User Reviews

This vehicle for Kenny Rogers has a warm avuncular charm. Rogers is not much of an actor, but he's mainly called upon to lend his considerable atmospheric presence to scenes in which others do (or attempt to do) the heavy lifting. And he's good at that: he doesn't chew scenery, he doesn't attempt moments of deep emotion, but his presence keeps the lightweight script from becoming an embarrassment.

The movie is unabashedly sentimental, like a good country song. Plot elements are formulaic, but successful enough, and the direction shows a sure touch, never letting the movie get either maudlin or silly.

A must-see for the Eight-Track-Tape crowd, but not a bad choice for those who just like a little unchallenging fluff now and again.

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.

Legendary country singer Kenny Rogers does a creditable job acting in this amiable bit of Western TV movie fluff, inspired by his hit song of the same name. He has a relaxed, pleasing presence as Brady Hawkes, a war veteran and wise, experienced card player who travels by train to come to the aid of his former flame (Christine Belford), and his son (Ronnie Scribner), whom he never knew existed until recently. During the journey, Brady makes the acquaintance of married woman Jennie Reed (Lee Purcell) and easygoing Billy Montana (Bruce Boxleitner), whose ambition and eagerness to hit it big outweigh his common sense. However, they will all prove to be a good team as Brady goes head to head with Rufe Bennett (Clu Gulager), a ruthless town boss who's got the former flame under his thumb.

Don't go into this expecting a lot of depth, or nuance. What 'The Gambler' offers instead is good, straightforward, sentimental entertainment. It has excellent period recreation, nice music by Larry Cansler, and a mix of action, violence, humour, and suspense. The story (devised by Jim Byrnes and Cort Casady) holds absolutely no surprises, but entertains sufficiently, and TV movie veteran Dick Lowry directs with efficiency. The rich cast is the main reason to watch: Boxleitner is quite engaging, Purcell is both lovely and endearing, and Gulager and Harold Gould (as smarmy railroad baron Arthur Stobridge) make for good antagonists. Also appearing are Lance LeGault as a slick professional card player, Noble Willingham as the train conductor, and Bruce M. Fischer as a small town thug. Rogers' then-wife Marianne Gordon plays the small role of Dallas.

This viewer imagines that this material would make for good "comfort food", as it were. It has a refreshing lack of pretension, and never aims to be anything more than what it is.

Seven out of 10.

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.

Young buck Billy Montana (Bruce Boxleitner) is on his way to San Francisco to play a big poker tournament and make his name. He's stuck in El Paso train station and joins a local game. When the game gets rough, a stranger comes to his rescue. He challenges the stranger to a game and promptly gets taken to the cleaners. He doesn't realize that his opponent is legendary gambler Brady Hawkes (Kenny Rogers). Brady had received a letter from a son, he didn't know he had, who is begging for help.

This may not be great cinema but it was darn good TV back in the day. Kenny Rogers may not be a great actor but he's functional in limited range. Boxleitner was great TV leading man back in the 80's although Billy is a bit too dumb. All in all, this is a good TV movie.

Kenny Rogers stars as an old-line gambler, and Bruce Boxleitner as a young gambler whom Rogers schools in the ways of getting out alive. It's a TV movie based on Rogers' hit song, and looks to be the sort of show intended to augur in a series. None eventuated; Rogers was more than busy with his music gigs and occasional cameos.

Rogers does a good job, and Boxleitner brings a lot of youthful, nervous energy to his role. Joseph Biroc offers his usual excellent camerawork, with the bare, high peaks of Arizona filmed quite beautifully.

I admit that it's pretty lame when the title of your movie is literally the actor as the title role. I am not going to see the other films in this series simply because they're too long and I didn't like this enough to see the other installments. I do like the environment this movie sets up. Everything is pretty interesting to look at and Kenny Rogers plays a good, well, gambler. It's strange how he is in fact given a name in the movie, Brady. I had to see this movie because according to Poobala's crossover website, the film series connects eight Westerns together!

Yes, according to him, the films put together feature characters and elements from "Bat Masterson", "Cheyenne", "Have Gun Will Travel", "Kung Fu", "The Life And Legend Of Wyatt Earp", "Maverick", "The Rifleman", and "The Westerner"! This movie only features those from "The Rifleman", "The Life And Legend Of Wyatt Earp", and "Cheyenne". It really is a pity that there weren't any characters from "Gunsmoke", easily the most famous of all these Westerns. I never grew up watching ANY of these shows. Honestly, I don't even think the Laff A Lympics brought together eight shows! This has more links than anything else on Poobala's website. While I just found this passable, I really do admire this series featuring characters from nearly every popular Western of the 1950's and 1960's. I know I'd get a lot of facts wrong if I went into further detail. While it's too bad I'm not familiar with any of these shows, if you are, then check this out! **1/2

"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.

I put on Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler" as a goof but I ended up kind of liking it. I was pretty much on board once I saw that Lee Purcell was in it. I've had a crush on Purcell ever since I first saw her in Charles Bronson's "Mr. Majestyk" when I was a kid. Whenever Purcell pops up in a movie, I'm there for the duration. Now, Kenny Rogers was no actor. He does a passable job even though with his puffy face and perfectly trimmed beard he looks more like a young Santa Claus than a western tough guy. Rogers' supporting cast, including Purcell, all do a nice job. Rogers' supporting cast and some nice dialogue end up making "The Gambler" a pretty easy watch.

I guess you could say they gambled on the plot and lost... Haha jokes!!

Kenny Rogers stars in a made-for-tv movie based on his popular song from a year earlier. While the cast is impressive, and Rogers is just fine in his first lead role, the plot is where this thing falls apart, there's just not enough of an entertaining story going on here and the side plots don't fare any better either. Put in a pretty underwhelming bad guy in Clu Gulager who isn't really bad so much as he's just an a-hole and a rather disappointing final act where nothing seems to be resolved and you got a pretty blah watch. However, this was still a ratings succuss when it came out, and CBS cranked out 4 more of these in the mini-series format.

A movie presumably based on the song the gambler by Kenny Rogers and the movie stars Kenny Rogers too. Most likely demonstrating appropriate times to hold them or fold them.

I don't particularly care for kenny rogers or any of the other suspects in this film except perhaps lee purcell...its only called a western because it takes place on a train between el paso and yuma, about 600 miles on a slow train ... the bad guys are headed by harold gould and clu gulagher ... everything is centered around playing poker, hence the title the gambler... not what i'd call the type of role model a father should be to his son ....you won't miss anything if you pass on this hand

The Gambler (1980) is a movie that I recently watched on Prime. The storyline follows a young, eager gambler and an aged gambler ready to get out of the game. When the aging gambler is told his son sent a message for help, he hits the road with his young friend and some new ones to save his son.

This movie is directed by Dick Lowry (Smokey and the Bandit Part 3) and stars Kenny Rogers (Six Pack), Bruce Boxleitner (Tron), Harold Gould (The Sting), Christine Belford (Christine), Lee Purcell (Kids vs Monsters) and Cathy Worthington (JAG).

The characters in this are very entertaining as is the dialogue. The chemistry between the cast keeps your interest throughout the movie. Rogers and Boxleitner play off each other perfectly. The circumstances are always fun and Rogers is cool and an easy character to root for. The writing is pretty good and I enjoyed how the circumstances were unpredictable. The subplots were also pretty worthwhile.

Overall, this is a bit of an underrated western. I would score this an 8/10 and strongly recommend it.

Is it the subtle script? The complex, yet subtle plot? Or is it just the powerful screen presence of the one and only Kenny Rogers? Whatever the formula for this cinematic tour de force, the result is the same: sheer excellence. Only in the first and best edition of the "Gambler" films do we see the dark and tortured character of Bradey Hawkes so well displayed. Like Sir Alec Guinness in "The Bridge on the River Kwai," Paul Newman in "Cool Hand Luke" and Robert DeNiro in "Raging Bull," Kenny Rogers establishes himself as one of the premier actors of our, or any, lifetime. Like other great pieces of cinema ("Citizen Kane" and DeSica's "Bicycle Thief" spring to mind immediately) "The Gambler" portrays that range of emotions so special to the human experience. A masterpiece.

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.

This movie was actually quite fun. Plus, Christine Belford is an amazing actress and a striking beauty. As remarkable as it used to get. I can see why this Kenny Rogers character spun off in to decades long sequels.