Minnesota Fats

In the movie Eddie and the rest of the gamblers are depicted as just normal people. They are not considered to be criminals to others or to each other. Eddie could be depicted as a tricky person, because of how he tries to influence people when playing them in pool. He is also an intelligent person that is highly skilled at what he does. Along with Minnesota Fats, another character that is very skilled in pool but not seen as a criminal or as an enemy. Minnesota Fats is viewed as a person of interest to the other characters because he is the best at pool and everyone wants to beat him. Eddies character changes when he is playing Minnesota Fats, the first time Eddie was very aggressive and cocky. Compared to the second time where Eddie was very

focused on just winning the game and nothing else. It could be argued that the way Eddie acts in the movie effects how the other characters act or reflect in the movie. Giving Eddie the ultimate power and control over the way others are around him.
After writing about all of these vast aspects of Eddie’s role in the movie, does the audience approve or disapprove of him? It could go either way, it depends on the audience member and how they view Eddie’s life style. But most audience members will probably consider him a likeable character. Due to the mainly to the fact that he makes money off pool games and has a girlfriend to share it all with. This provides the audience with something to relate to, it might be something that they hope will happen in their own lives later on in life.
As mentioned before, after viewing the movie multiple times there is evidence that shows that Eddie might have a problem with gambling.

Most of Eddie’s life consists of spending time hustling people in pool by betting money on who would win. This has greatly affected Eddie’s life and who he was as a person. Eddie could be classified as a person who is addicted to gambling. An example is when he faces Minnesota Fats in pool. Eddie at one point in the match was winning a great deal of money, but he continued to keep playing because he wanted to win more, it was not enough for him to stop. Charlie tried to convince Eddie to stop, but Eddie explains that the game will only be over once Minnesota Fats says it is over. At the end of the match Eddie had lost all of his money to Minnesota Fats. Eddie used an excuse against Charlie and to provide a reason not to stop playing. In reality this was just a cover up to Eddie’s true reason as to why he could not stop playing because he was addicted to the excitement of the game. It has been proven that gambling incorporates both impulsivity and sensation seeking could offer a potential direction into addiction gambling (McDaniel, Zuckerman,

2002).
Another example is Eddie and his girlfriend, Sarah Packard, had very unhealthy and unstable relationship due to Eddie’s gambling problem. Eddie decides to travel on the road to gamble, he invites Sarah to come with him and she does. Then later on in the movie Sarah choose to sleep with Bert and then she takes her own life. This happened because of Eddie’s addiction to gambling, it was controlling his life and he dragged Sarah into it with him. Sarah was a very emotional character that went through many challenges with Eddie. Research has been done proving that a person in a relationship with problem gambling has almost or has lost the other person in that relationship (Ferris, Wynne, 2001). This was due to the fact that problem gambling can change you as a person and keep you away from your loved one. Ultimately if Eddie was not addicted to gambling, Sarah and Eddie could have lived a typical normal life.
Essentially Eddie’s life consisted of his gambling enterprise that had its up and downs throughout the movie. Eddie traveled the country to play others in pool, using this as a source of income for him. It also administered him with a reason for living, it gave him a sense of accomplishment. Eddie and the rest of the movie was portrayed realistically, which made it easy for the audience to connect and relate to it. Eddie and his girlfriend Sarah gave the movie a romantic side and showed the challenges of struggling couples when one has a problem with gambling. Finally the detailed showing of Eddie’s experiences in pool hustling is the main idea of what the movie intends to show to the audience, which it does an exceptional job.
In the end the movie tells us that if you lose the first time to not give up and to try again.

In the beginning Eddie loses to Minnesota Fats in dramatic fashion. Eddie struggles with this lose because he lost a lot of money. Therefore the audience was now determined to see what would happen to Eddie after this devastating lost. At the end Eddie returns to challenge Minnesota Fats again and this time Eddie destroys him game after game until he decides to quit. This made for a very entertaining film that keep the viewer engaged from beginning to end. It presented an accurate representation on Eddie and how he was portrayed as a gambler that hustles in games of pool. Not being a typical gambler that goes to a casino to play slots or table games and still having a compelling storyline, is what makes the movie a superior one. It created a completely different type of gambler that involved strategy and social skills to hustle the person. The movie also does not provide any false hope to its viewers because it shows that it is likely for a gambler to lose some amount of money, even if they are not a problem gambler. In conclusion a lesson can be learned because it shows what it is like to lose everything you have due to gambling and the effects it can have on the rest of your

life.