The Gambler

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.

Legendary country singer Kenny Rogers does a creditable job acting in this amiable bit of Western TV movie fluff, inspired by his hit song of the same name. He has a relaxed, pleasing presence as Brady Hawkes, a war veteran and wise, experienced card player who travels by train to come to the aid of his former flame (Christine Belford), and his son (Ronnie Scribner), whom he never knew existed until recently. During the journey, Brady makes the acquaintance of married woman Jennie Reed (Lee Purcell) and easygoing Billy Montana (Bruce Boxleitner), whose ambition and eagerness to hit it big outweigh his common sense. However, they will all prove to be a good team as Brady goes head to head with Rufe Bennett (Clu Gulager), a ruthless town boss who's got the former flame under his thumb.

Don't go into this expecting a lot of depth, or nuance. What 'The Gambler' offers instead is good, straightforward, sentimental entertainment. It has excellent period recreation, nice music by Larry Cansler, and a mix of action, violence, humour, and suspense. The story (devised by Jim Byrnes and Cort Casady) holds absolutely no surprises, but entertains sufficiently, and TV movie veteran Dick Lowry directs with efficiency. The rich cast is the main reason to watch: Boxleitner is quite engaging, Purcell is both lovely and endearing, and Gulager and Harold Gould (as smarmy railroad baron Arthur Stobridge) make for good antagonists. Also appearing are Lance LeGault as a slick professional card player, Noble Willingham as the train conductor, and Bruce M. Fischer as a small town thug. Rogers' then-wife Marianne Gordon plays the small role of Dallas.

This viewer imagines that this material would make for good "comfort food", as it were. It has a refreshing lack of pretension, and never aims to be anything more than what it is.

Seven out of 10.

I guess you could say they gambled on the plot and lost... Haha jokes!!

Kenny Rogers stars in a made-for-tv movie based on his popular song from a year earlier. While the cast is impressive, and Rogers is just fine in his first lead role, the plot is where this thing falls apart, there's just not enough of an entertaining story going on here and the side plots don't fare any better either. Put in a pretty underwhelming bad guy in Clu Gulager who isn't really bad so much as he's just an a-hole and a rather disappointing final act where nothing seems to be resolved and you got a pretty blah watch. However, this was still a ratings succuss when it came out, and CBS cranked out 4 more of these in the mini-series format.

This vehicle for Kenny Rogers has a warm avuncular charm. Rogers is not much of an actor, but he's mainly called upon to lend his considerable atmospheric presence to scenes in which others do (or attempt to do) the heavy lifting. And he's good at that: he doesn't chew scenery, he doesn't attempt moments of deep emotion, but his presence keeps the lightweight script from becoming an embarrassment.

The movie is unabashedly sentimental, like a good country song. Plot elements are formulaic, but successful enough, and the direction shows a sure touch, never letting the movie get either maudlin or silly.

A must-see for the Eight-Track-Tape crowd, but not a bad choice for those who just like a little unchallenging fluff now and again.

This movie was actually quite fun. Plus, Christine Belford is an amazing actress and a striking beauty. As remarkable as it used to get. I can see why this Kenny Rogers character spun off in to decades long sequels.