Customer Reviews

Gambler [VHS]

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A neglected and underrated masterpiece, presenting one of the most convincing and thorough psychological studies in all cinema. James Caan, in what may well be his best-ever performance, portrays a compulsive gambler with an unusually acute awareness of his own motivations. The 'back story', from which we learn how his family background helps feed his obsession, is subtly and convincingly portrayed. The whole is a tragedy, laced with grim humor.

The score uses Mahler's music to great effect, the direction is tight and closely focused throughout and the final scene can only be described as perfection.

The so called film experts that pan this movie just dont understand the life of a gambler. This movie is an excellent study of a compulsive gambler and his road to self destruction. James Caan is outstanding as the tragic Axel Freed and the supporting cast is even better. The emotional roller coaster ride of a compulsive degenerate gambler is shown from the ultimate high of winning to the rock bottom low of losing and is portrayed superbly by Caan with a stellar performance.
This movie was extremely well written,directed and acted and is flawless in its presentation from beginning to the end. The climatic ending where Axel takes the ultimate gamble risking his life is brilliant. There has never been a more realistic look at a lost soul gambler and the effect it has on friends and family. This is a rare gem of a movie that was way ahead of its time. A must see for anyone that appreciates a true to life gritty story, great performances and not some Hollywood big budget nonsense that is routinely served up today.

One of the most uncompromising American dramas of the 70s, this takes a penetrating look at the addictive mindset of the gambler as no film did before that and none since as well. The writing by James Toback is superb and the direction by Karel Reisz is just as good. James Caan, in one of his best roles, plays a professor of literature--an ivory tower guy who drives himself right to the edge. The story implies that the possible reason for this is his patrician upbringing; his mother's a successful and respected physician and his uncle, an extremely successful businessman. And Axel Freed--Caan's character--needs much more than all the myriad assumptions that a blue-blooded background provides.

Even his girlfriend, Mickey (broadly played by Lauren Hutton), is upscale. Caan deftly and convincingly portrays someone who takes advantage of his class and its privileges and at the same time obsessively needs the "juice" of danger. The ending is a strong finish to a great movie; Axel tests the waters of what could very likely bring the ultimate danger. The real question is, Does he want that or not?

It's interesting to see both James Woods and M. Emmett Walsh in small and early roles here, as well as some 70s stalwarts: Paul Sorvino, Vic Tayback, and Steven Keats. The mix of the highbrow and the street is a great one. All actors do a terrific job.

Recommended

Veteran legendary actor James Caan was at his peak 10 years into his on-screen career in this James Toback classic. Director Karel Reisz gets one of Caan's most convincing performances to date, as well as terrific support from the rest of this well recognized ensemble cast.

Caan plays Axel Freed, an English Lit professor, who comes from a well-to-do family. Although Axel has success in his career and a beautiful, but detached girlfriend played by70s covergirl Lauren Hutton, he's looking for something far LESS out of life. He is a hopeless gambling junkie. Caan is so terrific and tragic as a man who can't control himself in the face of any kind of risky wager. He'll take the worst odds, never quit while he's ahead, and certainly NEVER knows when to fold 'em. Axel seems to be happiest as the loser ironically, because he never keeps his winnings, just wagering again until the profit is lost.

Paul Sorvino, another veteran talent is in a very early role here as "Hips", Axel's bookie. Hips has done just about everything he can do to convince Axel of his self-destructive habit, but to no avail. In a terrific scene, Axel gets a good look at his future, as he is sent to collect a debt from a deadbeat with an enforcer played by real life buddy, Burt Young, more famous for being "Rocky" brother-in-law. Axel watches as the deadbeat has his furnishings demolished by an abusive Young, and gets a solid working over culminating in some broken bones. Does this spell the future for Axel? You have to see for yourself.

James Caan has never looked so good, or played such a gut-wrenching role. The scene where he's sitting in his bathtub listening to a game he's got a crucial bet on, causes you to actually feel his desperation. We are not so sure he actually wants to win though. He seems to crave the humiliation of being the loser more than the victory of being a winner. He even humiliates himself in front of his students by trying to fix a college basketball game, to pay yet another debt he's accrued.

Besides Sorvino, Hutton, and Young, there are also other classic screen veterans to catch in small roles. When Caan pleads with his doctor mom to give him her savings, they deal with the terrific James Woods, as a banker who asks for one too many forms of ID. Vic Tayback is seen as well.

If you are a James Caan fan, as I am, and you want to see an example of some of his finest dramatic work, I highly recommend "The Gambler" as well as his subsequent 1981 Michael Mann classic "Thief" (see my review) as two of my favorites in his vast filmography. For comedy, Caan is classic as ANOTHER gambler in the hilarious "Honeymoon In Vegas"(see my review for more).

"The Gambler" is without doubt, one of the finest dramatizations of the degradation, the hopelessness, the fleeting thrill, and the moral bankruptcy that awaits any individual with this addiction. We as viewers will become hooked on this amazing story, but, unlike Axel Freed, we will gain from this experience, with nothing to lose.

For $20,000.00 they break your legs. Axel Freed owes $44,000." I was captivated by the tag line of this lost jewell of the '70's, which stands alongside Karl Reisz' other forgotten masterwork of the decade (WHO'LL STOP THE RAIN?). James Caan radiates a brilliant character study of a degenerate gambler hellbent on self destruction, not only at the tables and back rooms, but in life. He throws away his birth rite to riches, his family, a beauty (Lauren Hutton in her first significant screen role). It's a road well traveled by the lost and Caan has it mastered. Great screenplay by James Toback, written immediately prior to his own lost marvel of the 1970's, FINGERS (1979).

An excellent movie, given an average treatment on DVD- that is to say, good picture quality, murky sound, and zero extras. Its still worth a purchase though, for the movie itself.

James Caan was in some of the hardest hitting films by some of the hardest hitting directors of the seventies and early eighties including Coppola's Godfather I(72), Sam Peckinpah's The Killer Elite (75)and Michael Mann's Thief (81). He also played a number of athlete roles, including Rollerball(75). Whether he's playing an athlete or not Caan moves like an athlete, and he gets jumpy if he has to sit still for too long, and so he's interesting to watch even when he's just crossing the street because its like he's always on the scent of something, always on the prowl.

In the opening scenes of Gambler (74) Caan is playing the tables in an all-night casino and losing one hand after another. By morning, as he's driving home, he realizes he has lost 44,000 dollars. But the jumpy Caan still hasn't been satisfied and when he sees some teens playing basketball he stops his car and hustles up a game. They only have ten bucks but thats enough. It's the thrill of the game and the thrill of the bet that turns him on and he really comes to life on the courts.

His real job we soon find out is pretty high class. He's a college English professor who lectures on Dostoyevsky and the failed/corrupted/compromised American dream (good solid early 70's staple topic that last one). And he does it really well. He's certainly not your usual professor because its obvious just by looking at him and listening to him that he's more physycal than mental and he's actually interested in the thrill of living life and not the agony of writing books about it. Caan's "Axel Freed" is a guy who has seen a lot and done a lot and his students appreciate that he's not a guy who spends his afternoons in the library. But where he does spend his afternoons and evenings is getting him in deep trouble.

The gambling problem seems to stem from the fact that he's never really escaped from the safe confines and purse strings of his social class and this embarrases him and makes him feel inauthentic and unmanly. Its like he was born to a reality or class that never fit, and he's been trying to return to his rightful home (the streets, the basketball courts, the tennis courts, the boxing ring) ever since. Money has always stood between Axel Freed and the life he imagines tobe his own. Even when at home with his lady he can't stand still; he's perpetually shadow boxing in the mirror and perusing the sports page and ringin' up his bookie. Day to day, moment to moment, he lives for the thrill of those last seconds of a game when his whole life depends on whether the basketball will or will not go in. Watching him take incredible risks is painful because we fear where it will all lead, but its also exhilerating.

Caan is tough in The Gambler, no doubt, but the role of Axel Freed allows him to stretch and show that he can play not only a physical guy but a physical guy with a lot going on in his head. Its a pleasure to see James Caan sitting in front of an English class lecturing to a group of attentive students about why man does not always follow the dictates of reason. "Reason," Axel reads from his copy of Dostoyevsky, "satisfies our rational requirements, but desire encompasses everything." What makes this especially interesting is that we know Axel Freed isn't just some egghead with a set of theories but that he's taking his lessons from real life.

Axel seems to have a great job and a great sexy girlfriend (Lauren Hutton) but its just not enough to keep his attention; he needs that extra adrenalin rush that only extreme situations that sports and gambling and pushin' the bounds of reason can provide.

The film reminds me of Rafelson's Five Easy Pieces but its much grittier and the ending is so unexpected and raw that many may be turned off by it but it has the advantage of giving you a final glimpse of this character that you are not likely to forget.

Unexpected ending but hits right where it should.

If you wanted to you could probably analyze this film from a number of angles. One being that modern man just isn't satisfied living in his settled society doing mundane tasks but then that might sound too academic and too trite and thats just what Axel's trying to escape from.

O yes the film is like a yearbook of seventies actors as there are about fifteen recognizable faces in supporting roles: including Lauren Hutton as girlfriend, Paul Sorvino as bookie, Huggie Bear as a pimp, and James Woods as a snotty bank clerk who Caan has to rough up.

Karel Reisz was himself a Jewish refugee from Czechoslovakia. He fled to the UK to escape the Holocaust so the story of Axel Freed's uncle is especially interesting in that light. Reisz also directed another tremendous seventies film called Who'll Stop the Rain (1978) based on Robert Stone's Dog Soldiers and starring Nick Nolte and Tuesday Weld.

An excellent look at the effects of serious gambling addiction. Good plot- How a man with every reason in the world to not be involved in the shady world of gambling (fulfilling profession, good family, the intelligence and clarity to know exactly what's happening to him) lets it dominate him. Makes you wonder how many people across from you at the table in Vegas or the Indian reservation are also on the slippery slope. One complaint: Nobody doubles down with 18, expecting to get a 3 to beat the dealer's supposed 20, not even a reckless maniac. Observation: Basketball talent has improved considerably since the 70s! However the Manhattan court scenes with afros were great!

James Caan is superb as a college professor obsessed with putting his money and his psyche on the line because of the rush he gets from gambling. In debt up to his ears, Caan wins the money he owes back only to lose it again in a bizarre roller coaster ride. As he tells his students, 2 plus 2 may equal 4, but he has the right to say that it may equal 5 tomorrow, if his will is strong enough. Caan's willingness to place himself at risk because he believes he can alter the outcome of events by force of will is linked to his study of Dostoevsky's The Gambler. His journey corrupts and alienates everyone around him as his own quest for purity remains intact. The viewer may find Caan's character insane and reckless, but the philosophy at the core of this thrilling psychological drama (written by James Toback) is one worth living. This is the only film I know of other than Hannah & Her Sisters by Woody Allen to use a quote from e.e. cummings.

Most gambling movies are obviously phony. The screenwriters and directors are gambling observers, not gamblers themselves. This was written by someone who understands the mindset of a person who is gambling with money they cannot afford to lose. If you have ever had to borrow money to gamble, or had to take a risk to pay your debts, you will agree that this movie captures the emotions that you went through.