Killing of a Chinese Bookie (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]

I love this film for many reasons with the main being i managed a seedy strip club for 3 years.The Ben Gazzara character is amazing and the best performance of his career. Gazzara delivers a wonderful complex character study that creates a cerebral block for moments allowing every serious movie goer to forget Gazzara was in Roadhouse.The complexity lies in the depiction of the main character as a kind and compassionate guy who knows he is in the jungle so to speak and that every day entails possible over the top risks.I always watch the extended longer version which is easy to find. This is one of those films i can't stop watching once it starts even though i have seen it many times.I always give films my full attention though when you have seen a particular film so many times you may wander a bit.This one always keeps me focused no matter how many views due to the real vibe it gives off. I have spent many countless hrs with the dancers that they really became like sister and there was not really any attraction. You start to develop an understanding and it feels like a family. An extremely dysfunctional one at that.The back stage conversations are classic. The suspense element is just an added feature. The long takes and deep character study element is what makes this film shine.Gazzara comes across as a decent guy that would totally avoid violence at all costs unless forced to engage. This makes not necessarily an anti hero unless you think the environment he works in makes him scummy.I feel it is more a study of a man active in the streets and a sort of gangster picture but in a different light.This is original. The deeper study is of an oddball kind of guy who does not quite fit in enough to function in society therefore he lingers on the outskirts of town. I understand this kind of character because i was just like him. There is a bittersweet romance with not wanting to be normal in Gazzeras character that is very real in its depiction.

Spoiler Alert: As a fan of the director Cassavetes, I will note that this is one of my favorite movies. The plot I take is not so simple, but that complicated. Ben Gazzara plays Cosmo a self made man, owner of a burlesque club with a bit of a heart. Cosmo wants to become a player, big spender, big shot. However, his gambling addiction is his albatross.The movie begins with Cosmo paying off a huge gambling debt, and so after an apparent respite from the past time he ventures out to celebrate a new start. Unfortunately, this brings him to a card game run by the mob. Cosmo loses big & is humiliated by a new unpayable debt. The mob doesn't want a payment plan.Instead, the mob insists that Cosmo executes a competitor. Chinese Bookie, in Chinatown so Cosmo begins a new journey to satisfy his debt.We now follow a journey with Cosmos that is not unlike Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. In fact, I believe that Scorsese and Cassavete were collaborating. Cosmo, an ex soldier, draws well on his experience & shows some cunning and calculations. But then there is the double cross. The genius of Cassavetes here arises in full vision. Cassavetes details along the way explore everyday mishaps and arising problems associated and not associated with his assassination goals. The journey feels real. The emotions and reactions are not always obvious especially with Cosmo. The American man from the 40-60s. Regardless, Gazzara and Cassou can feel the depth and strenght and existence of the emotions.. Cassavetes always able to draw upon a truth & that's what makes Cassavetes so exciptional. America's Bergman.

A low budget Cassavetes film from the early 70's, it has a rough edge to it, a bit like a student film that doesnt quiet come together. That being said, Ben Gazara's performance is a tour de force. As the owner operator of a dive girly bar who owes the local mobsters money, he navigates the gritty under belly of LA, trying to save his business, keep the girls paid, and coaxing a performance out of his disillusioned MC.Much of the dialog is evidently improved, and some of it lands, and some of it doesnt. But in a media world of unfettered glitz and souless CG generated worlds, this little rough gem reminds us that at its basic heart, film making is an act of passion.

this is jc's best, most subtle and least forced film. it's ability to engender empathy for a smarmy stripjoint owner is powerful. of course its settings are outdated, and its underground mores hard to understand, but it's also a simple, brilliant and moving allegory about life.it goes without saying that if you're curious about jc, you've done your homework, and don't need to be told that he's slow, random and often unclear. you just need further proof that he and his coterie of performers made some of the deepest excavations of the human being ever filmed (which get panned as letargic, plotless bores by those with teevee attention spans) and you won't be disappointed by this one.don't expect to be wowed by dialogue, or filmmaking techniques, or art direction or any of that. but do expect to feel like you're participating in something, rather than watching it. do expect to find things about gazzara's character that aren't just redeeming, but admirable, even loveable.the dressing room pep talk--as far removed as it is from anything i've ever experienced--is just as profound as it is barely coherent. utterly real. it's what you've always wanted your dad, or your religious leader or cultural figure of authority to say, and mean it. it's the acknowledgement of one's own weakness, and how these weaknesses actually give us strength and character, rather than the boring, puffed-up and meaningless facades we all create for the public sphere.not macho bs here, no pretense, no phony hollywood whitetrash costumes, no romanticized violence, and most importantly:NO WEAK, SENTIMENTAL ATTEMPT AT ASSIGNING A "POINT" TO LIFE.

Had seen this many years ago on the Canadian CBC late night movie. Sadly, CBC axed this format 3? years ago-showing mostly dull "art type" films for the last couple of years, almost as though they were trying to ruin the channel. But for decades, they played some fine films such as this. Don't expect lots of explosions and rapid fire action like you find today, but rather a thing called "acting", almost forgotten in this world of cgi, political correctness and all inclusive mandates etc. Filmed in documentary style, it didn't get great reviews when it premiered, but that just means many didn't "get it". Try it out and decide for yourself.

This is one of Ben Gazzara’s finest films. Excellent film, a must for all Gazzara fans.

Im reviewing the BFI blu ray edition, it has the long version of the movie and the recut shorter version. Wow! tremendous piece of film making from Mr John Cassavetes, blu ray quality is awesome, all very filmic and atmospheric, its like being a fly on the wall as the story unfolds, totally real and compelling, Ben Gazzara was such a great actor, a unique kind of film making.

Ah, the picture quality is good, looks fresh. Taken from 35 mm as the added booklettells (from the British Film Institue BFI.including articles of the producer ect.)is the colourspetrum well balanced, even the dark scenes are good to be regarded indetail. 1rst scene in the open must be early midday, not too sharp, but visiblethe glamour of the carosseries of the Cars, when later cosmo takes his girls outwith,I ordered this 3 disc package, staying in Berlin,Moabit/tiergarten straigth from England,thanks for having it now - beforetelling about the 3 disc content only two little complains:read more1rst, The audio is very sharp especially in the show-applause, maybe an adequatesound-version would have done it, like in `The Godfather', 2cond, in some scenesthe Galgen for the microphone (Boom Microphone) was seen in the original ,VHSversion. now it`s gone, happened as in `Romeo is Bleeding', it's the same trick byzooming the picture in - to zoom the Galgen out, what for? I want these mistakes tobe seen, hey, am I an adult or what? is this movie history? or what? so why wasthis picture not also brought in its unclean-version? As the booklet tells therewas rerally much work in cleaning the picture, cleaning the audio, but I loved tohave the original also.I cannot tell anyxthing about the Criterion moveierestauration and tzhia fine omne here of the british Film institute.content: The discs: 1rst the both movies, second, the dvd is both movies again ason blu ray plus 52 minutes selected scenes audio commentarythird disc, a dvd, includes one coloured coiffeur-shortfilm with Cassavetes gettinga haircut, plus going through his liefstory with interviews of Peter falck, GenaRowlands and so on, worth watching and brings some tearful meories - so, lotmaterial to explorer plus the booklet.Nevertheless, this hyperrealistic, scorsese-like picture has not lost its uniqueimpulse on me, there is these camera-angles no professional would allow these daysthose beautiful girls, great Gazara, this courageous Black girlfriend and hermother, always saying 'you got no style', every sequence seemed burned in my brain- and now on blu ray, in good shape - so be it.

Super film extraordinairement bien joué par un Ben Gazzara magistral.Dommage qu'il n'existe pas la version française.