Casino 1995 First Published
Casino (1995) by Nicholas Pileggi. Based on the book by Nicholas Pileggi. More info about this movie on IMDb.com. Martin Scorsese's fascinating new film 'Casino' knows a lot about the Mafia's relationship with Las Vegas. It's based on a book by Nicholas Pileggi, who had full access to a man who once ran four casinos for the mob, and whose true story inspires the movie's plot. Like 'The Godfather,' it makes us feel like eavesdroppers in a secret place.The movie opens with a car bombing, and the figure of. In early-1970s Las Vegas, low-level mobster Sam 'Ace' Rothstein gets tapped by his bosses to head the Tangiers Casino. At first, he's a great success in the job, but over the years, problems with his loose-cannon enforcer Nicky Santoro, his ex-hustler wife Ginger, her con-artist ex Lester Diamond and a handful of corrupt politicians put Sam in ever-increasing danger.
Martin Scorsese's fascinating new film 'Casino' knows a lot about the Mafia's relationship with Las Vegas. It's based on a book by Nicholas Pileggi, who had full access to a man who once ran four casinos for the mob, and whose true story inspires the movie's plot.
Like 'The Godfather,' it makes us feel like eavesdroppers in a secret place.
The movie opens with a car bombing, and the figure of Sam 'Ace' Rothstein floating through the air. The movie explains how such a thing came to happen to him. The first hour plays like a documentary; there's a narration, by Rothstein (Robert De Niro) and others, explaining how the mob skimmed millions out of the casinos.
It's an interesting process. Assuming you could steal 25 percent of the slot-machine take - what would you do with tons of coins? How would you convert them into bills that could be stuffed into the weekly suitcase for delivery to the mob in Kansas City? 'Casino' knows. It also knows how to skim from the other games, and from food service and the gift shops. And it knows about how casinos don't like to be stolen from.
There's an incident where a man is cheating at blackjack, and a couple of security guys sidle up to him and jab him with a stun gun.
He collapses, the security guys call for medical attention, and hurry him away to a little room where they pound on his fingers with a mallet and he agrees that he made a very bad mistake.
Rothstein, based on the real-life figure of Frank (Lefty) Rosenthal, starts life as a sports oddsmaker in Chicago, attracts the attention of the mob because of his genius with numbers and is assigned to run casinos because he looks like an efficient businessman who will encourage the Vegas goose to continue laying its golden eggs. He is a man who detests unnecessary trouble. One day, however, trouble finds him, in the person of Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone), a high-priced call girl.
Gets the seedy nature of Las Vegas, great cast
Movie Info
Movie Name:Casino
Studio: Syalis D.A.
Genre(s): Drama/Mystery/Suspense
Release Date(s): November 22, 1995
MPAA Rating: R
Things are going great! Nothing will ever go wrong!
In 1973, Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert De Niro) is sent to Las Vegas to run the Tangiers Casino for the mob, but unfortunately for Ace, his childhood friend and fellow mobster Nicholas “Nicky” Santoro (Joe Pesci) has also been sent to be the muscle for the casino. Together, Ace and Nicky turn the Tangiers into a success, and Ace becomes one of the big men of the Strip. Ace has everything he’d want including the hand of hustler Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone) who joins him in living the good life. When Nicky is banned from all casinos, things begin to go bad as he becomes a major force in the mafia in Las Vegas…and Ace and Nicky are going to go head-to-head in deadly consequences.
Directed by Martin Scorsese, Casino is a historical crime thriller. The movie is based on the 1995 non-fiction Nicholas Pileggi book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas though the story’s names have been changed and some events have been fictionalized. The movie received mostly positive reviews and has since its release become a cult favorite. Sharon Stone received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role in the film.
It sometimes takes a while for me to get worked up to see a gangster film…this time it took twenty years. The problem I often have with gangster films is that they throw a lot of names at you, they are full of unsavory (often irritating) people who are often self-righteous, and in Casino’s case, it takes a looong time to tell the story. This doesn’t mean the films are bad (because I often like them), but I always have to prepare myself for them. I should have seen Casino earlier, but it does have the standard Mafia pitfalls.
Often the Mafia style movies follow any “success” movie pattern (even if they are based on true events). The characters start relatively small, build a name, live the high life, and generally crash and burn. It happened here, Goodfellas (also written by Pileggi), and in movies like A Clockwork Orange and Boogie Nights. The changes involve how the story unfolds and the characters. Casino unfolds a bit unevenly, drags, and isn’t as good as its comparison film Goodfellas, but it is still enjoyable.
Well…Pesci doesn’t play nice.
The main reason Casino does work is the cast. De Niro is stellar in these type of roles, especially in this movie where he really has to suppress his rage (you can see it boiling in many scenes). Pesci is much like his hot tempered Goodfellas’ role, and love him or hate him, Pesci does crazy well. Sharon Stone is a surprise in the movie with her strongest role thus far in her career but I feel her on-again-off-again partner James Woods is wasted. I particularly enjoy Don Rickles in the movie in a straight role which is a huge difference from his normal performances (Dick Smothers also has an appearance as a Nevada senator).
Come on, Scorsese…even in 1995 you can do better than this!
Casino 1995 First Published
The movie also looks great. It gets both the glitz and glam of Las Vegas but also gets the seediness. I like the trips to the desert to show the vast wasteland surrounding the city and Scorsese always has some flare to his directing and shots. I will say however the exploding car at the beginning isn’t a good start since there is the obvious cut and dummy shot.
Casino 1995 First Published Value
Casino is a good flick, but there are better movies that fill the same theme and do it in a much more concise and quicker manner. It just feels that parts of the movie could be cut and other areas which could have been explored more were not beefed up. I do recommend Casino but be sure to see some of De Niro and Scorsese’s other wares first.