The Gambler (1974)
Sometimes the most intelligent people can be as bison who follows the rest of the herd over a cliff. That is the crux of this film. We follow the trials and tribulations as a brilliant college professor succumbs over and over again to a gambling addiction.
The Gambler is a grim and intelligent drama that offers a paints a seemingly accurate picture of a gambling obsession and an absorbing character study of a man that suffers from it. Alex Freed (played by James Caan) is a brilliant college literature professor with a weakness that is common to so many other people: He is a gambling addict. Freed is slowly gone farther and farther in debt as he borrows money from his girlfriend, and his mother, and eventually he owes so much money to his normally good-hearted bookie (Paul Sorvino) now is actively trying to kill him.
He escapes from New York for the bright lights and greener pasteurs of Las Vegas. In a stroke of otherworldly luck, he wins enough money to pay back his debts and save his own life. The fever takes control of him again though, and he takes the winnings that represent his own freedom and gambles them away.
James Caan is at his best in this movie, as is Paul Sorvino. Lauren Hutton is irresistible and sexy as Caan’s better half. I will not give away the ending of the film, but I will say that it is at best, confusing. It is a blemish on an otherwise terrific film.
|
