Robert Rossen's 1961 film, The Hustler, is one that is said to aspire to be classified as a tragedy. But can the film be compared to something similar to tragedy according to Aristotle? Does the film satisfy the prerequisites required for an Aristotelian tragedy? Or are the comparisons the result of ignorant and unenlightened critics? Aristotle devised a list of mandatory requirements for something to be called "tragedy". He concluded: "Tragedy strikes through pity and fear the catharsis of such emotions." this means that during a tragedy one should feel emotions of pity and fear - fear that the circumstances one is observing might one day affect oneself - but that after the end of the play one would feel "relieved", as if one had been cleansed of those emotions . In Aristotle's Poetics he states: “Tragedy is therefore the imitation of a serious action, complete and of a certain magnitude, in a language embellished with every kind of artistic ornament, the different types being present in separate parts. of the work, in the form of action, not narrative, with incidents that arouse pity and fear, with which to achieve the catharsis of such emotions. (Translation by SH Butcher)Every tragedy, therefore, must have six parts, which determine its quality: plot, characters, diction, thought, spectacle and melody. (mythos, ethos, dianoia, lexis, melos and opsis). Aristotle's view was that plot, characters, and the other four quality-determining subjects should all support each other in the sense that they should all add up to a whole, a structured whole, unity of action, without any force external intervenes, without deus ex machina. That the plot should progress in a way similar to a chain of events, where... in the middle of the card... imaginable', and as already mentioned, the audience must be able to relate closely to the main character. The fact is, there won't be an entire theater full of billiard prodigies, or prodigies in general. The character also appears to lack "character suitability", as also stated in the film itself. The main character is told exactly this: he lacks character, he is very talented, but he does not have the qualities necessary to realize the dreams he wants. In conclusion, there isn't a sense of sin towards the main character at the end for the catharsis to actually "happen". It's not dramatic enough. The Spaccone cannot even be compared to an Aristotelian tragedy, much less considered as such. It almost has such a lack of corresponding traits that it could be used as a model of what an Aristotelian tragedy is not. Almost.