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'Gambler' generates no feeling
The way movie trends usually go, the
new movie, "The Gambler," should
have come out before last month's
"California Split." It would have been
more fitting to have "The Gambler,
(what should have been a serious
trendsetter) followed by a comical
spin-off which is what "Split" could
have been.
If the two movies are amazingly
similar in a few individual scenes, they
are worlds apart when all the cards are
on the table. Because a movie's
conception is about two years before its
release, it's difficult to say which of
these two came first. It is easy,
however, to see that "The Gambler" is
no match for Altman's loosely-made,
kooky masterpiece.
James Caan
James Caan is our hero, playing an
English professor at a New York
university and evidently doing very well
on $18,000 a year. Unfortunately, his
financial books are unbalanced as the
result of $44,000 In betting losses.
It's all pain and no glory as Caan
turns everyone, from his girlfriend
(model Lauren Hutton) to his mother,
against him. What the movie seems to
say is that even your average upper
class, sports and classical music-loving
college instructor can turn into a nasty
person when addicted to the gambling
disease. The intellectual profundities
on gambling sounded better in Caan's
classroom than it looks on the screen.
Not convincing
"The Gambler" does have patches of
a visually interesting style but the
movie, as much as it tries, Is never
convincing. Where "California Split"
could half-heartedly, yt skillfully
bounce through the exploits of a couple
of fun-loving bettors and catch their
emotions as they confront each new risk,
"The Gambler" gamely tries to show a
pseudo-masochistic personality wallow-:
ing deeper and deeper in an inextricable
situation.
The movie's final sequence Is the
topper. After Caan has finally worked
off his debt by having one of his athletic
students shade points on a school
basketball game, he undertakes that
ultimate trip of movie paranoia, masch
ism for a New York. City white, by
walking down the streets of Harlem at
night.
greg lukow
Threatened by pimp
He accepts a come-on from a black
prostitute and then refuses to pay her.
Her pimp comes in and threatens to kill
him with a switchblade. Caan calmly
gives the go-ahead and gets a slashed
face. It's all a big downer to watch, and
even though it sticks out from the rest of
the movie, it's message is all too
apparent. Very heavy and all that.
I've seldom sat through a film as
unexciting or as difficult to react to as
"The Gambler. It's style generates no
feeling. It is seldom profound (it wants
to be) and never humorous.
"California Split", on the other hand,
had joyous excesses of both. It showed
men who gamble because they love the
thrill of winning money. "The Gam
bler" portrays a man who revels in the
threats and challenges of his betting and
accepts the agony of losing.
UNL organ
concert
UNL instructor of organ, Quentin Faulkner, will
present a free organ recital Tuesday at 8 p.m. In
Kimball Recital Hall.
In addition to pieces by C.P.E. Bach, Francois
Couperin, Franz Tunder and Olivier -Missiaen,
Faulkner will play "Nova", a composition by
retired UNL faculty member Myron Roberts.
Faulkner, an associate of the American Guiid of
Organists, is new to the music faculty this year.
16 blood chilling scenes' specifically designee! two nurses on full
each with special eerie to frighten the time duty
mmd effects mature adult
O absolutely the most horrifying experience you will ever enjoy
HAUNTED BY
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A - i
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