This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Much criticism and disappointment has been expressed over the new remake of this movie that was released over Christmas. Having seen this version over the remake already in theaters, I understand where the disappointment is coming from. Why on earth would you even dare to remake a film as incredible as this? This original version with James Caan went largely ignored when released, but it stands to me as one of the greatest films to ever come out of the 70's. It has that gritty, NYC, 70's feel that made films like Mean Streets and Serpico so great. The performances are masterful. You can't go wrong with James Caan, or Paul Sorvino either. I HIGHLY recommend, you see this one first before you even think about seeing, what is probably, a useless remake of this classic.

An exceptional film directed by Karel Reisz and written by James Toback. James Caan is a well-bred college professor & scion of a wealthy family who also happens to be a degenerate gambler. Owing over $40,000 to a bookie, he gets himself into more trouble when he gambles away the pay back money his mother gives him. Caan is exceptional in what has become an iconic role for him, though it's a bit of a stretch to take him seriously reading William Carlos Williams and Dostoevsky to his class. Nevertheless, it's a serious study of a gambler in way too deep and Toback's script is one his best. The excellent cinematography is by Victor J. Kemper and the supporting cast includes Lauren Hutton, Paul Sorvino, Jacqueline Brookes (as Caan's doctor mother) and Morris Carnovsky. A lot of great character actors are in it too: Burt Young; James Woods; M Emmett Walsh; Vic Tayback.

Those viewers who wished a happy ending (and that's what they're really saying when they find the movie's ending scene weak/disquieting/unfulfilling/whatever) don't really understand the nature of degenerate gambling.And that's what this man is. Let's (as all gamblers do) put some %'s to it: arbitrarily I'll say 95% of habitual bettors play for the kick, the high, the thrill of the unknown outcome -- sports betting, casino betting, the turn of a card, they're all the same. Their motto of life might be, "If it moves, bet on it; if it doesn't, eat it." It isn't the win that's satisfying to them, or the money won -- because, you see, there's always the next game to get down on. Both a win or a loss is quickly forgotten, adjusted to, and forgotten. The next play is the only important one. Yet, to some extent or another, they keep it manageable, within the scope of their lives.Then there are the other 5% -- the really degenerate gamblers. Now to these guys (never heard of a female degenerate gambler, did you?) it's NOT the action they crave. It's the LOSS. Make sense? Of course not, because you're probably reading this as a rational human being, and self-destruction is hard to get inside of.But that's what this story is all about -- one of the 5%'ers.To an experienced sports bettor, the scenes like the indelibly memorable tub scene are all too powerfully true. How a win turns to a loss in the last second happens all too often. And how COULD those 3 college hoops games all go south, when they all had big leads at the half?? But examine two key turning points in the story: for dramatic impact, the writer imbues the protagonist with somewhat unlikely powers of recovery -- the Vegas comeback is the stuff of dreams, and the fix on the NYU game, keeping it under 7 points when all was lost with a minute to go -- those contrivances were needed to show the magnitude of this guy's disease. Had he been just a steady loser, he couldn't rise to the heights necessary to fall so far. Not once, but twice, he made a full recovery from the debts he owed. Yet he couldn't learn from it -- hell, he couldn't even take one night to sleep in peace.No, his desire for self-destruction had to be played out as it was, in a lurid hell far worse than casinos or calling the book again. He needed the self-degradation that only a Harlem pimp-fight could give him.I found the ending fitting, un-sentimentalized, and perfect for this unblinking portrait of a man who couldn't be satisfied until he'd thoroughly debased himself.Substitute a down-and-out drunk for the gambling addiction, and the story's been told many times. This should be assigned viewing in every GA meeting.

The Gambler is still after thirty years the definitive movie about the gambling experience. I remember the first time i saw this movie when i was in my mid-teens. I had just started my own personal gambling journey, attending my local dog track. There was something very special about this movie and i knew it would have a profound effect on my life. From the beginning, The Gambler is a very dark movie. The opening scenes are of James Caan leaving a casino in the early hours of the morning after losing heavily at the tables. He drives his car recalling his losses and curses to himself. The movie soundtrack plays Gustav Mahler's 1st Symphony (this piece sets the whole tone for the movie in my opinion). Mahler is great for tragedy (remember Death in Venice). Caan's character, Axel Freed, then wipes himself out completely, losing his last 20 bucks to some guys playing basketball for small change. This is the first indication as to Axel's self-destructiveness, that he is always looking for a 'result', be it good or bad. We learn that Axel is a an educated man, very educated. He teaches English as a University Professor. In his gambling though he chooses to play the fool, perhaps purposely. He avoids the 'locks' and sure things and instead courts uncertainty in his never ending craving for thrills and experience. Unless his bet is good for 'action', then it is no good at all. Unfortunately for Axel and everyone he loves (mother, girlfriend, grandfather) this cavalier style of play leads to nothing but financial misery and breakdown of valued relationships (particularly that with his mother, which is also key to the whole film). He is a martingale player in the true sense (double or nothing). One day everything seems to go right and he reaches a plateau when doubling on 18 and drawing a 3! He wins enough to break free from his shylocks, but is still not satisfied and he risks all his profits from his good day on a game of basketball. The scene when he loses this bet in the last second of the game listening to the commentary in the bath is incredibly real to anyone who has gambled for 'proper' money and lost will testify. That feeling of being absolutely sick to your stomach, not to mention the feelings of isolation, guilt and plain stupidity. The film could of ended there in a way, but it goes to another level. To finally free himself of the money lenders (local mob), Axel agrees to fix a college basketball game where he teaches by bribing one of his English students who is the star player on the team. In a close game Axel's student comes through and his debts are cleared. As at the start of the film though, Axel is still looking for a result. The only gamble left to him, is that of his own life. He walks into a bar and picks up a prostitute in the Harlem district of New York. Then he purposely does not pay her which provokes her pimp (Antonio Fargas a.k.a Huggy Bear) into drawing a knife on him. Caan pushes himself onto the knife, daring the pimp to kill him. Fargas pushes him away and Caan begins to beat on him relentlessly. As he drops his knife, the hooker picks it up and slashes Caan. Staggering from the building, Axel sees his reflection. Blood pours from the wound. He smiles to himself, he has his result! Mahler plays... Also watch out for the scene in the film when Axel and leg-breaker for one of the loan sharks visit a guy who cant pay. The first time you watch this its terrifying.