Casablanca – which was made in 1942, is one of the most famous older movies made, with one of the bigger scenes in the movie being a very famous roulette scene. It isn’t the most important scene in the movie, but one that is usually people’s favorite. Casablanca is known for being one of the important outlets for people that wanted to leave to go to the United States during the years of the war. It was very expensive for people to get the visas to go to American and with it being wartime; it was even more difficult to come up with that kind of money. When people are in desperate situations, it is not uncommon for people to gamble just about everything they had to get the visas and to get out of the war torn countries where they were struggling just to eat. That is why the roulette scene is so important in the movie because a couple is trying to come up with the money to buy their visas. The scene is of the owner, the wife, and the husband and the roulette game he is playing. Everyone who has ever seen the movie remembers this key scene and will forever love it.
The Sting – The famous movie which came out in 1973 was a story about losing a friend who was killed and getting revenge on the crime boss who was responsible. He joins up with a professional con artist friend of his and they set out to pull one of the biggest scams ever on the casino at the roulette table. They make a plan using a cheating device to rig the game, but the plan doesn’t go as they planned. This movie has surprise after surprise, you can’t tell who the bad guys are and who the good guys are and has more twists and turns then you will ever see coming. This movie is all about the questionable side of gambling and how it works and the priceless lesson of winning and losing. The movie was based on two real life con artists and a book about them. This movie was hugely successful at the box office and made the company huge money and people loved the movie and the soundtrack. The film won multiple awards in several different categories.
Tricheurs – made in 1984, this movie was also known by the title “Youthful Sinners” at the theatre. This is a drama and a love story set in France that starts out with a study being done about young people and their problems in a setting of drinking, partying, and sleeping around. The center of the story is of the young man who is addicted to gambling. While at the roulette table, he meets a young lady and they soon become involved and become a couple. They meet a con artist who wants them to join him and shows them the art of conning and gambling illegally. As the story progresses, the couple fall in love with each other but continue their sleeping around, this creates an atmosphere of doubt and lack of trust which challenges their love. One young man is addicted to gambling that gets out of control which leads one young man to try to pull off a con job by using blackmail. There is a dramatic twist when the girl gets pregnant and she tries to convince her boyfriend to marry her for the baby. There is great music throughout this movie that was made into a wonderful soundtrack that can be purchased if you want.
Indecent Proposal – The 1993 movie drama starts out at a roulette table with a married couple who has gotten into a financial bind and needs money to save their home. They end up losing all their money and then are given an option to solve all their problems by a rich older man who has been watching them. The movie takes off from there and how it will affect them and their marriage. It’s a movie about greed and how money can affect people and their priorities. It makes you ask yourself the question “what are you willing to do for money?” “Do you have a price and if so what is it?” This movie is a really good movie with really big stars in it. This movie was based on a book of the same name that was very popular.
Croupier (1998) this drama is about a writer that is looking for inspiration for his writing as well as an added income. He decides that working in a casino at a roulette table would help him financially and give him plenty of ideas for his writing and let him explore unchartered waters. His father, who is a gambling man, uses his influence to get his son a job at a casino where he goes to work. As the story moves along, there enters a love interest as well as a couple of other women for him that takes all kinds of wild turns with all kinds of decisions to be made that shows how corruptive gambling can be and the ways it can lead you astray. The story is about morality and decisions in life and how they affect you. He finds a side to his life that is the exact opposite to the rest of his life. We find out later that it is because his father was an addicted gambler and carouser all of his life and he’s tried hard to be nothing like him.
Run Lola Run – A 1998 suspense movie that is a story of a woman and her criminal boyfriend who has gotten himself in a financial bind by losing a large sum of money and only has a small amount of time to replace it. He doesn’t know what to do so he turns to her for help; she desperately starts looking for a way to get the money within the short amount of time. The movie is about the different ways this story could play out. There then begins the twists and turns, unexpected problems, non-stop action and consequences of how things go. In one of the stories she is desperate to do anything to get the money replaced and turns to gambling at the roulette wheel to save him. All through the three optional stories, there are flash forwards showing how different scenarios affect the people she passes and how it will play out.
Daniel Deronda – This romantic drama was made in 2003. The story is placed in old time England and is about an illegitimate son of an important man in society who has too much money and a thirst for gambling. While he is gambling, he meets a woman who is in serious need of money and they get together while playing roulette. What the lovely lady does not know however, is that he is already involved in a relationship with another woman. When he can’t make up his mind which women he loves more, the story spins out of control while dealing with the problems of people of wealth and the different classes and morals involved in rich society. This movie was written from a book of the same name.
13 Tzameti – This seat of your pants drama was done in 2005 and is a story about a boy who after working a job the man dies without him getting paid, he then has a chance to impersonate him and make the money he is owed without realizing what he is getting into. He explores making money in a world that he is ill prepared for and has no ideas what he has gotten into. He is forced to be an unwilling participant in a killing game of Russian roulette where big time rollers gamble on who will be the winner. This is a story about the loss of lives, gambling, chaos, sickness and uncertainty when involved in a sadistic game. This movie won nine awards in different categories all over the world.
The Hangover – This is a famous movie which was done in 2009 and was centered about a bachelor party thrown in Las Vegas with most of the movie in the casinos. They have a wild night of drinking, gambling, playing the roulette tables, and gambling all over the casino and in Vegas. The next morning, no one can remember what happened or why the groom-to-be is missing. The movie plays out on how they try to figure out what happened and try to find their buddy and get him back in time for the wedding. This movie was a huge success at the theatre and a huge success financially. It made huge money and won many awards. They even followed it up with a second movie continuing the story called “Hangover Two.”
The Deer Hunter – This movie came out in 1978 and immediately became a top hit and a movie classic. The story is about three men from Russia who live in a small American town and are friends but get drafted to go to war in Vietnam. The movie continues with what happens and how it continues to affect them by the different things that happen to them. As the story progresses, there are flashback scenes of what went on in Vietnam. There is one dramatic major scene of the three men being captured by the Vietcong and taken as prisoners. They are forced by the guards to play Russian roulette against each other in a mind game meant to break them down. The movie continues and shows how everything that has happened continues to affect all of them. The movie was very big at the theatre and a huge success financially. The movie also won five awards at the Academy Awards in five top categories.
