Entertainment
Actor George Clooney and Ocean's Eleven
Monthly
Entertainment Column
January
2002
During Matt Damon’s
interview with Jay Leno, Damon talks about how he and George Clooney
were gambling in Las Vegas and how Clooney could not win a hand at cards
and that when he asked for credit because he had lost all his money, the house would not give him credit.
Clooney’s subsequent interview with Leno confirms Damon’s
story.
Thanks to the arts, to
entertainment, to
novels, plays, and in George Clooney’s case, to feature films, he does win a
hand at cards in his movie, Ocean’s Eleven.
Thanks to the fiction of filmmaking, Clooney can laugh at reality
and make himself win a hand at cards.
After all, he is one of the movie’s producers.
As the boss, if he says he should win a hand in his movie, even
if it isn’t reality, then it is done.
The scene where he wins is while he is in Atlantic City, New
Jersey, to recruit “Frank,” a dealer at the table where he is
gambling.
But going back to the
real world, even his fame and fortune could not get him credit at a
casino. On the other hand,
he does use his fame to organize the celebrity concert that raises
millions for families of the September 11th tragedy.
Despite all the controversy surrounding this, he did take action
and the money raised will, in time, be distributed to those affected by
the tragedy.
Still, it seems that in
Las Vegas, fame and fortune, for Clooney, while there on location to
make his movie, does not help him win a hand at cards.
Could it be possible that one of the reasons he could not get
credit is because his movie is about a successful robbery of a casino,
and how the casino owner is portrayed as choosing money over love?
These could be the reasons George Clooney could not get credit.
This is just an assumption, of course, but it is an interesting
thought anyway. Still, his
movie and its premise, did not help.
But what the movie does
do, despite the premise of the movie, is that it "indirectly
publicizes" Las Vegas and that entire "world." So,
because of George Clooney's movie, Clooney should be given credit when he asks,
not because of his fame and fortune, but because he is, in fact,
"advertising" Las Vegas through his movie.
As an additional
comment on Ocean’s Eleven, the
movie could have taken a
humorous or serious tone, depending on how Soderbergh would portray it,
if, when the crew finally reach the vault, the casino owner, Benedict,
excellently played by Andy Garcia, decides to disobey federal regulation
and not keep the money “in-house.”
So when the crew get to the vault, the millions aren’t there.
Had the script turned this way, the movie would have taken on an
interesting twist. How
would Soderbergh have dealt with this situation?
But how Ocean’s
Eleven ends is true to the tone of the movie.
Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Julia Roberts all drive off as
they are followed by Terry Benedict’s thugs.
This last scene reinforces Benedict’s dialogue, when he says,
“run and hide.” So the
bittersweet ending is excellent as the road ahead for the characters of
Pitt, Clooney and Roberts include wealth and love mixed with
uncertainty.
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