Terror of gambling (Review of Rounders)
Shuhei
“Rounder” means a person who makes a living from
gambling. This movie is about them. Mike, who is a main character of this
movie, has enough talent for Texas poker to earn money for college. Because of
his loss of $30,000, he tries to quit gambling and concentrates on school work.
However, when his friend, Worm who is also good at poker comes out of prison,
he asked Mike to play poker with him. Mike ends up playing poker and he can't
quit it. He is completely addicted to it. Then Worm gets Mike in trouble and
they get a loan of $15,000 from a bad guy named KGB. In order to pay back a
debt, they try to win the money they lost in a poker game. Finally, Mike
challenges KGB to a poker game and wins. After paying back his debt, he goes to
Las Vegas at last.
I have learned two things from this
movie. First, this movie tells us that gambling addiction is really terrible.
In this movie, for example, Mike couldn’t get out of gambling addiction even if
he lost all of his money and his girl friend told him not to play a poker game.
I think people who are addicted to gambling don’t learn anything from their failure like
Mike. As you see in the last scene, he goes to Las Vegas despite there being
possibility of his loss of money.
Second, on the other hand, I was really
impressed with the depth of a poker game. If there were casinos in Japan and I
could play poker or other games, I might be addicted to it. Before watching
this movie, I had thought that all of the gambling games including Texas poker
are all a matter of luck. However, I learned that poker takes special skills,
such as judging others’ hands from their
faces, behaviors or stakes. Moreover, World Series of Poker Main Event is held
every year in Las Vegas. If I acquired these skills, it would be fun for me to
play a poker game.
In this movie, there is a focus on
success in poker rather than gambling addiction. However, I was more impressed
by terrors of gambling addiction. It’s not always true that they can win a poker game, even if they have
enough skills for that. There are still possibilities of their loss. That's why
they should be careful not to be addicted to it. If they owe money, and in
order to pay back their debt, they owe money again and spend it on gambling. As
just described, they fall into the vicious circle. In this movie, Mike could
get out of the circle, but, I think, he would be caught in it again because he
went to Las Vegas at the last scene of this movie. For these things, I can know
how it is awful to be addicted to gambling.
Reference
Rounders. Dir. John
Dahl. Perf. Matt Damon. , 1998. DVD
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返信削除You made a good choice of film, Shuhei, and you reviewed it very well. Thanks to your review, I'm now keen to see the film myself. Sounds like an honest portrayal of what an addiction to gambling can do to people. I guess we don't find out at the end what became of Mike when he went to Las Vegas. Is it left to our imaginations?
返信削除Some people seem fascinated by the mathematical aspects of poker and look at it as a system. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, was said to be a poker player when he was a student at Harvard--before he dropped out. You can read a bit about it on Harvard's online newspaper: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2002/6/4/college-friends-remember-gates-genius-poker/ .
This movie seems to have shown you the great dangers of poker, but also the attractions and challenges that it offers. Take care if you try your hand at it in a casino someday. I have a feeling that you'll be able to keep your self-control. If you start losing your self-control, just think of Mike.
Cheers,
Joseph D.