--- title: "Gloria" year: 1980 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/gloria-1980" fi1m_score: 78 critics_score: 71 critics_reviews: 7 published: "2026-09-16T13:45:33.415397+00:00" updated: "2026-09-16T13:45:47.528409+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Gloria (1980) Directed by John Cassavetes · 2h 02m · MPA PG · Crime, Drama, Thriller **Fi1m score: 78** · Critics 71 from 7 reviews *In a sentence:* Gena Rowlands makes protecting a child look like one more unreasonable demand on her afternoon > Gena Rowlands gives *Gloria* enough nerve and bad temper to make its uneven Mafia chase worth following. The gangsters are thinly drawn, but John Cassavetes makes her difficult partnership with a boy persuasive. ## Synopsis In New York, former mob associate Gloria Swenson (Gena Rowlands) finds herself protecting Phil Dawn (John Adames), a boy pursued by the Mafia. The story also involves Jack Dawn (Buck Henry) and Jeri Dawn (Julie Carmen). Gloria wants to keep Phil alive and is prepared to use a gun to do it. He brings his own demands and a child’s capacity for tantrums to their flight through the city. They have to keep moving, with Gloria now standing between the boy and the gangsters. ## Review John Cassavetes gives *Gloria* a familiar crime-film job: put a woman and a child in danger and see whether they can get away. It is good, uneven entertainment, carried by Gena Rowlands and by the awkward business of two people who have not chosen each other trying to stay together. Gloria’s impatience gives their partnership something to work through besides the threat of the Mafia. The film lets looking after Phil be exhausting without treating that as a failure of character. As Gloria Swenson, Gena Rowlands makes toughness look like an ordinary part of getting through the day. She carries herself elegantly, even when the character is being blunt. The performance keeps that assurance when Gloria has a child to look after, but adds a useful strain of annoyance. Her readiness to use a gun is convincing because the same force is there when she has to deal with Phil. She lets Gloria remain disagreeable, and the film is better for it. John Adames gives Phil the inconvenient reactions of a child, including tantrums that a tidier thriller might have edited out. We found those outbursts unexpectedly touching. With the Mafia after him, Phil still has the energy to be difficult, and that keeps him from becoming merely someone for an adult to rescue. The affection between the pair is persuasive because they do not make being together look easy. John Cassavetes allows their quarrelling to take up space in a story that could have been all pursuit. Fred Schuler’s New York photography gives the chase a welcome sense of bustle. The opening montage encourages us to look at the city, rather than simply wait for something dangerous to happen in it. George C. Villaseñor’s editing gives that introduction an ease the later pursuit cannot always sustain. Bill Conti’s score supplies some grandeur, which works because Gena Rowlands remains so briskly practical within it. The pleasure in the sights and music helps stop the danger from making the film monotonously grim. The chase is less satisfying. John Cassavetes the writer leans on gangsters whose function is clearer than their character, so the danger can feel arranged to give Gloria another chance to take charge. The supporting performances do little to make that threat more particular, and the shifts between crime-film exaggeration and intimate quarrelling are not always comfortable. George C. Villaseñor cannot make the pursuit feel as varied as the exchanges between the leads. At 122 minutes, the film spends longer on that weaker material than we would choose. For a crime thriller, this puts unusual faith in the audience’s willingness to stay with an awkward pair. We do not need Gloria to become agreeable, and John Cassavetes is right not to insist on it. Anyone chiefly interested in the mechanics of escape may find the plotting a trial. Watch it for Gena Rowlands, with some patience for the gangsters. *Fi1m score 78, published 16 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics respond warmly to Gloria, with praise centred on Gena Rowlands as the tough former mob associate protecting a boy from the Mafia. The reviews repeatedly single out her force, physical assurance and emotional range, finding that she gives the chase story much of its character. Several also admire Cassavetes’ handling of New York’s atmosphere and the unlikely central pairing, while the opening montage and Bill Conti’s score attract praise. The reservations concern how well the gangster plot accommodates Cassavetes’ interest in unruly emotions, with a fairly wide spread of enthusiasm despite the predominantly positive response. Slant Magazine finds the supporting performances and tonal mixture weaker than Rowlands, while The New York Times offers the clearest dissent, finding the film charming but lumpy and unconvincing. Collider is the most enthusiastic, celebrating Rowlands as an action heroine and Cassavetes’ feel for the city’s chaos. ### Reviews we read (7) - **The New Yorker**, Richard Brody (80/100, inferred): The critic outlines the paranoid plot of Gloria and the kid on the lam from the Mafia, matching Cassavetes' hard-nosed metaphysics with the intimate ferocity of the odd couple. It highlights Cassavetes filming Rowlands with self-deprecating adoration as the gloriously burdened woman who would kill for them. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/gloria) - **Sight and Sound**, Richard Combs (70/100, inferred): The critic examines Cassavetes’ Gloria as a gangster film that blends genre chase elements with the director’s signature focus on raw character emotions and performance, contrasting it with Scorsese’s Raging Bull. It highlights the energetic, atmospheric opening and Gena Rowlands’ central role while noting the film’s playful, self-aware take on genre conventions. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/hell-bronx-richard-combs-reviews-gloria-raging-bull) - **Slant Magazine**, Eric Henderson (70/100, inferred): The critic highlights Gena Rowlands' extraordinarily well-rounded and brash performance as the ex-mob dame Gloria as the film's standout element in this PG-rated mob melodrama with a child in tow. Supporting performances and the overall tonal mixture are found wanting by comparison. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/gloria/) - **Time Out**, GA (70/100, inferred): The review praises Cassavetes as a master despite his own dismissal of the film as a commercial chore, noting the graceful opening montage, Bill Conti’s score, and Gena Rowlands’ superb turn as the tough New York moll. It commends how the leads and director avoid maudlin sentimentality in the story of the unlikely pair on the run. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/gloria) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (**): The review calls Gloria a glorious broad and notes Cassavetes eases up on his probing style to churn out a chase film pitting her and the kid against the Mafia. It praises Gena Rowlands as excellent and the kid as a right blend of understanding and tantrums. [Read](https://variety.com/1979/film/reviews/gloria-2-1200424744/) - **The New York Times**, Vincent Canby (50/100, inferred): The critic describes the film as a peculiar, lumpy mixture of Hollywood-style hokum and Cassavetes' bravura manner, charming but not believable or moving in a schmaltzy way. It praises Gena Rowlands' talented, gusto-filled performance as the tough moll. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1980/10/01/arts/cassavetess-gloria-moll-and-a-boy.html) - **Collider**, Rebecca Schriesheim (90/100, inferred): The critic praises Gena Rowlands as a groundbreaking tough, gun-wielding action hero protecting a boy from the mob in gritty 1980 New York City. Cassavetes is singled out for stylishly capturing the city's chaotic atmosphere and highlighting Rowlands' physicality and elegance. [Read](https://collider.com/gloria-1980-movie/) ## Details - **Director:** John Cassavetes - **Director:** John Cassavetes - **Writer:** John Cassavetes - **Cinematography:** Fred Schuler - **Editor:** George C. Villaseñor - **Music:** Bill Conti - **Costume design:** Peggy Farrell, Emanuel Ungaro - **Producer:** Sam Shaw - **Cast:** Gena Rowlands as Gloria Swenson; Buck Henry as Jack Dawn; Julie Carmen as Jeri Dawn; John Adames as Phil Dawn; Tony Knesich as 1st Man / Gangster; Gregory Cleghorne as Kid in Elevator; Lupe Garnica as Margarita Vargas; Jessica Castillo as Joan Dawn - **Runtime:** 2h 02m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG - **Release (the US):** 1 October 1980 - **Genres:** Crime, Drama, Thriller - **Box office:** $4 million ## Where to watch in the US - The Roku Channel: free, hd, leaving 2026-10-01 - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $12.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-16.* Also available in: BE, BG, CA, DE, ES, FR, IT, JP, RS, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1981: Best Actress (nominated) - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor - Razzie Award 1981: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor - Razzie Award (won) - Venice Film Festival 1980: Golden Lion (won) ## If you liked this - *The Night of the Hunter* (1955): Children in danger, an implacable pursuer and kindness that has to work. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-night-of-the-hunter.md) - *Coffy* (1973): For another woman whose patience with violent men has run out. - *Central Station* (1998), Fi1m 85: An unwilling guardian and a difficult boy take a less heavily armed journey. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/central-station.md) - *The Kid with a Bike* (2011): A boy’s anger tests an adult’s resolve to keep caring for him. - *A Girl at My Door* (2014): Protecting a child brings an isolated woman into conflict with a hostile community. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/gloria-1980