Rounders (film)
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| Rounders | |
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 Rounders Movie Poster |
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| Directed by | John Dahl |
| Produced by | Ted Demme Joel Stillerman |
| Written by | David Levien Brian Koppelman |
| Starring | Matt Damon Edward Norton John Turturro John Malkovich Gretchen Mol Famke Janssen |
| Music by | Christopher Young |
| Cinematography | Jean-Yves Escoffier |
| Editing by | Scott Chestnut |
| Distributed by | Miramax Films |
| Release date(s) | September 11, 1998 |
| Running time | 121 minutes |
| Language | English French |
| Budget | $12,000,000 USD |
| IMDb profile | |
For the 1965 western comedy starring Henry Fonda and Glenn Ford, see The Rounders (1965 film).
Rounders is a 1998 film about the underground world of high-stakes poker. Directed by John Dahl and starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton, the movie follows two friends who need to quickly earn enough cash playing poker to pay off a huge debt. The term “rounder” refers to a person whose sole means of earning a living is by playing cards.
The movie opened to mixed reviews and only made a modest amount of money. However, with the growing popularity of Texas hold 'em and other poker games, Rounders has become a cult hit.
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[edit] Plot
Rounders is about a former rounder, Mike McDermott (Matt Damon), who is torn between a commitment to his girlfriend Jo (Gretchen Mol) to concentrate on his law school studies and his loyalty to best friend Les “Worm” Murphy (Edward Norton). Just out of prison, Worm has a large gambling debt. He slowly convinces Mike to use his poker playing skills to help him pay it off, permanently damaging Mike's relationship with Jo and putting both men's lives at risk.
[edit] Production
Rounders began filming in December of 1997 and was set mostly in New York, with the notable exception being that the law school scenes were filmed at Rutgers Law School in Newark, New Jersey.
[edit] Featured cast
- Matt Damon as Mike McDermott
- Edward Norton as Lester 'Worm' Murphy
- John Turturro as Joey Knish
- Gretchen Mol as Jo
- John Malkovich as Teddy KGB
- Famke Janssen as Petra
- Michael Rispoli as Grama
- Martin Landau as Abe Petrovsky
[edit] Reception
Despite an unremarkable theatrical release, Rounders has gone on to become somewhat of a cult classic, particularly amongst poker enthusiasts. In an interesting chicken or the egg situation, some speculate the film is directly responsible for the recent increase in the popularity of Texas hold 'em, while others believe that the substantial increase in the popularity of poker has nothing to do with the movie Rounders, but that same increase does have everything to do with the come-lately increase in the popularity of the film, so many years after its theatrical release.
2003 WSOP champion Chris Moneymaker and 2006 WSOP champion Jamie Gold have both cited the movie as respectively igniting and reigniting their interest in poker. The movie is widely quoted by poker players at physical and online poker rooms.
Rounders earned $8,459,126 during its opening weekend and closed with a domestic gross of $22,912,409.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Box Office Mojo Rounders (1998). Retrieved on 2007-06-07.
