The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

Thirty years ago, when The Killing of a Chinese Bookie was first released,
it bombed at the box office, much to Cassavetes’ disappointment. Critics
found it disorganized, self-indulgent, and unfathomable; audiences took
their word for it and stayed away. Today, the film seems a model of
narrative clarity and lucidity: either our eyes have caught up to
Cassavetes, or the reigning aesthetic has evolved steadily in the direction of his personal cinematic style. Now we are more accustomed to hanging out
and listening in on the comic banality of low-life small talk; to a semidocumentary, handheld camera, ambient-sound approach; to morally divided or not entirely sympathetic characters, dollops of “dead time,” and subversions of traditional genre expectations.

This excerpt from Phillip Lopate's essay The Raw and the Cooked is an interesting depiction of Cassavetes' 1976 film The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. Although I agree with Lopate's suggestion that today's audience is more willing to accept a "semidocumentary" (as he so accurately labels Cassavetes' movies), there is still a level to his method that is unattainable even for the most open-minded movie go-ers. Perhaps I do not posess the intellectual capacity to TRULY FULLY appreciate John's efforts, but The Killing of a Chinese Bookie was at least entertaining, as compared to Faces.

As trite and unoriginal as it may sound, the addition of color and sound into this particular film allowed for more accessability to the winding plot and super developed protagonist, Cosmo Vitelli. The scenes in his gentlemen's nightclub, although (seemingly) unnecessarily long at times, were vivid and caught the viewer's attention

1. Probably because it's a nudie bar but....

2. because Cassavetes shot the scenes through gels which created pools of ambient light=

There is definitely an aesthetic quality Cassavetes incorporates with sound, light and camera work, however, for some reason his overly realistic point of view leans towards tiresome. I respect his decisions, but I'd rather watch a less ambitious independent film with a more direct (maybe even less plausible) plot.