why did they break Eddie's thumbs?
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Mustang_Ed — 18 years ago(July 30, 2007 12:03 PM)
Eddie played their friend as a sucker. He was a much better pool player who hustled a far inferior pool player. Eddie was a stranger in a bar where the other guys were friends. It wasn't just about the money. He humiliated their friend and revealed his hustling con by beating the guy 10 games in a row.
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montecristo42 — 18 years ago(September 24, 2007 05:57 AM)
Also, and maybe this is painfully obvious to everyone else so no one's mentioned it, they break his thumbs so he won't be able to play pool temporarily and in the hopes that he might not ever be able to shoot as well again. The thumbs are significant in how much they affect his pool-playing ability. And this relates back to the theme of Eddie being self-destructiveit's his own fault that he's not able to play the game he loves so much.
"Who are you?" -
leisuredrummer — 17 years ago(June 10, 2008 01:37 AM)
It's like breaking a competitive runners legs.
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Byzantine15 — 17 years ago(October 14, 2008 12:40 PM)
Eddie's fatal cockiness and arrogance didn't exactly endear him to those guys. They all felt insulted and that they had been taken advantage of by Eddie. I thought it was just a simple act of revenge on their part. I definitely don't think they were acting on instructions from Bert.
Lions and tigers and hippopotami -
mgbphd — 17 years ago(November 21, 2008 07:19 AM)
Yeah, it wasn't so much as he won ten straight, it was his cocky, in your face, "i just showed you what a bad pool shark you really are" that broke the thumbs.
When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property - Thomas Jefferson -
lmdave — 16 years ago(July 23, 2009 12:20 PM)
"you better not miss friend."
"I don't rattle, kid. Just for that I'm gonna beat you flat."
Burt, sent them after Eddie because he wouldn't run with him. He knew the guys in there, they worked for Burt. Burt said, next time it won't be your thumbs, but "your head, your legs" -
Mark-Dziamski — 14 years ago(March 05, 2012 03:22 AM)
Hustler's take is personal when they get hustled in their own hall. He came off as a straight up player and then had to show off, They just wanted to teach him a lesson, they didn't care about the money they lost it was pride that they lost and had to get back. So they broke his thumbs.
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CineramaMama — 13 years ago(July 26, 2012 10:10 AM)
It was purposely a strange bar in a different side of town so that Eddie could not be under the influence of Burt or Fats. I don't think they were Burt's men. He just pissed them off really bad because of his aggressive attitude. Pure pride and stupidity on Eddie's part.
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brandon_j_snider — 13 years ago(November 19, 2012 11:56 AM)
Bert Gordon paid those goons to break Eddie's thumbs. He admits it at the end. It was a ploy to make Eddie understand he must work for Gordon to survive.
The movie's final line is a threat from Gordon about similar punishment if he ever plays pool again. -
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FilioScotia — 10 years ago(July 26, 2015 02:41 PM)
It's simple. Eddie needed money so he had to score some hustling in a cheap pool hall where nobody would know who he was. I've been in enough pool halls to know that nobody appreciates being hustled. Some people even get violent when it happens to them. I've seen that happen.
Bert had nothing to do with it. He knew what happens to hustlers who get caught taking money from amateurs that way, and Eddie was stupid enough to do it and then tell everybody in the house that he had done it.
God's Holy Trousers!! -
sawarrior — 10 years ago(February 10, 2016 03:36 PM)
Burt didn't admit to paying them off at all. All he said was what would happen to Eddie if he didn't pay him the percentage. I don't know where you get that as an admission to having his thumbs broke. SMH
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Culburn — 9 years ago(August 20, 2016 01:56 AM)
The guy who initiates the thumb breaking knows who Eddie is. He was in Ames the night Eddie & Fats first play one another. He is standing against the wall. He has seen first hand the talent that Felson possesses & conceals in order to hustle.