Hard Eight **** (1996, Philip Baker Hall, John C Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samuel L Jackson) – Classic Movie Review 316

Suspense, wit, atmosphere, sudden death and fine character study are the name of the game in writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s superb, stylish, hard-nosed 1996 thriller Hard Eight. Anderson’s feature debut is graced with the performance of a lifetime from that very fine character actor Philip Baker Hall (born 1931).

A professional gambler called Sydney (Hall) helps out a penniless young man, John Finnegan (John C Reilly), by showing how to make killings at the Las Vegas and Reno casinos. With Sydney looking after him and teaching him, John becomes a successful small-time professional gambler. All’s well till he meets and falls for Clementine (Gwyneth Paltrow), a cocktail waitress and part-time hooker.

Other memorable characters in this brilliant film noir include a young craps player played by Philip Seymour Hoffman and a security guard played by Samuel L Jackson. That is quite a cast, and they are all on fired-up, best form.

Let’s not forget Anderson’s glorious script and his supremely imaginative, confident handling, as well as the superb cinematography by Robert Elswit, who won an Oscar for There Will Be Blood.

Anderson’s original title was Sydney but the studio re-cut the film and retitled it Hard Eight. Eventually, he convinced the studio to let him release his cut, but with their title.

Anderson’s promise here has of course been amply fulfilled, with Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood and The Master.

Tragically, Philip Seymour Hoffman died on February 2 2014, aged 46, from a drug overdose  in his New York City apartment. Awarded a Best Actor Oscar for the 2005 film Capote, he checked into rehab in May 2013 for heroin use. Born in Fairport, New York, in 1967, Hoffman began his career in the early 1990s with a guest role in TV’s Law & Order, but broke through to the movies in 1992 in four films, including Scent of a Woman.

He acted in The Getaway and Nobody’s Fool, and five films for Paul Thomas Anderson, Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love and The Master, as well as earning acclaim for his performances in Happiness, Flawless, The Talented Mr Ripley, Red Dragon, Almost Famous and Capote. He was currently filming The Hunger Games: Mockingjay.

The prolific character actor Philip Baker Hall died on 12 June 2022, at the age of 90

Philip Baker Hall (September 10, 1931 – June 12, 2022) starred in Secret Honor, Hard Eight and Duck, and played notable supporting roles in Say Anything…, Boogie Nights, The Truman Show, Magnolia, The Contender, Zodiac, The Talented Mr Ripley, and Argo.

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© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 316

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