{"id":53,"date":"2015-03-02T22:55:42","date_gmt":"2015-03-02T22:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ginabrillante.com\/?p=53"},"modified":"2021-03-27T03:03:49","modified_gmt":"2021-03-27T03:03:49","slug":"the-gambler-the-movie-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ginabrillante.com\/?p=53","title":{"rendered":"The Gambler, the movie (2014)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

The Gambler<\/i><\/p>\n

The distance between losing everything and having nothing left to lose is infinite. Nothing left to lose is an altitude of freedom that lives without restraint, however so few of us can testify to it. Having experienced some loss we cling to what we have, and from this clinging stems our greatest fears and our greatest weakness. Being afraid to lose something, we do not risk anything. And, perhaps, the only way to not be afraid is to no longer possess something that can be lost.<\/p>\n

This movie reminds me of a time when I would take notes in the theater, frantically and successfully writing in the dark; like how I used to read a great author or sit in class and absorb my professor\u2019s words, unable to do so without marking every inspiring phrase, every spark of wisdom. Well, this one I got from IMDB:<\/p>\n

I see things in terms of victory or death, and not just victory but total victory. It\u2019s either victory or don\u2019t bother. You\u2019re born as a man, with the nerves of a soldier, the apprehension of an angel, to lift a phrase (from Shakespeare), but there\u2019s no use for it. You\u2019re set up to be a philosopher or a king or Shakespeare, and this is all they give you? Twenty-odd years of school which is all instruction in how to be ordinary. . .and then it\u2019s a career, which is not the same thing as existence (Mark Wahlberg: The Gambler).<\/i><\/p>\n

Sometimes, I am jealous of that girl from my past. Like she was closer to that victory, hanging onto the truth in every sound bite, squeezing the beauty out of every page, and trying to leave a little something beautiful behind in a notebook, using the bit of wisdom she found to conjure up her own. I think she had less to lose, and the older I get the more reasons I have to be afraid. Now, I risk nothing and have grown too comfortable. I muddle through, satisfied with the stupid pleasures and lose any sense of purpose and identity under the fog of routine tooth-brushing and mundane traffic-patterns. The quest for Truth and Beauty is replaced with clich\u00e9s and a war against carbohydrates. Movies merely allow the drug of escape to crash a wave over my face, books serve as domiciles for dust mites, teachers are replaced with a large debt I chip at once a month, and all writing is confined to a screen that mostly checks emails and predicts the weather.<\/p>\n

In the opposite realm, Wahlberg\u2019s character — a long way from The Funky bunch \u2014 settles into an existential conversation that there\u2019s no point to life, to death, to this moment or the next, if he\u2019s not truly being; which for him means to fulfill his unique, individual potential completely. Get busy livin or get busy dyin. Carpe Diem. To Be Or Not To Be.<\/i> Whether it\u2019s Morgan Freeman, Robin Williams, or Shakespeare who delivers it, this is not a new sentiment. Our ears have carried this nugget of wisdom to our brains many times before. But The Gambler<\/i> offers something else: we are created with great potential, but the world in which we live keeps us from it; and even if we do achieve this great feat of becoming<\/i>, the world offers us nothing in response \u2014 or worse, indifference. Wahlberg is the sad philosopher: holding this well-known romantic truth in one hand \u2014 to merely exist is to be dead already \u2014 and the cynical truth in the other \u2014 What\u2019s the fucking point of it all? He realizes that he has to separate himself from the world\u2019s standards of value and revert back to a true<\/i> standard, the only standard \u2014 an objective good, independently true regardless of the world\u2019s definition \u2014 and to do so he must lose everything of the world that he possesses. It\u2019s a very Biblical notion. It shouldn\u2019t surprise you, then, to know that Dostoevsky wrote the short story which inspired the movie. He often \u2014 as shown through his characters \u2014 struggled to reconcile man\u2019s great potential with his inability to realize it and live life to the fullest. Dostoevsky is often broken by it and even writes The Gambler<\/i> in response to his own gambling addictions. In the movie, philosophy of losing everything \u2014 in order to have nothing left to lose \u2014 becomes not just Wahlberg\u2019s mission, but his addiction. I think it\u2019s Dostoevsky\u2019s attempt to find redemption in his own flawed nature \u2014 and he himself may have found a type of salvation in gambling away all of his worldly possessions.<\/p>\n

Remember the parable of Jesus where three guys are given three different amounts of money, entrusted with their master\u2019s wealth (Matthew 25:14-30). Who was given how much is incidental and arbitrary \u2014 as Wahlberg reminds us \u2014 and yet this is the foundation for my life, my judgments of others, my own personal aspirations. Just as the men are given the amount that corresponds with their abilities, their God-given talents, I am given gifts freely, born into a specific world I never chose, offered unique opportunities I never earned; and I waste myself away, wanting to be someone who was given something different \u2014 a different brain, different circumstances \u2014 someone who is not me<\/i> exactly. We think that who we are and what we are given, what we are able to accomplish, is never enough. Instead, according to the parable, the only thing that matters is what each man does with what he has; since what we have is exactly right for our body and our mind and our place and our time and who God has created us to be and to become. And we have to believe that that is something inherently good – independent of the world\u2019s standards. Two of the three men in the parable take risks with what they\u2019ve been entrusted, the third is so afraid of losing anything he does nothing with what he\u2019s been given. But the risk-takers, \u201cthe gamblers,\u201d are blessed by God.<\/p>\n

Wahlberg\u2019s addiction is not far from these men who risk it all. The \u201cforces of the universe\u201d \u2014 never called God in Hollywood \u2014 created him with potential, and he\u2019s willing to give up everything the world has offered him in order to realize that potential. Finally, the moment is forced to its crisis \u2014 to lift a phrase from T.S. Eliot. He believes that it is not necessarily the case that the universe will find him worthy of life, worthy of greatness beyond what he\u2019s been living; and he may not win by the world\u2019s standards. Instead he believes that whatever the universe does decide, whatever circumstances he is left with, at least who he has allowed himself to become will be true. We can learn something from this perspective of faith. We\u2019ll never realize our unique potential for true greatness unless, until, we are willing to risk everything that can be lost, realizing that none of that ultimately matters. If I am willing to give up everything that can be lost, I don\u2019t know who I will be. But if I hang onto everything, I am certain I will lose my soul.<\/p>\n

The young man said to Jesus, \u201cAll these things I have done; what am I still lacking?\u201d Jesus said to him, \u201cIf you wish to be COMPLETE, go and sell everything you have and give it to the poor\u2026 But when the young man heard this, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much (Matthew 19:20-22).<\/i><\/p>\n

If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it (Luke 17:33).<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Gambler The distance between losing everything and having nothing left to lose is infinite. Nothing left to lose is an altitude of freedom that lives without restraint, however so few of us can testify to it. Having experienced some loss we cling to what we have, and from this clinging stems our greatest fears … Continue reading The Gambler, the movie (2014)<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brillante-movie-reviews","category-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginabrillante.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginabrillante.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginabrillante.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginabrillante.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginabrillante.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/ginabrillante.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253,"href":"https:\/\/ginabrillante.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions\/253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginabrillante.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginabrillante.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginabrillante.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}