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Just perfect...

Absolutely the worst movie.

The first must-see film of the year.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Spoiler alert So for the ending that confuses people; Axel has just lost his last shred of character and any sense of ethics by corrupting his student basketball player to get out of his jam. He has absolutely nothing left of value and no reason to live, he has proved himself to be the true coward he has always known himself to be. On a death wish he goes into the ghetto looking for trouble, which he finds with the pimp and prostitute. After goading the pimp into killing him fails, he takes his anger and hatred for himself out on the pimp, and the only thing that stops him from beating the pimp to death is the prostitute's knife. His face sliced open, he staggers down the stairs and looks into the mirror with a smile, as while he wasn't killed at least he has been permanently disfigured. This film is all about self hatred - gambling is just a symptom of what is really going on with Axel.

English Literature Professor Axel Freed has a gambling addiction that led him to having enormous amounts of debts in The Gambler.This drama stars James Caan,who is better known as Sonny Corleone in The Godfather,as Freed together with Paul Sorvino and Lauren Hutton.This film written by James Toback and directed by Karel Reisz takes a personal examination of a gambler.This is definitely on great character-driven film that has been overlooked in the 1970's.Credit goes to James Caan for commanding performance as Axel Freed.He keeps us interested throughout the film as we get to see him try to take actions to pay the gambling debts that he owe and try to somehow overcome his love for gambling but to no avail. Then,we get to see a great story of a man whom the viewer will definitely empathize and could definitely relate as a person try to battle a weakness that he currently has in life.While the movie may have been shown more than forty years ago,the message that it provides remains timeless and currently especially for people battling not only love for gambling but all types of addictions whether be alcohol,drugs or sex.

Just about everyone who has posted a reply about the shocking ending was simply left too much in the dark to realize that it tied together a different root demise of Axel Freed than gambling.Just as a compulsive behavior leads to compulsive gambling, the root evil of Axel Freed was that he had a masochist behavior. When you look a little closer at all the scenes where he acts out this kind of behavior, it makes more sense. The problem lies in that the casual observer is only looking at the problem gambling aspect. There is more to this guy than just that.The ways he handles his relationships with his mother, girlfriend, grandfather and feelings at the end towards the basketball player ALL indicate there is masochist behavior involved. These are more than just selfish acts. There is some actual self hatred going on as well. Without giving away the final scene, this scene further accentuates the point by sending himself into that situation. The final scene was a conscious act, not something resulting from random chance or risk.So despite the movie having some gambling theme to it, this really wasn't necessarily about gambling addiction. It was about the nature of Axel Freed. If the movie had no gambling scenes in it at all this point would be more readily identifiable.The only real oddity in the final scene is the placement of the final scene. If this scene was placed somewhere in the middle of the movie, the underlying theme of his masochist pattern of behavior would have been more easily identified with. Because the movie started with a gambling scene, we all assumed it was just about gambling. Wrong!Its a tricky concept to catch the first time. Watch this movie again with this concept in mind and the movie will make more sense.

Sometimes he wins; but mostly he loses. Gambling is an addiction for Axel Freed (James Caan), a professor of English literature and lover of classical music. The film is set in New York City.The object of the obsession can be almost anything on which a bet is placed: dice, cards, a basketball game, a college football match. It really doesn't matter. Axel just can't keep from making bets. He's like two different people. In a classroom setting, he is logical and intelligent. But when betting, he throws away the logic in favor of risk taking. In these situations he seems to lack the normal psychological "brakes" that could be applied to his destructive over-betting. In his own words: "I like the threat of losing". And always in the background are the thugs and the con men that lord over Axel, when he borrows to gamble, but can't pay his debt.Some of Axel's classroom lectures have real thematic value. The ideas relate both to him, and incidentally to some modern-day politicians. For example, a person "... claims an idea is true because he wants it to be true, because he says it's true. And the issue isn't whether he's right, but whether he has the will to believe he's right, no matter how many proofs there are that say he's wrong". Axel continues: "D.H. Lawrence says Americans fear new experience more than they fear anything. They are the world's greatest dodgers, because they dodge their own very selves". Heavy stuff.Despite a disappointing ending, "The Gambler" is an interesting character study of a personality type that is all too prevalent in modern society. The film's color cinematography is generally dark, in keeping with the film's theme. Overall acting is fine. Paul Sorvino gives an especially convincing performance, as does James Caan. The plot proceeds rather slowly.Mostly, the film has terrific thematic value. It encourages the viewer to pause and reflect, to ponder, to question one's own motivations. That is a trait lacking in many current movies.