The Gambler

Kenny Rogers stars as an old-line gambler, and Bruce Boxleitner as a young gambler whom Rogers schools in the ways of getting out alive. It's a TV movie based on Rogers' hit song, and looks to be the sort of show intended to augur in a series. None eventuated; Rogers was more than busy with his music gigs and occasional cameos.

Rogers does a good job, and Boxleitner brings a lot of youthful, nervous energy to his role. Joseph Biroc offers his usual excellent camerawork, with the bare, high peaks of Arizona filmed quite beautifully.

I put on Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler" as a goof but I ended up kind of liking it. I was pretty much on board once I saw that Lee Purcell was in it. I've had a crush on Purcell ever since I first saw her in Charles Bronson's "Mr. Majestyk" when I was a kid. Whenever Purcell pops up in a movie, I'm there for the duration. Now, Kenny Rogers was no actor. He does a passable job even though with his puffy face and perfectly trimmed beard he looks more like a young Santa Claus than a western tough guy. Rogers' supporting cast, including Purcell, all do a nice job. Rogers' supporting cast and some nice dialogue end up making "The Gambler" a pretty easy watch.

Young buck Billy Montana (Bruce Boxleitner) is on his way to San Francisco to play a big poker tournament and make his name. He's stuck in El Paso train station and joins a local game. When the game gets rough, a stranger comes to his rescue. He challenges the stranger to a game and promptly gets taken to the cleaners. He doesn't realize that his opponent is legendary gambler Brady Hawkes (Kenny Rogers). Brady had received a letter from a son, he didn't know he had, who is begging for help.

This may not be great cinema but it was darn good TV back in the day. Kenny Rogers may not be a great actor but he's functional in limited range. Boxleitner was great TV leading man back in the 80's although Billy is a bit too dumb. All in all, this is a good TV movie.

There is a part inside everyman, a restless yearning for freedom, for adventure, that is squelched by the confines of this modern world. "The Gambler" is a film that reaches deep within the viewer, pulls out this desire, dusts it off and hands it a six-shooter. This movie is almost primal in its intimacy and unflinching in its portal of a broken man, cracked at the edges, trying to grasp to life before it overcomes him.

Kenny Rogers plays Brady Hawkes with an almost effortless, Burt Reynolds-like cool. But behind the charisma lurks demons that threaten to overtake him. I haven't seen Kenny Rogers in any other movie, so I don't know how much is acting and how much is not, but regardless, the performance is brutal.

I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it, because the experience of this film is not one to be missed. It will stay with you. After the movie was over, I looked at the box and saw it was only a mere 94 minutes long. It felt like a lifetime had passed.

I never expected a movie based on a song to be a masterpiece in cinema. The "made for TV category" suits this movie just fine. For a movie that aired on network television, this film is quite good. You have two stories intertwined: Brady Hawkes meeting his son and the history there and Brady's great skill as a fair and honest poker player. Billy Montana seemed a little to pretty to pass as a cowboy in the wild west, but the character's charm makes up for it. I was expecting the Jennie Reed character to be fleshed out a little more and maybe some more interaction between Brady and his son Jerimiah. For what the film is, it works well and is an entertaining way to spend an hour and a half.