Casino
Sam “Ace” Rothstein is a mafia associate, who is sent to run the Tangiers casino in 1973, while it is owned by them. They also send ‘made man’ Nicky Santoro to protect Sam as his way of running things is making good profit.
Over the course of ten years, Nicky’s becomes reckless in his antagonistic behavior, and Sam marries grifter Ginger.
Direction
Directed by Martin Scorsese, whose show of realism of the underworld shines through.
The brutality that characters put each other through, as well as the constant narration are some of his trademarks.
It does feel a little too similar to his previous film Goodfellas in themes, and characters.
Cast/Characters
Robert De Niro plays Sam “Ace” Rothstein, the morally ambiguous lead character. He is based on the real life Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal.
Joe Pesci plays Nicky Santoro, Ace’s boyhood friend. He is based on the real life Anthony Spilotro.
Sharon Stone plays Ginger, who is based on Rosenthal’s real life wife Geri McGee.
Other players are James Woods as Lester (Ginger’s long time lover), Don Rickles as Billy – Sam’s casino manager, and Kevin Pollak as the front-man for the mob.
Breakdown
The film has an almost constant narration from both De Niro and Pesci (and at one point Frank Vincen’ts Frank Marino). For the most part this has an almost intrusive and “introductory” feel to it. One point it does have a slight ‘darkly comical’ feel to it, and this is when Nicky is mid narration when he is attacked and the narration is taken by surprise.
The screenplay from the same pen as Goodfellas Nicholas Peleggi, and too is based on a true story, with all the characters being renamed for the movie. I loved some of the opening dialogue including the “At Night, You Couldn’t See The Desert That Surrounds Las Vegas. But It’s In The Desert Where Lots Of The Town’s Problems Are Solved”
It is, as you would expect a mob film starring the likes of De Niro and Pesci. It is quite graphic with the use of the f word over 400 times, and the c word a handful of times.
While Ace is by no means a good person, he becomes the anti hero of the film, as we follow his story. His aura is only assisted by the screen presence of De Niro.
The relationships that Ace has in the movies are primarily that of his wife Ginger and best friend Nicky. I felt the breakdown of the marriage to Ginger occurred too soon.
She never really shows any affection to Ace, rather continuing her relationship with her former boyfriend Lester. and more of the movie shows them at odds with each other. This adds to the audience rooting for Ace, especially after Ginger runs off with Lester for a drug fueled weekend.
There is also Nicky, whose reckless behaviour is opposite to Sam. This gets him blacklisted from all the Casinos within Vegas at one stage, leading him to start his own business.
His eventual betrayal of Sam by having an affair with Ginger is the final straw of Sam’s relationships with them both.
His other narrative arc is his journey to be the head of the casino. This is almost the entire journey of the film as he tries to get his gaming license. This goes on for most of the film, with conflict between incompetent floor managers, gaming commissioners, state senators – and bungling under-bosses who allow the whole operation to unfold.
At a lengthy 170m, this does feel like it could have been trimmed back. When Scorsese is on fire he doesn’t feel like he’s over stayed his welcome, but here he does. The tension between Ace/Nicky/Ginger is a tad too much at times. There is also some comically bad “cuts” like the opening explosion where you can see the dummy in De Niro’s place.
The big up is Sharon Stone as Ginger who earned her Oscar Nomination. A tough year for choice as she was nominated alongside Elisabeth Shue (Leaving Las Vegas) and Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking), the latter who won.
Overall
While this got mixed reviews upon its release, and over the last 30 years, I am on the fence with this one. I neither loved it or hated it.
I saw some brilliant performances from all involved, but felt nothing for the characters, especially Nicky and Ginger, and while Sam is the most moral out of the bunch, I just did not warm to him as I have other Scorsese lead characters.
3.5/5
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