Starring: James Caan, Lauren Hutton, Paul Sorvino
Director: Karl Reisz
Compulsive gambling is perhaps one of the greatest subjects for the dramatic film. Primarily, movies about the addicted gambler take the audience on the wild ride that embodies the lifestyle – the highs and lows, the fleeting victories and brutal defeats, the unrelenting self destruction – without requiring our risking anything more than the price of admission. In short, we get to experience the action without the risk and attendant financial and emotional annihilation.
Moreover, and possibly more importantly, truly great gaming films take the audience on an existential journey that ultimately brings us to an examination not only of the meaning of the seemingly insane actions portrayed on the screen, but also of our own significance and purpose. While the protagonist is lost in the whirlwind of long odds, statistics and an almost religious faith in the next hot streak, the intelligent viewer cannot help but consider their own assumptions, worldview, beliefs and meaning as well. When they are done right, gambling films touch the very core of our humanity.
No film has ever exceeded The Gambler in this regard. It is the pinnacle of its underappreciated, misunderstood, even misidentified genre.
The Gambler is the story of Axel Freed, an insightful, somewhat arrogant and inspirational literature professor who goes in the hole $44,000 to the mob. (Remember, that’s 1974 money.) This event takes place at the very beginning of the film, so we never know Axel the functioning gambler who enjoys playing a little cards, but only Axel the desperado trying with all his might and psychic energy to get back his losses the only way he knows how: by wagering more. To this end he will do anything, even risk his mother’s savings on a trip to Las Vegas.
At the core of Axel’s character is a belief that he is singled out for greatness, that he is “blessed” and on a different plain than other men. On a conscious level he knows that this is a delusion, even admitting to his mobster/bookie buddy “Hips” (played expertly by Paul Sorvino) that he is fully aware the compulsive gambler is in it to lose. But on another level he believes his own hype and chases this belief down a vortex that is almost impossible to fathom. His personal philosophy is best summed up when he is explaining to his classroom full of young, impressionable students what Dostoyevsky’s Gambler symbolizes in the book of the same name:
Axel: “Look, look, look…any cretin can prove that two and two make four, right? So the man who goes against that notion must be riding on sheer…”
Female Student: “Will.”
Axel: “Will! He claims an idea is true because he wants it to be true, because he says it is true. And the issue isn’t whether he’s right, but whether he has the will to believe he’s right no matter how many proofs there are that say he’s wrong.”
Male Student: (holding up four fingers): “Hey, how many fingers you see sticking up here?”
Axel: “Well right now I see four. But tomorrow I might be absolutely sure that it’s five. And it’s precisely that possibility that makes tomorrow intriguing. (reading now from Dostoyevsky) ‘Reason only satisfies men’s rational requirements. Desire, on the other hand, encompasses everything. Desire is life.’”
If that passage doesn’t define the addict – and I’m not only talking only about the addicted gambler here, though it is a particularly appropriate subject – than I doubt if I’ve ever been exposed to any piece of prose, poetry or cinema that does.
The arc of Axel’s journey is gut-wrenching and merciless in its assault on our sensibilities, but there are some high points to keep the audience fired up. 1970’s Vegas shimmers in comparison to the milk toast corporate sham that exists in the Nevada desert today, and a very hot Lauren Hutton in her absolute prime (as “Billie”) literally demands the fixed attention of every heterosexual male viewer. Appearances by Vic Taybac, M. Emmet Walsh and a young James Woods give the movie a robust breadth of supporting talent to keep each scene fresh and interesting.
Go out and rent The Gambler. And then tell me there isn’t a little bit of Axel Freed in you too.
Director: Karl Reisz
Compulsive gambling is perhaps one of the greatest subjects for the dramatic film. Primarily, movies about the addicted gambler take the audience on the wild ride that embodies the lifestyle – the highs and lows, the fleeting victories and brutal defeats, the unrelenting self destruction – without requiring our risking anything more than the price of admission. In short, we get to experience the action without the risk and attendant financial and emotional annihilation.
Moreover, and possibly more importantly, truly great gaming films take the audience on an existential journey that ultimately brings us to an examination not only of the meaning of the seemingly insane actions portrayed on the screen, but also of our own significance and purpose. While the protagonist is lost in the whirlwind of long odds, statistics and an almost religious faith in the next hot streak, the intelligent viewer cannot help but consider their own assumptions, worldview, beliefs and meaning as well. When they are done right, gambling films touch the very core of our humanity.
No film has ever exceeded The Gambler in this regard. It is the pinnacle of its underappreciated, misunderstood, even misidentified genre.
The Gambler is the story of Axel Freed, an insightful, somewhat arrogant and inspirational literature professor who goes in the hole $44,000 to the mob. (Remember, that’s 1974 money.) This event takes place at the very beginning of the film, so we never know Axel the functioning gambler who enjoys playing a little cards, but only Axel the desperado trying with all his might and psychic energy to get back his losses the only way he knows how: by wagering more. To this end he will do anything, even risk his mother’s savings on a trip to Las Vegas.
At the core of Axel’s character is a belief that he is singled out for greatness, that he is “blessed” and on a different plain than other men. On a conscious level he knows that this is a delusion, even admitting to his mobster/bookie buddy “Hips” (played expertly by Paul Sorvino) that he is fully aware the compulsive gambler is in it to lose. But on another level he believes his own hype and chases this belief down a vortex that is almost impossible to fathom. His personal philosophy is best summed up when he is explaining to his classroom full of young, impressionable students what Dostoyevsky’s Gambler symbolizes in the book of the same name:
Axel: “Look, look, look…any cretin can prove that two and two make four, right? So the man who goes against that notion must be riding on sheer…”
Female Student: “Will.”
Axel: “Will! He claims an idea is true because he wants it to be true, because he says it is true. And the issue isn’t whether he’s right, but whether he has the will to believe he’s right no matter how many proofs there are that say he’s wrong.”
Male Student: (holding up four fingers): “Hey, how many fingers you see sticking up here?”
Axel: “Well right now I see four. But tomorrow I might be absolutely sure that it’s five. And it’s precisely that possibility that makes tomorrow intriguing. (reading now from Dostoyevsky) ‘Reason only satisfies men’s rational requirements. Desire, on the other hand, encompasses everything. Desire is life.’”
If that passage doesn’t define the addict – and I’m not only talking only about the addicted gambler here, though it is a particularly appropriate subject – than I doubt if I’ve ever been exposed to any piece of prose, poetry or cinema that does.
The arc of Axel’s journey is gut-wrenching and merciless in its assault on our sensibilities, but there are some high points to keep the audience fired up. 1970’s Vegas shimmers in comparison to the milk toast corporate sham that exists in the Nevada desert today, and a very hot Lauren Hutton in her absolute prime (as “Billie”) literally demands the fixed attention of every heterosexual male viewer. Appearances by Vic Taybac, M. Emmet Walsh and a young James Woods give the movie a robust breadth of supporting talent to keep each scene fresh and interesting.
Go out and rent The Gambler. And then tell me there isn’t a little bit of Axel Freed in you too.
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