Brought to you by The Gambler, in theaters on Christmas Day.
Ask a gambler what it’s all about, and you’re likely to get any number of answers. Money, prestige, excitement, uncertainty, any number of factors can motivate someone to bet it all on a longshot, or their confidence in their own abilities. But if you play the odds long enough you’re bound to lose, and that’s where gambling movies come into the picture.
The thrill of chance drives most gambling movies, which revel in watching their protagonists rise and fall based on the whims of the storyline. If the filmmakers are kind, the heroes come out on top with a glorious poker hand. If the filmmakers are making a serious point about the dangers of risking your livelihood on a game, the heroes get into hot water and are forced to do sometimes unthinkable things to get out again. Either way, drama is achieved. Glory and failure are both potent devices in a storyteller’s arsenal, and they can be found in all the great gambling movies.
With The Gambler hitting theaters on December 25, 2014, remaking Karel Reisz’s classic crime drama, CraveOnline thought it would be a good time to look back on all the best gambling movies from throughout movie history. Some of them will make you feel good, some of them will make you want to take a scalding shower, but all of them deal you into fascinating corners of the gambling world.
Slideshow: The Top 12 Gambling Movies
The Top 12 Gambling Movies
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12. Casino Royale (2006)
The second film based on Ian Fleming's first James Bond book (or the third, if you count the 1954 teleplay), ditches most of the globetrotting in favor of a simple story about winning a poker game. Yes, yes, there was a terrorist plot beforehand and a big crumbly building afterwards, but the centerpiece of Martin Campbell's Casino Royale is a suspenseful poker game between the impetuous Bond and the crafty Le Chiffre, matching wits with a heap of money and international security in the pot. Two players trying to outthink each other, the odds ever shifting in either's favor, culminating in brutal genital torture. Now that's a gamble.
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11. Let It Ride (1989)
Most gambling movies focus on what happens when you lose a bet. Joe Pytka's hilarious screwball comedy is only interested in what happens when you win, over and over again. Richard Dreyfuss stars as a compulsive gambler on the biggest hot streak in history, seemingly incapable of losing at the track, attracting iffy new friends and alienating his loyal lifelong loser buddies. The strange twist of fate is never explained, but it sure seems like God simply decided to give the hero of Let It Ride a really good day. And it's really, REALLY fun to watch it play out.
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10. The Cooler (2003)
Wayne Kramer's film The Cooler, on the other hand, is all about losing. William H. Macy stars as a "cooler," which is gambling parlance for a person who saps all the luck away from the table. He works for the casino, saving them money by ruining hot streaks, but when love finally comes his way in the form of the lovely Maria Bello, his luck starts to change, causing his boss (Alec Baldwin, Oscar-nominated) a major headache. The Cooler is a strange film, but a well-acted one about the unusual relationship between the gambling industry and the ineffable whims of fate.
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9. Hard Eight (1996)
Before he turned heads with Boogie Nights and Magnolia, Paul Thomas Anderson made his directing debut with Hard Eight, an underseen, very slight drama about an old gambling pro (Philip Baker Hall) who takes a novice (John C. Reilly) under his wing. Hard Eight gets into all the little details of gambling schemes, but it's less about overcoming the odds than the massive divide between life experience and youthful mistakes, which all comes together in a climax that changes everything you assumed about the protagonists' relationship. Hall is amazing, and Anderson proved right off the bat that he was going to become one of America's most significant filmmakers.
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8. Guys and Dolls (1955)
The classic broadway musical came to the big screen in 1955, with Frank Sinatra crooning it up as Nathan Detroit, a shyster who runs a "floating crap game" that changes locations every time. He needs money to secure the newest gambling site, so he bets America's biggest high roller Sky Masterson (Marlon Brando) that he can't seduce an anti-gambling missionary (Jean Simmons). Everyone sings iconic numbers in Guys and Dolls, and everyone discovers that life, love and even religion is a gamble.
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7. Croupier (1998)
That rare gambling movie that focuses entirely on the dealer, Croupier stars Clive Owen as... well, a croupier, but also a struggling writer whose life is increasingly consumed by his day job and the moral compromises he makes on a daily basis. When he's approached to play an integral role in a casino heist, it seems like just another logical step forward. Master noir director Mike Hodges (Get Carter) helped introduce American audiences to Clive Owen with this critically acclaimed, icy character study, and it probably would have got the future "The Knick" star an Oscar nomination if it hadn't been disqualified on a technicality.
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6. The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
Acclaimed filmmaker Norman Jewison pushed his career into high gear with The Cincinnati Kid, a fantastic poker film starring Steve McQueen as a young up-and-comer playing an unforgettable game with old-timer Lancey Howard (Edward G. Robinson). Everyone seems to have a vested interest in the outcome of the game, even going so far as to tip the scales in The Kid's favor. But The Kid doesn't play like that. The final hand is still a real thrill, and the odds against it are astronomical.
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5. The Sting (1973)
The Sting is such a popular and influential movie that many new audience members will probably see the twists coming a mile away, just because they've been ripped off so many times over the last 40 years. But it's still a wonderful movie. Paul Newman and Robert Redford, reteaming after 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, play Depression Era grifters pulling a fast one on a gambling impresario played with grit and threat by Robert Shaw. The scheme involves rigging the horse races, and the finale is a whopper, but it's the details that make The Sting so special. The intricacies of the con and the rich world of organized crime will suck you in whether or not you know how it ends.
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4. The Hustler (1961)
"Fast" Eddie Felson is one of cinema's great creations: undeniably talented, unforgettably undone by his own hubris. Paul Newman plays the small-time pool hustler on his way to the top with a big match with the legendary "Minnesota" Fats (Jackie Gleason), but when his amateurish attitude gets in the way of his skill, Eddie winds up in a spiral, manipulated by the cruel shyster Bert Gordon (George C. Scott) and risking his romance with the tortured Sarah (Piper Laurie). The Hustler is a dramatic powerhouse, and the sequel, The Color of Money (directed by Martin Scorsese), is pretty damned good too.
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3. Bob le flambeur (1956)
How's this for a recommendation: Stanley Kubrick thought Bob le flambeur was the best crime movie ever made. He's got an argument there. French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville's heist drama stars Roger Duchesne as an ex-thief turned gambling addict who lines up one last score, robbing a casino of millions of dollars. But when the time comes to actually pull off the job, he gets distracted at the tables. Fans of heist thrillers will see Bob le flambeur's influence on everything from Ocean's Eleven to Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight, but they'll also notice that Melville did the casino job first and - arguably - better than everything that followed, painting a vivid and involving picture of criminals and their personal failings.
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2. Rounders (1998)
Considered by many to be the ultimate poker movie, John Dahl's Rounders has only grown in popularity since its release in 1998. Matt Damon stars as a former high stakes player trying to keep his nose clean through law school, but his troublemaking friend (Edward Norton) gets him back into the game, trying to raise enough money to clear a massive debt. As it must, Rounders culminates in a classic card game versus "Teddy KGB," played memorably by John Malkovich. The smart, noirish screenplay, exceptional performances and emphasis on the modern world of poker, gambling and masculinity make Rounders one of the best gambling movies, and yes, we're willing to agree that it's probably the best poker movie too.
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1. The Gambler (1974)
We have no idea how good the remake is yet, but Karel Reisz's original version of The Gambler is our pick for the best gambling movie ever made. James Caan stars as a college English professor who can't stop gambling, getting himself into massive debt, destroying his relationship with his family and learning absolutely nothing in the process. Caan is phenomenal, but it's James Toback's honest, self-destructive screenplay (based on Toback's own experiences) that makes The Gambler such a winner. It gets deep into the head of people who bet their lives away even though they're bound to lose, because the excitement overpowers their common sense. Smart people make lousy decisions too, and it's the obvious intelligence of Caan's character that ironically makes his journey all the more believable, even as he edges closer and closer to utter annihilation.
