Hard Eight is a 1996 American crime thriller film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, starring Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson. There are also brief appearances by Robert Ridgely, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Melora Walters. The film, originally titled Sydney, was Anderson's first feature; Hall, Reilly, Ridgely, Hoffman and Walters acted in Anderson's subsequent films. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. Sydney , a gambler in his 60s, finds a young man, John , sitting forlornly outside a diner and... offers to give him a cigarette and buy him a cup of coffee. Sydney learns that John is trying to raise enough money for his mother's burial. He offers to drive him to Las Vegas and teach him how to make some money and survive. Skeptical at first, John agrees. Two years later, John, having gotten the money for the funeral, has stayed in Reno and become Sydney's protégé. John has a new friend named Jimmy who does security work, and is attracted to Clementine , a cocktail waitress dating John.
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| Release date: | January 20, 1996 |
| Directed by: | Paul Thomas Anderson |
| Rated: |  |
| Runtime: | 102 Minutes |
| Producer: | Robert Jones, John S. Lyons |
| Editor: | Barbara Tulliver |
| Music by: | Jon Brion, Michael Penn |
| Cinematography: | Robert Elswit |
| Screenplay by: | Paul Thomas Anderson |
| Estimated budget: | $3,000,000 |
| Genre: | Thriller |