Lovesusti
The Worst Film Ever
GrimPrecise
I'll tell you why so serious
Usamah Harvey
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
chribren
"The Gambler" is a made-for-TV Western-movie, directed by Dick Lowry in 1980.Basic plot: Brady Hawkes (played by Kenny Rogers) is a famous poker player everybody wants to play against. On his trip to New Orleans, he gets to know about his son, who asks him in a letter to help him and his mother. Together with Billy Montana (played by Bruce Boxleitner), an avid poker gamer and a gunman, they are on the way to Hawkes' own problems; including an old enemy of Hawkes sending three assassins against him...I just finished watching this on VHS before writing this review, this because I actually enjoyed this Western-movie. The storytelling was good, and music artist Kenny Rogers does a great performance as the famous gambler who does things with honesty. Bruce Boxleitner also does a great job as a gambler, but also a gunman.The old VHS edition I have was released in Norway by former video distributor VIP Scandinavia AS/MDC Video during the 80s, and was rated 16. According the the video cover, this film was the most popular feature being shown on TV in USA in 1980.For a conclusion, I wish to recommend anybody who enjoys TV-movies or Westerns to watch this movie at least once. My overall rating: 9/10.
magellan333
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.
bard-32
Based on the #1 1978 song, Kenny Rogers As The Gambler is about Brady Hawkes, the titular gambler, and a young wanna-be named Billy Montana. Brady receives a letter from his son. His mother's remarried and his stepfather's beating the tar out of him. The Gambler has a son? Wait a minute! THAT wasn't in the song! That's right. It wasn't. Why? The song was a two-minute short story. The movie, which aired on CBS, was two hours long. According to the summary. 94 minutes. That's without the ads. Who remembers what they were advertising on television back in 1980? RCA, Zenith, Chrysler, Ford. and General Motors, to name a few, The others? Who knows? On the way to see his son, Brady and Billy meet Eliza, a prostitute, who rides in Charles Strobridge's private rail car. The movie's probably set between 1875 and 1880. Where? Probably somewhere in the Southwest. The song says "On a warm summer's evening on a train bound for Nowhere..." So my guess it's probably set in Arizona. There's actually city called Nowhere. We don't know. Would we like to? Maybe, maybe not. It could be anywhere in the Old West.
rconradolson
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.
