FilmSkool — a free film school
The Color of Money (1986)
Directed by Martin Scorsese.
Directed by Martin Scorsese · Shot by Michael Ballhaus · Cut by Thelma Schoonmaker · Music by Robbie Robertson · 119 min
How it was made
- Scorsese shot the film in 49 days for $14.5 million, a million and a half under budget, working largely in real Chicago pool halls such as FitzGerald's Nightclub rather than on built sets.
- Tom Cruise performed nearly all of his own pool shots after buying a table for his apartment and practising for hours; the one exception, a jump shot over two balls, was executed by professional player Mike Sigel standing in for him.
- Editor Thelma Schoonmaker cut between close-ups of balls in motion and wider shots of the players to build the visual rhythm of the pool games.
- Scorsese considered shooting in black and white, citing the lighting of Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus as a direct influence on the extreme close-ups used on Cruise around the table.
Behind the scenes
Elsewhere
More by Martin Scorsese
This is the plain index, shown because JavaScript is off. Every lesson here is a free video published by the channel credited on it and plays through that channel's own embed — FilmSkool hosts nothing.