MovieChat Forums > The Hustler (1961) Discussion > The thumb breaking scene?

The thumb breaking scene?

posted 12 years ago by pinealrapture
32 replies | jump to latest

Okay, I just saw this movie and LOVED it. However there was a part that made me wonder about what was implied to have happened. I am totally serious about this inquiry, but be warned the topic is a little disturbing.
Remember the part of the movie where he goes to the little dive bar and tries to hustle those guys? Once they figure him out they tell him to go ahead and take the money, but when he goes for it they grab him and rough him up. They take him into the bathroom. Later when he returns to Sarah he had his thumbs broken, but during the scene it seemed like something else was happening.
I think they had a pool cue when they went into the bathroom and after a bit of scuffling, Fast Eddie is pinned against the hazy bathroom window face first. I thought they must have sodomized him with the pool cue, did anyone else pick up on this?

[–] rfm-1 12 years ago

It actually crossed my mind that they had raped him, but that wouldn't have made much sense since Paul Newmans character dropped on the floor but the guy behind him was still standing. I think your theory might be right.

[–] CineramaMama 12 years ago

I agree. At first, I thought I was watching a scene from "Deliverance", then I thought they were breaking his arms.

[–] kag2-1 12 years ago

You hear Eddie let out two separate, and distinct blood-curtling screams, so I'd guess they broke his thumbs without additional abuse.

[–] DracTarashV 12 years ago

I assume, that wasn't the filmmaker's intention, but I get what you're saying. It's easy to think something like that happened when you watch it in this day and age. With that said, I think the only pain he received during that scene... was in his hand. Or maybe there was more left to speculation, who knows.

The prostitution rests. - Kelly Bundy

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] MercurialAquarian 11 years ago

It appeared to me that Eddie had been severely beaten and then stabbed in the back. I hadn't thought of sodomy, but the crew did drag him into the bathroom.

[–] bangkokcameron 10 years ago

Yes, because as everyone knows, all sodomy takes place in public bathrooms.

[–] MercurialAquarian 10 years ago

Well, it was Hollywood cinema circa 1961. Unless the camera had shifted direction and Eddie was sodomized on the pool table, the bathroom would have been the logical 'suggestion' to the viewer.

Objection, your Honor. You can't preface your second point with first of all.

[–] chosenone2005 8 years ago

I concur here. Sodomy only crossed my mind when I saw the big looming shadow to his right appear, a larger shadow than Newman's silhouette against the glass, suggesting such.
But prior to the shadow appearing, and the first scream was so sharp, I thought he did get stabbed! The next scene, I was just thinking "Drunken Sarah may have been the worst person to come to if he's been stabbed...he's bleeding profusely and she's like 'huh? Is that a knock? I wonder why...oh, someone might be at the door...hello? Who is it? Oh, it's that Eddie fellow...well let's stumble over there and fiddle with the lock till it does that magical opening thingy and then see what he wants...wonder if he brought me a bottle--his thumbs look funny."
All in all, however, I agree with the overall consensus on the board. In this modern day and age, going behind the glass wasn't necessary. May have been too graphic for the time to break his thumbs in close-ups above the pool table, and like Hitchcock, the audience is left to fear what terrible things may have happened to poor Eddie behind the glass (and only if their imaginations are dirty enough, "sodomy" may cross the mind) until Sarah opens her door to reveal his broken thumbs. I also agree that since there were only two shrieks, I'd say the breaking of the thumbs was the summary of what we see in that scene. However, offscreen, between then and when he shows up at Sarah's door, his face is too bruised to agree that's all they did.
It would be mostly due to modern desensitization that we'd assume they'd rape over a pool game hustle.

[–] CaptainSexMachine 10 years ago

I thought so too, if they wanted to break his thumbs why would they take him to the bathroom? (Actually I thought that they shoved the money up his a$$ since they told him "we always let winners keep their money.")

[–] balducci2 10 years ago

It works both ways. If they wanted to rape / sodomize him, why would they take him to the bathroom when they had a pool table right there? Did none of you ever see or hear of 'The Accused' or the real life incident it is based upon?

Seriously, I think they just took him to the bathroom because they (that is, the movie director) did not want to film a scene of graphic violence. By having the action moved to the bathroom we could see the suggestion of the violence through the dirty window, but it was not as much in our face as if it happened in the open in the pool room.

FWIW, I think it is a stretch / misreading of the scene to believe they did more than break his thumbs.

[–] CaptainSexMachine 10 years ago

I don't think that comparison works. I'm pretty sure the guys in The Accused were quite drunk, whereas a bunch of guys playing pool are probably sober enough to not want to pull down anybody's pants in a bar where someone might just walk in.

[–] DaveHasNoTimeForAnyOfThisBull 9 years ago

Well, the moral point is that they are lowlife's whom Eddie should never have crossed paths with. So people can assume they did perform graphic violence or sexual acts on him. But he only later mentions the thumbs and nothing sexual.

NO SIGNATURE FOR YOU! Come back oneYear!

[–] cheezwizard 9 years ago

Haha, I just saw that scene and thought maybe they put the money in his butt as well. Guess it was just the thumbs.. but either way, I'd have gone back someday and gotten some sweet revenge on those hoods. I'd have taught them real good!

[–] Druff 10 years ago

They broke his thumbs. No rape. Period.

[–] HenriettaDemina 9 years ago

I just saw that scene a few minutes ago, but didn't see anyone taking a cue into the bathroom.

[–] robin-moss2 9 years ago

I just watched the movie for the first time in many years. I didn't see any sodomy. I've seen this film many times over a fifty year period and never has it occurred to me that the thugs were going anything other than breaking his thumbs.

People see what they want to see, and what they want to see is a reflection of their own preoccupations. Anyone who sees sodomy or rape in this sequence has those things in their mind.

[–] andyofne 9 years ago

In all the years, it never crossed my mind that he was raped.

Where do people get this stuff?