The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

As far as plot, that really is about it, but a patient viewer will most certainly be rewarded. Now the film stays at the same meandering pace throughout, but doing so brilliantly and completely un-gratuitously and all to good effect, as we are forced to focus on what is a masterful character portrait of Cosmo Vitelli.

The simple intensity of the protracted narrative allows for the unobstructed vehemence of the lead characters clownish façade to seep away, revealing the lonely existence of a hopeful showman forced into resolutely taking on duties for the Mob.

Reptilian, idiotic and imprudent, it is unfortunately rare in films nowadays for the lead to be such an unlikable anti-hero. But here, Ben Gazzara succeeds in creating just that.

Those expecting the pace and thrill of a Scorsese Mob epic will be disappointed. One would do better to consider Kubrick’s ‘2001’ as a point of comparison for pace, character study and cinematography. The latter’s concoction of gritty 35mm set against some gloriously subtle lighting is an aesthetic treat for an age that seems long gone.

‘The Killing of a Chinese Bookie’ is one of those rare classics, like ‘Taxi Driver’ of the same year, that succeeds in conjuring up real life, yet so unfathomably greater than real life, both at the same time.

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie is out on DVD now.