Amazon.com essential video: The Gambler is one of the edgier and more interesting, if forgotten, films of the mid-1970s, the kind of studio film that rarely gets made anymore. Based on a screenplay by James Toback (Two Girls and a Guy) and directed by Karel Reisz, the film stars James Caan as a brilliant college literature professor with the same weakness as one of Dostoevsky's characters: He can't resist a wager. Indeed, he's in so deep that even his seemingly good-hearted bookie (Paul Sorvino) is trying to kill him. So he lams out of New York and heads for Las Vegas--where he wins back everything he's lost so he can pay off his massive debts. But is he smart enough to take his winnings and walk away? Caan captures the aggressive compulsiveness of the gambling addict, the strange split between a seemingly intelligent man and an uncontrollably stupid impulse. The film includes early film performances by James Woods and Lauren Hutton. --Marshall Fine
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - One of James Caan's best performances!
Yes, indeed: I agree that the overlooked gem THE GAMBLER is well worth your time. It's one of James Caan's very best performances, and the best look at what makes up a gambling addiction ever put on screen. Karel Reisz, director of MORGAN! and THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN, gets right to the grit of the street, which is where Axel is truly at home. Oddly enough, the character which feels the most for the downwardly spiraling English professor (aside from his mother) is his first bookie, Hips, played by the wonderful Paul Sorvino. Hips tries to get Axel out of his self-destructive whirlpool, ... Read More
Rating: - When hopelessly addicted to all kinds of bets
THE GAMBLER (1974), is a passive, visual movie, with the one and
only James Caan, who plays an English Literature professor, who
comes to believe as reality the poetry, artistic thoughts and
beliefs he teaches to his classroom of students. The theory is that
2+2 is not 4, it's more than that, and life shouldn't be spent
counting the minutes, hours down, but rather pushing the envelope,
taking risks and enjoying the ride, the thrills while it lasts.
As such, Caan's character "in theory" realizes he's a compulsive
gambler, hopelessly addicted ... Read More
Rating: - A proper film
This is a very good film.
After watching it you have to pause and think about what you have seen, and let the impact sink in.
Well acted, well casted, well scripted, well shot, pacy and with a good story that is hard to predict.
It highlights the degeneracy that can affect those born into money, the grandchildren of the penniless hardworking immigrants who passed through Ellis Island and made good in the Golden Land.
Rating: - james caan itself
james caan has play the character very well and is in the centre of the movie.The ups and downs are the gamblers live,but the lesson is dont play with the mafia and dont play with what you love at most.
Rating: - Authentic Portrayal of addictive gambling
This film shows the mentality and thought process of someone who is a gambling addict. The lengths that James Caan goes to keep playing even though his ability to pick winners has eroded and the affect it has on those in his life is right on the mark. The movie accurately shows how the glamour of winning becomes secondary to the need just to have the risk and unflinchingly shows what can happen if you get caught in this complusive trap. It is a scenario I know about from first hand experience
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