On G List of Movie Reviews
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The Gambler (1974)
Rate:
8
Viewed:
3/18
3/18:
James Caan has always been a terrific and underrated actor, and that much is evident in The Gambler.
What's interesting is the film feels so ordinary, gritty, and real that it can happen to anyone. James
Caan's character presents a good if inexplicable definition of what a degenerate gambler looks like: the kind who will
sell his mother for any sum of money just to make one more bet.
The story is James Toback's because he was an English lecturer at the City College of New York and had a gambling problem.
Originally, he planned to write a semi-autobiographical novel but decided to turn it into a screenplay which is the first
of his career.
It's easy for anyone to like James Caan as the gambler, but I want to smack the back of his head in the hopes of him
waking up to common sense. Yet he never does, so his fast spiral to the bottom is unbelievable and mostly avoidable.
Somewhere along the way, look for the very young James Woods with James Caan giving him hell. Paul Sorvino of
Goodfellas fame also stars.
All in all, as the title suggests, The Gambler is what gambling addiction looks like.