Casino (1995) directed by Martin Scorsese • Reviews, film + cast
Casino is, in the very basic sense, a gangster film. Robert De Niro (Taxi Driver, The Irishman, ) plays Sam “Ace” Rothstein, a gambling expert handicapper asked by part of the Italian-American Mafia to oversee operations at a casino and hotel in Las Vegas. Here, he is supported by his eventual wife, Ginger McKenna (an electric Sharon Stone, of Basic Instinct, ) and the ever-feisty Joe Pesci (Raging Bull, ) as Nicky Santoro. Whereas Goodfellas took a deep dive straight into the centre of a Mafia outfit, Casino instead balances the (generally) straight-edged casino business with the criminal activity of the mobsters. Both elements of the world feed off of each other, helping them both to grow but also damaging one another in an almost unavoidable way.
Ace and Ginger have a child, Amy, but Ginger feels trapped in the marriage, spiraling out of control on alcohol and cocaine, neglecting Amy. At one point (and this was true!) Ace comes home to find Amy tied to her bed with stockings while Ginger paints the town red (“The kid was asleep,” she slurs, figuring she’d be home before she woke up). Ace tries to have her page him every time she goes somewhere. Ginger pines for her pimp (a slimy James Woods), who conspires with her to take the kid and leave, emptying her safety deposit box. She even comes on to Nicky with sexual favors to help her. The cuckolded Ace has Nicky barred from the Tangiers. Stone auditioned for Casino against the advice of her people, who saw Ginger as too unsympathetic (she went on to win a Golden Globe and was Oscar-nominated). She felt she was in the right place at the right time, telling , “I think for a long time people just did not know what to do with me. I looked like a Barbie doll and then I had this voice like I spend my life in a bar, and I said things that were alarming and had ideas that didn’t make sense. And finally I got together with Marty and Bob and they were like, ‘Give it all to us, baby, just let her rip if you’ve got it, we want it, let’s see what you can do.’” Scorsese told The New York Times that he cast her because of her presence—“You can believe that she is the most respected hustler in Vegas.” Sight and Sound said of her varied performance, from confident hustler to lonely, self-pitying trapped bird in a gilded cage that “Stone attacks the role with a voracious energy; her performance has a terrifying emotional range, from the snarl to the whimper.”
Unlike the portrayal in the movie Casino where Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro) runs only one casino, the Tangiers, in real life Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal ran four casinos simultaneously, including the Stardust, Hacienda, Fremont and Marina for the Chicago mafia. For legal reasons, the Stardust was renamed the Tangiers in the film. -Las Vegas Sun
Casino movie review & film summary (1995)
Yes. After being pressured by the mob, the Teamsters fund loaned the Argent Corporation, solely owned by Allen Glick, the money to buy the Stardust and other casinos. Mr. Glick was portrayed in the movie Casino by character Philip Green (Kevin Pollak). -Online Nevada Encyclopedia
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
What I’m getting at is that there is a relationship between religion and violence in these two directors’ films. That isn’t to say that they condone the violence, but there’s some connection there. The bible has some pretty violent stories, as far as I can remember, and maybe Scorsese sees his films as a safe place to show this violence. It’s also a punishment for characters in his films who gleefully commit incredibly violent acts. What’s odd is that I imagine Scorsese falling in love with his characters, particularly Joe Pesci’s characters, but in Goodfellas and Casino, Pesci gets arguably the most brutal death scene. It’s like Scorsese loves this guy but then distances himself from him by saying “yeah, yeah, I know, he’s gotta go.” These two films are based on real stories, to some degree, so it’s not like Scorsese is deciding these characters’ fates so much as he is determining how best to show them.
Recently critic Matt Zoller Seitz screened Casino at New York’s IFC Center in the presence of Pileggi. One viewer shared some interesting thoughts on Twitter, . He considered that, “the character of Ginger reminded me of General Ripper in Dr. Strangelove. An unstable force that helps undo the system, but also represents the same spirit that created the system in the first place. The Doomsday device is meant to prevent war in a way that only warmongers could conceive of. And Ripper is exactly the kind of warmonger who could go too far and set it off in the most foolproof way. Likewise, the entire Casino operation is driven by nothing more than greed, however respectable its architects would like to be about it. But Ginger is driven by greed so insatiable that eventually even her initially respectable aura gives way to something just pathetic. And in the process, she is the edge-case that no foolproof system can ever account for. Ace was so used to predicting wins and losses, he assumed he could figure her out, but she was, for better or for worse (mainly worse), the most irrepressibly human of all of them. And that messy humanity that you can’t bet on or control for, is what helps pull the ground out from under all of them.”
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(An aside). Notice that the three biggest holiday movies are sequels or Part Ones each opening for Thanksgiving and expected to dominate through the Christmas holidays. Sequels and Part Ones. The safest bets. Though Joker 2 was an incredible exception (a musical – see Wicked brief). Gladiator II is a director Ridley Scott epic sequel. If you are not a Ridley Scott devotee, look up his filmography. You will know how badly you want to see this movie. Co-starring Denzel Washinton no less. And for a special treat, spend the extra few bucks and watch it in our XD theater. That will be a blast.
It gives the film some of its best lines
Hi Mark -
That's a terrific list of Scorsese films you cite as your favorites. Not only does it highlight Scorsese's versatility (I love seeing THE KING OF COMEDY and AFTER HOURS and in the mix [the nicely evoked Bohemian atmosphere that appeals to you in After Hours certainly explains what attraction NEW YORK STORIES holds for you…in addition to Rosanna Arquette!]), but it's also nice that you bring up the variable appeal of Scorsese's movies.
How it’s possible to like the beginning of some (CAPE FEAR) or isolated aspects of another (RAGING BULL) without feeling the need to dismiss the entire film out of hand (However, I share your dislike of THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, film that perhaps better earns the “dreadful” I handed out to NEW YORK STORIES).
Also, I've never seen SILENCE. It never sounded interesting to me, but it appearing on your list makes me think I might reconsider and give it a look.
The violence in CASINO I still fast forward through is that baseball bat scene and the one with the vice. Yikes! Terrifying to consider it was more graphically violent before a preview audience reaction convinced him to trim it.
I enjoyed reading what you don’t particularly like about Scorsese as director, it being very illuminating that you are able to elaborate on your criticisms and pinpoint the ways in which he and his work can fall short for you.
I laughed at your reference to a “cineaste badge” because I know what you mean. I’ve had my share of the Film Twitter crowd who can never figure out how I can write about serious films (THE SERVANT!) and loveable trash (HOT RODS TO HELL!” side by side.
I don’t much hold to the idea that all film fans must revere the same filmmakers. The broad canvas of artistic voices and personal tastes repudiates what I tend to think is a “boys club” mentality surrounding which directors are most esteemed, and which ones inspire the most cineaste vitriol if criticized.
That you have parsed the pluses and minuses of Scorsese’s films for yourself, that you respond strongly to cinema --whether positively or negatively-- is something I’m sure Scorsese would applaud even if finding himself low in your esteem ranks.
I want to write about JUST TELLME WHAT YOU WANT someday. I really should have done it sooner. I liked the film a great deal when it came out, but found a recent revisit to the DVD hard going because King’s character and performance too often brought to mind a certain orange asshole.
Lastly, that’s a great Ken Russell-related question!
Thank you, Mark, for reading this post and sharing your Scorsese sentiments. Always interesting and always a pleasure.
Casino | Reelviews Movie Reviews
is based on New York crime reporter 's book . The research for began when Pileggi read a 1980 report from the about a domestic argument between , a casino figure, and his wife , a former topless dancer. This gave him an idea to focus on a new book about the true story of mob infringement in Las Vegas during the 1970s, when filming of (whose screenplay he co-wrote with Scorsese) was coming to an end. The fictional Tangiers resort reflected the story of the , which had been bought by in 1974 using loans from the Central States Pension Fund. Argent was owned by Allen Glick, but the casino was believed to be controlled by various organized crime families from the Midwest. Over the next six years, Argent Corporation siphoned off between $7 and $15 million using rigged scales. This skimming operation, when uncovered by the FBI, was the largest ever exposed. A number of organized crime figures were convicted as a result of the skimming.
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On Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Sharon Stone revealed that Robert De Niro was her best on-screen kiss. “ I admired the most and my whole career was like, I just wanna be able to sit across the table from Robert De Niro and hold my own. Maybe because I just held him in such extraordinary high regard and it was the pinnacle of the kissing moment for me. There was so much attached to it, but I was just so madly in love with him as an actress to start with that he probably could have hit me in the head with a hammer and I would have been like ‘Oh, yeah!’,” she joked.
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You can’t think Casino without picturing De Niro’s technicolor suits or Sharon Stone’s glitzy outfits — and that’s probably because the costume budget was reportedly $1 million!