The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
d. John Cassavetes, 1976
John Cassavetes' The Killing of a Chinese Bookie is a more radical deconstruction of the crime genre than even Altman's The Long Goodbye, which came out three years earlier, and it's also a lot more satisfying than Polanski's overrated Chinatown. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie stands as perhaps the biggest achievement by one of the great American directors; Cassavetes' carefully constructed character study follows gentlemen's club owner Cosmo Vitelli (a brilliant Ben Gazzara). Shortly after the film begins, Cosmo loses $23,000 playing poker, which will eventually lead to the guys he owes the money to making follow through with the title action. Through his famous use of long takes and close-ups, Cassavetes makes the film more poignantly sad than most crime movies. Cosmo isn't the same type of two-dimensional character we've seen in endless film noirs, but a more flawed and complex character trying to live his life. After going through with the killing, Cosmo finds that he's been double-crossed and the gangsters are now out to kill him. Though particularly ambiguous when it comes to key points in the story (particularly the ending and his relationship to one of the strippers), The Killing of a Chinese Bookie manages to close off both its crime story and Cosmo's character arc on pretty good terms. This is one I'll be revisiting soon enough.
Note: I saw the original, 135 minute version, not the 1978 cut which runs about 108 minutes.
