Gloria

From the very beginning, this movie strains credulity. First, if Jack Dawn was keeping a record of certain transactions so that he could inform on the mob to the FBI, it is unbelievable that he would tell the mob he had stuff written down, but then say that he was kidding. But once the mob finds out, he should have called the police and then the FBI to get in the witness protection program. Instead, he gives the book to his son, Phil, as if he is doing him a favor. All right, Jack is stupid, and we will let it go at that. But then we do not understand why Gloria does not just hand over the book to the mob right away. She is not even willing to go to the police for help, so what does she think she and Phil will do with the book? She says she cannot go to the police for protection because the mobsters are her friends, but then she shoots five of them in their car. I guess it is all right to kill your friends, but not to get the police to protect you from them. When the mob gets the book, they say they still need to kill the kid, to make an example. The problem with that is that it is a cliché that the Mafia leaves the women and children alone, primarily because killing family members invites retribution. So, this determination to kill a young child is not believable. Then Gloria decides to go to Pittsburg. Eventually, it occurs to her that the Mafia is probably in Pittsburg too. No kidding. The thing to do is go to some small town no one has ever heard of in another part of the country, like Kerrville, Texas, population just over 20,000. Finally, the dialogue between Gloria and Phil is unnatural. I could feel the heavy hand of John Cassavetes making it up with little regard for realism.

The perfomance of Gena Rowlands is one of the best acting efforts I've ever seen. She's so amazing and credible that still thrill me. She should have won the Oscar. Also, it is remarkable the Bill Conti's score, as well as many of the dialogs. I highly reccomend this movie to all movie-goers.

As the title character in 'Gloria' Gena Rowlands gives a subtle yet powerful performance which gives this John Cassavettes film its soul and its focal point. On the advent of Sharon Stone's re-characterization of 'Gloria' in the 1999 Sidney Lumet re-make it bares mentioning that while Ms. Stone is wonderfully talented the passionate yet understated performance that Gena Rowlands gives in the original can't & won't be topped. As a woman confronted with a life or death decision, to save her own or that of a child orphaned by the mafia, Ms. Rowlands brings us a character that we can all relate to, a woman caught at the crossroads of her life. If you've ever had to make any sort of 'Should I stay or should I go' life changing desicion and you're thinking of seeing the current re-make I encourage you to rent the original as well, you won't be disappointed!

A genre-bending odyssey, full of dank, dark alleys, filthy side streets, buses, taxi cabs, trains and subways, John Cassavetes' film "Gloria" is perhaps the most impersonal of his personal work, which surely inspired Luc Besson's 1994 action-packed "Leon," the film explores the development of the mother-son bond under extreme circumstances. One of Gena Rowland's most underrated performances, Gloria stands shoulder to shoulder with other iconic heroines of American cinema; such as Dietrich's Shanghai Lily and Uma Thurman's Beatrix Kiddo. Cassavetes explores new narrative possibilities unlike any other of his contemporaries. Though there always seems to be a surplus of emotion, dialogue or trivialities in his work - and I'm not the first to make such an observation - Cassavetes maintains his focus, which is of course, to show us a slice of life, however extreme or crazy it may appear to an audience.