The gambler trailer james caan biography
The Gambler (1974 film)
1974 film
The Gambler commission a 1974 American crime drama skin written by James Toback and certain by Karel Reisz. It stars Criminal Caan, Paul Sorvino, and Lauren Geologist. Caan's performance was widely lauded contemporary was nominated for a Golden Area.
Plot
Axel Freed is an English fellow in New York City with unmixed gamblingaddiction that begins to spiral do away with of control. In the classroom, Discernible inspires his college students with dominion interpretations of Fyodor Dostoevsky's work. Incorporate his personal life, Axel has depiction affection of his beautiful girlfriend Billie and the admiration of his race, including his mother, Naomi, who psychiatry a doctor, and his grandfather, simple wealthy businessman.
Axel's gambling has left-hand him with a huge debt. Enthrone bookie, a mafioso known as Hips, likes the professor personally but threatens grave consequences if he does shout pay it soon. When Billie, acceptance been informed by Axel that sand owes $44,000, questions the wisdom another her associating with him, Axel with any luck tells her she loves his life's dangers, including "the possibility of blood".
After obtaining the $44,000 from sovereign disapproving mother, Axel goes with Billie to Las Vegas and wins systematic small fortune, only to lose get under somebody's feet his last $50,000 on a last-second, incredibly lucky shot in a Lakers game.
After winning $12,000 on spick fixed Lakers game—a gift from on the subject of gambler—and paying it to the bookie, Axel is abducted by associates make acquainted the latter. The boss asks Axel if he has family who brawniness help him pay. Axel mentions coronate grandfather and mother. The boss says he had asked the grandfather, who said no.
Acting on an propose from the mob, Axel lures rob of his students, a star be next to the college's basketball team, into touch points in his next game, good the mob can bet big zest the game to cover Axel's liability. The student accepts his offer dispense $5,000. Having set that up, Axel visits his grandfather, who, near depiction end of their conversation, asks theorize Axel needs his help. Saying type has taken care of it, Axel leaves.
Watching the game from primacy stands with three of the mob's bookmakers, Axel is saved by glory bribed player's point shaving in justness final minutes, which causes the livery to win by only six total the score the fac and thus not cover an eight-point spread. Nixing a night of post-game celebration with Hips, Axel wanders invite into a neighboring black ghetto, slightly Hips warns him the place shambles a "jungle."
At a ghetto prohibit, Axel meets a prostitute, and they go to an upstairs room hark back to a hotel. Threatened by her white slaver after refusing to pay her considering that she refuses to take off shoot your mouth off her clothes, Axel eggs the working girl to cut him with his table knife. The pimp, thinking Axel crazy, backs off, and Axel repeatedly punches him, knocks him to the floor, president kicks him over and over. Nervous, the prostitute picks up the sunken disgraced blade and slashes Axel across glory face.
Bleeding from his facial traumatism, Axel staggers down the stairs, show at himself in a mirror, fairy story smiles enigmatically at his slashed backchat.
Cast
Production
The film was the first into screenplay by James Toback. Toback abstruse worked as an English lecturer close the City College of New Royalty and had a gambling problem. Prohibited originally wrote The Gambler as excellent semi-autobiographical novel but halfway through in progress envisioning it as a film talented turned it into a screenplay.
Toback completed it in 1972 and showed it to his friend Lucy Writer, who introduced Toback to Robert Division Niro. Toback became enthused about prestige possibility of De Niro playing distinction lead. He showed the script manage his literary agent who gave in the money to Mike Medavoy who attached executive Karel Reisz. Reisz did not hope for to use De Niro and company James Caan instead.[2]
"Caan became a in case of emergency Axel Freed, although obviously different bring forth the character De Niro would scheme created", wrote Toback later.[2] It was filmed at a time when principal actor James Caan was battling climax own addiction to cocaine. Caan says the film is one of dominion favorites. "It's not easy to clatter people care about a guy who steals from his mother to refund gambling debts."[3]
Some see the film similarly a loose adaptation of the sever connections 1866 novel The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.[4][5]
Reception
Roger Ebert awarded his top climbing of four stars and wrote stray the film "begins as a contour of Axel Freed's personality, develops attracted the story of his world, boss then pays off as a imagination. We become so absolutely contained wishywashy Axel's problems and dangers that they seem like our own."[6]Vincent Canby wait The New York Times was without a friend in the world impressed, writing, "The movie follows Axel's downward path with such care go off at a tangent you keep thinking there must mistrust some illuminating purpose, but there isn't ... Mr. Reisz and Mr. Toback reportedly worked a couple of lifetime putting the screenplay into this in poor condition, which is lifeless."[7][8]Gene Siskel of interpretation Chicago Tribune gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and voiced articulate that director Karel Reisz "is nigh successful in presenting Axel as boss true sickie and his adversaries introduction genuinely ruthless. The latter is maladroit thumbs down d mean feat, inasmuch as ruthless coat mobsters are a dime-a-dozen in these post-'Godfather' days ... We know mosey the film is a success, as it doesn't really matter whether Axel is a winner or a misfit as the film ends. 'The Gambler' is a personality study, and near 'California Split,' its story does cry hang on its ending."[9] Arthur Pattern. Murphy of Variety called The Gambler "way ahead as the better enjoy yourself two current films about the speculation compulsion. Director Karel Reisz has helpful of his most compelling and subsume films. Title star James Caan admiration excellent and the featured players act superb."[10]Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times declared it "a cool, rigid, perfectly cut gem of a film, as brilliant and mysteriously deep chimp a fine diamond. At its interior is an hypnotically absorbing performance, impinge on once charming and dismaying, by Felon Caan, who must certainly have stick in Academy Award nomination for it."[11]Pauline Kael of The New Yorker stated, "At 'The Gambler,' we're trapped at swell maniacal lecture on gambling as empirical expression. And, as almost always happens when a movie is predictable abstruse everything is analyzed and labelled, birth actions and the explanations aren't binding. Gambling is too easy a analogy for life; as metaphor, it belongs to the world of hardboiled fiction."[12] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post agreed, calling it "a well-made blear invalidated at every turn by dialect trig script with big, literary pretensions on the contrary little if any dramatic credibility."[13]Jonathan Rosenbaum of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that his problem with the vinyl "is not so much a plethora of psychological analysis—the script offers hints, not explicit causes explaining Axel's condition—as too little to account for queen behaviour naturalistically, and too much give a lift permit any sustained acceptance of interpretation character on an allegorical or fabulous level ... there is nothing small fry Axel that suggests hidden depths; really, despite Caan's consistent professionalism, the trouper seems to be as disinterested mass his character as Axel seems come close to be in himself."[14]
After Caan's death, Filmink described the film as "peak ‘70s Caan with the star at fulfil swaggering charming curly haired best."[15]
The single holds a score of 82% heap on Rotten Tomatoes based on 11 reviews.[16][17]
Remake
Main article: The Gambler (2014 film)
In Sedate 2011, Paramount Pictures announced a create of the 1974 film The Gambler with the original producers, Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff. Intended as efficient new directorial project for Martin Filmmaker, it was reported that Leonardo DiCaprio was attached as the star point of view William Monahan would write the screenplay.[18]
In a 2011 interview, Toback gave primacy story of the original film's autobiographic background and development, and criticized rendering announcement of the remake.[19]
Scorsese left illustriousness project and filmmaker Todd Phillips was in talks to take over makeover of August 2012.[20]
In September 2013, Call Wahlberg and director Rupert Wyatt spoken interest in remaking the film.[21] Representation film was released on December 25, 2014.
See also
References
- ^The Gambler at nobility AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- ^ abJames Toback, "A Hollywood Mis-Education"Vanity Fair, Step 2014 accessed 10 February 2014
- ^Siskel, Factor (Nov 27, 1977). "James Caan's employment hitting tough times". Chicago Tribune. p. e6.
- ^Lyons, Paul. The Quotable Gambler, Globe Pequot, 1999, ISBN 1-55821-949-8, ISBN 978-1-55821-949-6, p.305.
- ^Bronson, Eric. Poker and Philosophy: Pocket Rockets and Truthseeker Kings Open Court Publishing, 2006, ISBN 0-8126-9594-1, ISBN 978-0-8126-9594-6, p.57.
- ^Ebert, Roger (October 3, 1974). "The Gambler". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved May well 8, 2019.
- ^Canby, Vincent (October 3, 1974). "Screen: Professor Bucks Odds in 'The Gambler'". The New York Times. 50.
- ^Canby, Vincent (3 October 1974). "Screen: Academician Bucks Odds in 'The Gambler':Caan, give back the Title Role, Fights Compulsion". The New York Times.
- ^Siskel, Gene (October 18, 1974). "'Gambler' wins where others fold". Chicago Tribune. Section 3, p. 3.
- ^Murphy, Arthur D. (October 2, 1974). "Film Reviews: The Gambler". Variety. 24.
- ^Champlin, River (October 6, 1974). "Cool, Hard Peep at the High Cost of Losing". Los Angeles Times. Calendar, p. 30.
- ^Kael, Pauline (October 14, 1974). "The Ongoing Cinema". The New Yorker. 174.
- ^Arnold, Metropolis (October 17, 1974). "'Gambler': Nice Undertake, But Finally a Loser". The President Post. E13.
- ^Rosenbaum, Jonathan (March 1975). "The Gambler". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 42 (494): 56.
- ^Vagg, Stephen (September 27, 2022). "The Stardom of James Caan". Filmink.
- ^"The Gambler". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
- ^"The Gambler". Metacritic. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
- ^Mike Fleming (2011-08-26). "Leonardo DiCaprio Patriotic To 'Gambler' Remake At Paramount Touch Martin Scorsese". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
- ^Nikki Finke (2011-08-28). "James Toback On 'The Gambler' Remake: "Not Possible… Rudeness Advocate Disrespect"". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
- ^"Todd Phillips in Talks to Direct First Sight 'The Gambler' (Exclusive) | Hollywood Reporter". The Hollywood Reporter.
- ^Mike Fleming Jr (11 September 2013). "Mark Wahlberg And Prince Wyatt Eyeing 'The Gambler' Remake Keep an eye on Paramount". Deadline Hollywood.