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THE TRUTH GOES BUST; 21 bends facts, but reality even more complicated
Posted By Kevin Williamson
Posted 1 day ago
21 is inspired by a true story.
This means everything really happened except the facts.
For the record, in the mid-1990s, a band of M.I.T. math geeks, armed with a card-counting scheme tailored to their numerically-gifted minds, conspired to score millions playing blackjack.
But while the film condenses its time frame into mere months and boasts a laundry list of cinematic cliches - an improbable underdog romance, a manipulative professor (Kevin Spacey) and a menacing casino thug (Laurence Fishburne) - the reality was invariably more complicated. And less blatantly dramatic.
Characters have been fused - Spacey acknowledges the mentor-turned-antagonist he portrays is "an amalgamation of a lot of people" - or manufactured altogether. Case in point: Fishburne's Vegas tough guy. Jeff Ma, the template for Jim Sturgess' Ben, never received a brass-knuckled bruising despite the fortune he made off casinos in Vegas and elsewhere.
"There's a lot of danger in it, but it's not as simple as danger in the movie. I was literally chased out of a casino in Treeport, La. I kept thinking, 'Who's going to notice if an Asian brother disappears in Treeport?' But I was followed by a truck with a gun rack in the back and there were two cops staring menacingly at me," recalls Ma, who estimates he was carrying about $150,000 in cash winnings on him.
Also, although the movie centres on a small group of five math nerds-turned-high rollers, Ma estimates during the team's seven-year run, there were more than 50 students involved - some of whom were merely on the periphery of the high-stakes action.
"Some people may have walked away with around $10,000 while other people made millions of dollars."
Still, the tale didn't require Hollywood embellishment to entice author Ben Mezrich, who was introduced to Ma in the late 1990s. "I started going to Vegas with them and I saw all the action and then the money, which really turned me on to it," says Mezrich, who went on to pen the best-selling non-fiction book Bringing Down the House. He wasn't the only one intrigued. Even before the tome was published in 2002, the author found himself approached by producer Dana Brunetti, who had read excerpts in Wired magazine. At first, Mezrich didn't believe Brunetti was who he said.
"I called my mom to say Kevin Spacey wanted the rights and she said, 'It's some M.I.T. kid prankcalling you.' "
He was eventually swayed after Googling Brunetti's name and confirming that, yes, he really was Spacey's producing partner. With Trigger Street on-board, MGM agreed to make it - despite the producers' own initial trepidation about the studio's motives.
After all, MGM also operated The Grand - did the corporation just want to bury Mezrich's book and potential film rather than have its secrets exposed?
It turned out the opposite was true. "They loved the book because it makes everyone think it's easy (to count cards)," Brunetti says. "In reality, you have to be a brilliant mind to do it."
As for whether the film glamourizes gambling, Spacey responds, "People have to take responsibility for their own actions. The film, we hope, is inspiring and a feel-good movie ... but the characters do learn their lesson. At the end of the day (the Jim Sturgess character) does the right thing."
In reality, what the students most inspired was action by casino brass, who concocted new measures to safe-guard against other cagey card-counters.
"There were definitely changes in the industry because of the sort of things we did," Ma says.
"The continuous shuffler is not beatable. But a six-deck shoe, you can still beat. And a one deck or two deck is still beatable."
Not that it matters to him. Nowadays, Ma's experiences continue to pay dividends without him stepping foot in a casino. In addition to founding a fantasy-sports website, booking speaking engagements and having his life story become a best-seller, he even cameos in the movie as - what else? - a blackjack dealer.
Posted By Kevin Williamson
Posted 1 day ago
21 is inspired by a true story.
This means everything really happened except the facts.
For the record, in the mid-1990s, a band of M.I.T. math geeks, armed with a card-counting scheme tailored to their numerically-gifted minds, conspired to score millions playing blackjack.
But while the film condenses its time frame into mere months and boasts a laundry list of cinematic cliches - an improbable underdog romance, a manipulative professor (Kevin Spacey) and a menacing casino thug (Laurence Fishburne) - the reality was invariably more complicated. And less blatantly dramatic.
Characters have been fused - Spacey acknowledges the mentor-turned-antagonist he portrays is "an amalgamation of a lot of people" - or manufactured altogether. Case in point: Fishburne's Vegas tough guy. Jeff Ma, the template for Jim Sturgess' Ben, never received a brass-knuckled bruising despite the fortune he made off casinos in Vegas and elsewhere.
"There's a lot of danger in it, but it's not as simple as danger in the movie. I was literally chased out of a casino in Treeport, La. I kept thinking, 'Who's going to notice if an Asian brother disappears in Treeport?' But I was followed by a truck with a gun rack in the back and there were two cops staring menacingly at me," recalls Ma, who estimates he was carrying about $150,000 in cash winnings on him.
Also, although the movie centres on a small group of five math nerds-turned-high rollers, Ma estimates during the team's seven-year run, there were more than 50 students involved - some of whom were merely on the periphery of the high-stakes action.
"Some people may have walked away with around $10,000 while other people made millions of dollars."
Still, the tale didn't require Hollywood embellishment to entice author Ben Mezrich, who was introduced to Ma in the late 1990s. "I started going to Vegas with them and I saw all the action and then the money, which really turned me on to it," says Mezrich, who went on to pen the best-selling non-fiction book Bringing Down the House. He wasn't the only one intrigued. Even before the tome was published in 2002, the author found himself approached by producer Dana Brunetti, who had read excerpts in Wired magazine. At first, Mezrich didn't believe Brunetti was who he said.
"I called my mom to say Kevin Spacey wanted the rights and she said, 'It's some M.I.T. kid prankcalling you.' "
He was eventually swayed after Googling Brunetti's name and confirming that, yes, he really was Spacey's producing partner. With Trigger Street on-board, MGM agreed to make it - despite the producers' own initial trepidation about the studio's motives.
After all, MGM also operated The Grand - did the corporation just want to bury Mezrich's book and potential film rather than have its secrets exposed?
It turned out the opposite was true. "They loved the book because it makes everyone think it's easy (to count cards)," Brunetti says. "In reality, you have to be a brilliant mind to do it."
As for whether the film glamourizes gambling, Spacey responds, "People have to take responsibility for their own actions. The film, we hope, is inspiring and a feel-good movie ... but the characters do learn their lesson. At the end of the day (the Jim Sturgess character) does the right thing."
In reality, what the students most inspired was action by casino brass, who concocted new measures to safe-guard against other cagey card-counters.
"There were definitely changes in the industry because of the sort of things we did," Ma says.
"The continuous shuffler is not beatable. But a six-deck shoe, you can still beat. And a one deck or two deck is still beatable."
Not that it matters to him. Nowadays, Ma's experiences continue to pay dividends without him stepping foot in a casino. In addition to founding a fantasy-sports website, booking speaking engagements and having his life story become a best-seller, he even cameos in the movie as - what else? - a blackjack dealer.