Hard Eight marked Paul Thomas Anderson’s feature debut, providing a strong start to a lengthy career that has seen masterpiece after masterpiece over the last three decades. Despite being made on a small budget, Hard Eight boasts an incredible cast including John C. Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson.
The film follows Philip Baker Hall as gambling addict, Sydney Brown who comes across a younger man, John Finnegan (Reilly) who has lost all his money gambling. Sydney is sympathetic and take John under his wing and the two begin a successful gambling duo.
Philip Seymour Hoffman also stars in a small role as a craps player which is always welcome, particularly in an Anderson film, and proved to be the start of a great collaborative process for the two in future projects.
Compared to what would follow, the plot is simple with the focus being kept on a small number of characters that follow limited plotlines. It isn’t a film that is challenging if compared to Anderson’s other offerings in the future but it is still a profound film that explores themes such as vulnerability in masculinity, brotherhood and greed in capitalist America.
Hard Eight is a great film that shows off Anderson’s skill as a writer with a distinctive vision and the fact that his filmography only improves after this is a credit to that talent.
