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A Short History of Poker in The Movies
Hollywood loves a great story and there is no better natural story than poker. It has all the drama, suspense and excitement that any good film needs. Thus it should be no surprise that many movies utilize poker as a plot device. Let's take a look at some of the great ones.
Probably the best most-recent movie made about poker would be Rounders. The 1998 film starring Matt Damon and Ed Norton really got to the essence of what it's like to be a poker player. Damon quickly got in over his head and then came to despise the game he loved so much and what it stood for. What made the movie realistic was that it had some great lines and also some cameos that weren't out of place.
Before Rounders was Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. This Guy Ritchie classic took viewers to the shady London underbelly. Hatchet Harry didn't play fair and his cheating at the poker table set the movie off in motion. There is so much going on in the film that your head starts to spin, but eventually all the loose threads get neatly tied up. This is a film that never gets old and is definitely re watchable.
A fantastic poker movie with a stellar cast is The Cincinnati Kid. Steve McQueen's
The Kid tries to take on Edward G Robinson's Lancey Howard. It's a matchup of old vs new as two great forces take on each other head-on. The stakes couldn't be higher as the two lock horns in a battle for poker immortality. Karl Malden, Rip Torn and Ann Margaret round up the high quality cast.
The Sting is one of the greatest movies ever made and one of its key scenes involves poker. Paul Newman's Henry Gondorff tries to outcheat Robert Shaw's Doyle Lonnegan. The expression on Lonnegan's face when he realizes he has been had is priceless as are the timeless sounds of Scott Joplin. It won the Oscar for Best Movie and all in all, picked up seven Academy Awards.
The 1970s was a popular time for poker on the big screen. California Split featured George Segal and Elliott Gould as two gamblers. The two travel to Reno and the movie covers the adventures they get up to while there. The film sometimes gets confused for California Suite which was a similar named movie which came out around the same time. Poker must have been a love of Neil Simon as he also features it in The Odd Couple.
The early 90s Maverick was all about poker. It starred James Garner, Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster and culminated in a poker tournament aboard a riverboat. The movie is littered with a series of crosses and double crosses. When watching it you also need to keep your eyes out for all the cameos. Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Danny Glover and Margot Kidder all briefly appear in it.
Sometimes poker appears in a movie which isn't very good. An example of this would be Honeymoon in Vegas. Nicolas Cage loses his fiancee to James Caan in a poker game and then spends the rest of the movie trying to get her back. He doesn't think that his straight flush getting beaten by Caan's higher straight flush is odd in any way, shape or form. Sex and the City fans may like the casting of Sarah Jessica Parker as the girl at the center of this tug of war.
To capitalize on the popularly of poker in the 2000s, Lucky You was made. This movie stars Eric Bana, Drew Barrymore and Robert Duvall and received pretty poor reviews. Not even the appearance of poker players such as Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and Johnny Chan could redeem it. While poker can be an ingredient for a good film, you still require a quality script, otherwise it won'rt be very good at all.
About the Author Stuart Grayson is a freelance writer who covers news and events in the poker community. He is well known around the online
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