In only one movie could a certain man combine the sheer coolness of Steve McQueen with the silent, steely eyed stare of Clint Eastwood, with the unpredictability and overt sense of danger that someone like Warren Oates or maybe Oliver Reed brought to the big screen in their films before the good Lord took them from us. The movie was The Gambler and the man? Kenny Rogers.

Loosely based on the Kenny Rogers song of the same name (it won a Grammy!), this film places Rogers in the role of one Brady Hawkes, who is a high rolling gambler by trade who spends his time hanging out in El Paso. Hawkes has lead an interesting life, and the ladies have rarely been able to refuse his considerable charm. As such, he sired a son (Ronnie Scribner) years ago, though he never really got to know him until that fateful day when a letter arrived from his son asking him for his father's help.

Being the dutiful and honor bound man that he is, Brady boards a train bound for nowhere (okay, it's actually bound for somewhere, Yuma, to be precise, but you know…) where he meets a young man named Billy Montana (Bruce Boxleitner of Tron). They take turns staring through the window at the darkness until boredom overtakes them, at which point they begin to speak and once they start to get to know one another, they strike up a bit of a friendship.

On this train ride, Brady schools young Billy in the ways of the gambler, in the sort of teacher student way that is popular in westerns, Tonino Valerii's Day Of Anger starring Lee Van Cleef and Guiliano Gemma being a prime example. They later make the acquaintance of a lovely lady named Jennie Reed (Lee Purcell of Valley Girl), a one time whore for hire who has changed her ways and who soon enlists their help in dealing with a sinister railroad man who just won't leave her well enough alone. Once Brady and Billy take care of that problem, they get back on focus and set out to find Brady's son, not knowing that his stepfather, Rufe Bennett (Clu Gullager) is a bit of a jerk and he wants to fight Brady, but what he doesn't realize is that Brady has found an ace that he can keep…

Originally broadcast on April 8, 1980, Kenny Rogers As The Gambler was a pretty huge hit and it has since gone on to inspire four sequels (we're all keeping our fingers crossed for a fifth film, Kenny, don't let us down!). Like all great western heroes, Kenny Rogers says more with his eyes and his demeanor than he does with the limited amounts of dialogue he has in the film. His Brady Hawkes is a quiet man, he has obviously made a life out of reading people's faces, and evidently he's a man who can tell what his opponents cards are by the way they hold their eyes. He'll look you down with a steely glance and crush you with his stare, not needing to speak to you to let you know you're done for before the game has even started. It's this subtle and understated natural screen presence that makes The Gambler more than your average piece of crap made for TV movie – Kenny Rogers makes it gold.

In terms of direction and production value, again, The Gambler is better than you might expect. Some money was obviously put into making the movie and director Dick Lowry (who did Smokey And The Bandit III) does a decent job of keeping the story running smoothly during the film's ninety-four minute running time. Jim Byrnes, who has written episodes of Walker Texas Ranger, which this movie feels like a companion piece to of sorts, fills the movie with enough interesting supporting characters and sly, underhanded comedy that it works. Granted, the movie has aged and Kenny Rogers isn't the chicken slinging superstar that he was in the eighties and the early nineties but his fan base hasn't diminished and The Gambler still has its hokey charm. It might be hard to take him seriously in the role, but there's no reason why you should have to either, making this as enjoyable as a guilty pleasure as it is as an actual, serious movie. It was made with its tongue firmly in cheek, never taking itself so seriously as to alienate its target audience (that being Kenny Rogers fans, I'd guess), and on that level the movie is pretty successful.

Video:

Well, seeing as The Gambler was made for TV, it's no surprise to see that it's presented fullframe on this DVD as that's the aspect ratio that the movie was composed for. As far as the quality of the image goes, there is some grain and some dirt on the print at random intervals as well as some mild mpeg compression in a few spots but the color reproduction isn't half bad and the skin tones look alright. Some fine detail gets lost as the picture leans toward the soft side of things at times but the movie is always watchable. This is an acceptable transfer, just not a remarkable one.