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| Clive Owen in Croupier as Jack |
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| Clive Owen in Croupier as Jake |
Croupier is a 1998 film directed by Mike Hodges. It is a film that helped to launch the career of Clive Owen, at least in the US where he was relatively unknown before. It was toted as a neo-noir style film and having studied noir and neo-noir all last semester, I can assure you this film is done in a way that is completely consistent with the neo-noir genre. Croupier is a film about an aspiring writer who explores the seedy London gambling seen and it begins to consume him. The film is narrated by the lead character Jack/Jake.
I chose these photos that depict two different scenes from the movie because I believe they contrast very well the “Jack” side of Owen’s character and the “Jake” side. In the picture at the casino he is Jake; a smooth, swift-handed, calculative and emotionless being who enjoys watching people lose their money time and time again. Jake as we can see, appears to be a very confident individual, and he even seems to enjoy the power he has as a croupier; the power that enables him to take people’s money from them. The picture of the man in a tux with a smirk on his face perfectly illustrates the Jake side of Owen’s character.
However the other picture illustrates the other side of Owen’s character, Jack. Jack is a forlorn character who prefers anonymity to any kind of recognition and drinks excessively, probably to escape his every day routine. He is involved with a woman who he says he only “half loves” and even when his book, I Croupier, is published and becomes a bestseller, he publishes it anonymously. This photo depicts this man; he is standing in Piccadilly Circus, alone, yet surrounded by thousands of people with an indifferent look on his face.
You make some excellent points about this movie in your post. Jake has absolutely no feelings. Jack seems more human, but he is in a sort of half-life. It isn't until Jack fully becomes Jake that he really "lives." I think that Marion was his moral compass, but his true nature could only survive without such a compass. He could not embrace his true self until she was dead.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I sort of disagree with you on is Jack's anonymity when the book is published. I saw it as more of Jake not needing the recognition because by that point in the movie Jack is completely gone. Jake was so degraded in morals and in life. He was now embracing this new lifestyle so much that he no longer craved being a writer like Jack had. Jake had found a new purpose for his life. He loved watching people lose their money so being a published writer meant nothing to him.