty gestures. Hall plays fascinating interest that always keeps his “cool” and also appears to follow very strong moral code despite his actions straying across the other side of the law. John C. Reilly, also one of the better character actors in American cinema in the past few decades, is very good as good-natured, but naive and not particularly bright young man. Gwyneth Paltrow, although not as impressive as role similar to the one Sharon Stone has played in Casino, is also decent in this film. Hard Eight also benefits from good script that features some interesting twists near the ending, when the tone gets much darker. Anderson, however, has some issues with pacing and the ending could have been much smoother. Despite these flaws, Hard Eight is fascinating film that could be recommended to viewers who appreciate quality cinema and those who want to see early works of someone destined to accomplish great things in the future.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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