Casino
The thing about odds is that they always change. Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro) is a renowned underworld bookkeeper, whose ability to make money at gambling and control the odds is so great that he is "given" the mob's underworld seat in Las Vegas to manage the Tangiers Casino, and make them even more money. Alongside Sam is his childhood companion, now "made man", Nicholas "Nicky" Santoro (Joe Pesci), who comes to Vegas not like Ace--to run a business under the auspices of legitimacy--but to shake the place down and establish a throne for his own criminal franchise.
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Casino is a crime epic about the Italian mafia, directed by Martin Scorsese, who also co-wrote the screenplay along with Nicholas Pileggi, adapted from his book of the same name. Both men also worked together to create Goodfellas, and both films also share many stylistic and thematic similarities. Both move at a breakneck pace--quite a feat for movies just shy of three hours each--and deal with men who are situated in seemingly untouchable or secure places of power in the underworld, until a complex series of events forces a sense of disillusionment with their lofty aspirations and their high-risk lives. Both movies also possess a rich soundtrack composed of excellent blues and classic rock, befitting the period in time, but also constantly driving the action forward. Both Goodfellas and Casino are also heavily narrated, although in the case of Casino, the narration comes from both Sam and Nicky, alternating back and forth, as if telling two versions of the same story to the audience. This stylistic choice is emblematic of the battle of egos between Sam and Nicky, merely hinted at from the start, but stirred over time and exploited by Ginger (Sharon Stone), a sexy hustler who explodes into a manic femme fatale after Sam tries to tie her down as his wife. The twin narrations are like two sides of the same silver dollar, giving Casino a dual perspective of Sam's focus on his expertise of his craft, revealing his obsessive paranoia, and of Nicky, who possesses a psychotic, virtually flippant attitude toward other people, constantly racing for violence at every turn. Las Vegas means different things to these two different men. Sam recalls how his skill back home--east of the Kansas City mafia hub--made him into a crook, but in Vegas, he was not only a legitimate business man but a pillar of the community. In this, Sam's perspective in Casino almost makes it the anti-Goodfellas; he gets a taste of "honest" living, and puts this priority above all else. Nicky sees an untouched landscape, a place where he can exploit and dig his heels into whatever fool chooses to say "no" to him. This practice quickly earns him devastating notoriety, but Nicky bounces back with gusto, as if it were all a warm-up to a bigger fight to come. Casino is a bit like an inverted morality play--Nicky rises quickly to power (as well as infamy) in this new "land of opportunity"; for all of Sam's gain, he's miserable and gets an ulcer out of it. The two men's egos are the real conflict of Casino, and the narration is the best representation of this, like a tug of war. But the problem with egos is that they are like balloons--when they get too big in a comparatively small space, one of them has to pop.
Casino is based to an extent on real-world events involving the "Chicago Outfit" in the late Seventies and into the Eighties--the names have been changed, but the story gives the sense of walking through an encapsulated, secret history of the underworld in America. The story begins in medias res with the car bombing of Sam Rothstein, from which he begins his narration as though his life were flashing before his eyes--the bright lights of Las Vegas all going up in smoke with the flames of perdition. The camera frequently swoops through locations like the Tangiers, as though it were the eye of God--more accurately, the eye in the ceiling, surveying the casino with cold objectivity. This is the kind of objectivity Sam prides himself on, but as every gambler should realize, when you get too personally involved in something, you lose that objectivity. For Sam, that comes undeniably in the form of Ginger, a lovely working girl who is skilled enough at sleight of hand to pocket a chip or two and at deceiving her way out of virtually any situation. Ginger represents the ultimate challenge for Sam, who heretofore never seemed to get any real satisfaction from the mundane gambling routine he has mastered. Sam is the definition of "lucky at cards, unlucky at love"; notice how he awkwardly proposes to her, flailing desperately to convince her to love him. Ultimately, his big push to win her is essentially to "buy" her--like a "sponsor" to use her words; really though, Ginger is just trading her old pimp, Lester Diamond (James Woods), for a shiny new upgrade. She is the lovely trophy, an achievement he can adorn his life with--a conquest and a challenge. How could Sam not see in the queen of hustlers everything he could hope for? Or one better, who can say whether Ginger, the master that she is at "working a room" as Sam puts it, didn't manipulate events so that she found herself in a position where she could grift even greater wealth and fortune? Conversely, there is the sense that tying Ginger down to a life other than the one she has been comfortable in is like caging a wild tiger--it destroys her more than anything, and her tumble into drugs and her escalation of poor decisions is the real domino which brings about the end of the mob rule in Vegas. Sam claims that he trusts Ginger implicitly, giving her access to two million dollars in emergency funds exclusively; but Sam's trust is always at arm's length, such as how he makes sure to have a daughter with Ginger even before they tie the knot. Casino is rare movie, because while we may sympathize with characters like Sam, it is a story where there are no "good" people. Everyone is involved so deeply in vice and crime that it is all a part of their nature, like breathing--their predilections have even influenced their mannerisms and desires. Sam is the best at his profession, but this is a result of him being such a control freak. His responses and speeches to Ginger represent someone who is attempting to work a kind of odds-based reaction to control her, to ensure she fulfills her role as his trophy wife--an investment first, lover second. For all of Ginger's ravings and deception, it's evident that she sees this and utterly resents Sam and despises herself for letting it come to this when she should have known better. Much of the last portion of Casino has less to do with the criminal aspects of the mob's presence in Las Vegas but of the disintegration and volatile destruction of Sam and Ginger's marriage, where passive aggressiveness has gone beyond the pale and into full-blown fights. The great undoings of Sam, Nicky, and Ginger all ultimately come at varying points but are the result of their respective attempts to go against their natures, conned by a con into trying to be something they are not, and the violent aftermaths that come when they refuse to remit.
Recommended for: Fans of a riveting crime drama, a period piece of the Seventies, and a secret peek into the underworld of the mafia as it was in Las Vegas. Casino is also a thrilling entry into the oeuvre of the great Martin Scorsese, bearing many of the hallmarks of his master craftsmanship.
Casino is based to an extent on real-world events involving the "Chicago Outfit" in the late Seventies and into the Eighties--the names have been changed, but the story gives the sense of walking through an encapsulated, secret history of the underworld in America. The story begins in medias res with the car bombing of Sam Rothstein, from which he begins his narration as though his life were flashing before his eyes--the bright lights of Las Vegas all going up in smoke with the flames of perdition. The camera frequently swoops through locations like the Tangiers, as though it were the eye of God--more accurately, the eye in the ceiling, surveying the casino with cold objectivity. This is the kind of objectivity Sam prides himself on, but as every gambler should realize, when you get too personally involved in something, you lose that objectivity. For Sam, that comes undeniably in the form of Ginger, a lovely working girl who is skilled enough at sleight of hand to pocket a chip or two and at deceiving her way out of virtually any situation. Ginger represents the ultimate challenge for Sam, who heretofore never seemed to get any real satisfaction from the mundane gambling routine he has mastered. Sam is the definition of "lucky at cards, unlucky at love"; notice how he awkwardly proposes to her, flailing desperately to convince her to love him. Ultimately, his big push to win her is essentially to "buy" her--like a "sponsor" to use her words; really though, Ginger is just trading her old pimp, Lester Diamond (James Woods), for a shiny new upgrade. She is the lovely trophy, an achievement he can adorn his life with--a conquest and a challenge. How could Sam not see in the queen of hustlers everything he could hope for? Or one better, who can say whether Ginger, the master that she is at "working a room" as Sam puts it, didn't manipulate events so that she found herself in a position where she could grift even greater wealth and fortune? Conversely, there is the sense that tying Ginger down to a life other than the one she has been comfortable in is like caging a wild tiger--it destroys her more than anything, and her tumble into drugs and her escalation of poor decisions is the real domino which brings about the end of the mob rule in Vegas. Sam claims that he trusts Ginger implicitly, giving her access to two million dollars in emergency funds exclusively; but Sam's trust is always at arm's length, such as how he makes sure to have a daughter with Ginger even before they tie the knot. Casino is rare movie, because while we may sympathize with characters like Sam, it is a story where there are no "good" people. Everyone is involved so deeply in vice and crime that it is all a part of their nature, like breathing--their predilections have even influenced their mannerisms and desires. Sam is the best at his profession, but this is a result of him being such a control freak. His responses and speeches to Ginger represent someone who is attempting to work a kind of odds-based reaction to control her, to ensure she fulfills her role as his trophy wife--an investment first, lover second. For all of Ginger's ravings and deception, it's evident that she sees this and utterly resents Sam and despises herself for letting it come to this when she should have known better. Much of the last portion of Casino has less to do with the criminal aspects of the mob's presence in Las Vegas but of the disintegration and volatile destruction of Sam and Ginger's marriage, where passive aggressiveness has gone beyond the pale and into full-blown fights. The great undoings of Sam, Nicky, and Ginger all ultimately come at varying points but are the result of their respective attempts to go against their natures, conned by a con into trying to be something they are not, and the violent aftermaths that come when they refuse to remit.
Recommended for: Fans of a riveting crime drama, a period piece of the Seventies, and a secret peek into the underworld of the mafia as it was in Las Vegas. Casino is also a thrilling entry into the oeuvre of the great Martin Scorsese, bearing many of the hallmarks of his master craftsmanship.