Casino (1995)

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Directed by Martin Scorsese.

Starring Robert De Niro, Alan King, Joe Pesci, Don Rickles, Sharon Stone, James Woods.

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The inner-workings of a corrupt Las Vegas casino are exposed in Martin Scorsese's story of crime and punishment. The film chronicles the lives and times of three characters: "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro), a bookmaking wizard; Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci), a Mafia underboss and longtime best friend to Ace; and Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone, in a role she was born to play), a leggy ex-prostitute with a fondness for jewelry and a penchant for playing the field. Ace plays by the rules (albeit Vegas rules, which, as he reminds the audience in voiceover, would make him a criminal in any other state), while Nicky and Ginger lie, cheat, and steal their respective ways to the top. The film's first hour and a half details their rise to power, while the second half follows their downfall as the FBI, corrupt government officials, and angry mob bosses pick apart their Camelot piece by piece. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide

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Reviews and discussions

Casino (1995, USA, Martin Scors ...
by CinemaRian in CinemaRian Blog

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"Casino is perhaps the first gangster movie to use the mob as a backdrop instead of a subject. It's basically a three character drama about people who happen to have mob ties. Unlike another Scorsese film, GoodFellas, the protagonist sees being a gangster as a job instead of a lifestyle. The protagonist is a Jewish gangster named Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro), who is given the job of running a Las Vegas casino resort for a close friend who just happens to be a mafia don. Sam does his job well, mostly because he is an expert at gambling. He only hurts people who cheat him. Although not a fine upstanding citizen, by mob standards he's a saint. And this finally etched character is why the movie is so compelling. Sam is unlike any wiseguy we've ever seen in the movies. He does what needs to get done, but never seems drunk with power. He likes gambling more than violence. He is apprehensive when his hit man friend from out east, Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) moves to Vegas in search o ... " [More]

If Saul Bass Designed the Star ...
by SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com

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"Star Wars may have the most famous opening title sequence in film history, but in terms of influence it’s got nothing on the work of Saul Bass. He’s the brilliant graphic designer who gave us the animated credits for Hitchcock’s Vertigo, North by Northwest and Psycho and Scorsese’s Casino, Cape Fear, The Age of Innocence and Goodfellas and most of Otto Preminger’s work, including Exodus, Anatomy of a Murder and The Man With the Golden Arm. You’ve also seen his work at the beginning of West Side Story and Alien and Big and The Seven Year Itch and Spartacus. But what if he had designed the opening credits to Star Wars? Well, it might have looked something like this video, which was created for a school project. Interesting, yes. Creative, yes. Entertaining, yes. Memorable, no. It just goes to show how significant some credit sequences can be, because this is hardly appropriate for George Lucas’ film. And I don’t just mean because the music is all wrong. If this student wanted to go w ... " [More]

Cinema Ouroboros — Watching the ...
by SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com

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"Let’s face it, fellow film bloggers, we don’t have many readers who don’t have film blogs of their own. The world of cinephilia is quite cannibalistic, and we need each other to survive. However, we don’t just feed on ourselves. We also are part of an extended food chain that includes filmmakers, many of whom nowadays are also or were once cinephiles themselves. These filmmakers like to borrow, pay homage and reference movies of the past more than they like to advance the craft forward with distinct and/or innovative style. But admit it, you sometimes like the movie references, at least if you like the movie being referenced. And maybe sometimes your judgment is a little clouded by all those obscure bits that you feel cool for having gotten. Paul Soter’s Watching the Detectives looks like yet another movie that only us cinephiles are made to enjoy, which is unfortunate since many of us are too pretentious to admit that we’d enjoy just any movie about a fellow movie geek working at ... " [More]

Re: Most Memorable Uses of Pop ...
by Risselada in Top 5

hasn't rated it.

"I'm not sure of Scorsese's reasoning for using certain pop songs in his movies, although I usually like them. I think Devo's great cover of "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" is in Casino, but didn't seem a little too quirky for me to expect to fit into a casino atmosphere. Maybe it was just right.And I love The Clash, especially their first album, but why was that music all over Bringing Out The Dead? Just for the sort of beaten down inner city madness and rebellion?? " [More]

Review by All Movie Guide

All Movie Guide

is neutral about it.

The explosive beginning of Saul Bass's customarily brilliant opening credits sequence seems to bode well for Martin Scorsese's epic portrait of 1970s Las Vegas, Casino (1995). Weaving a tale about the town, as well as ill-fated mobsters "Ace" Rothstein (based on actual Vegas-ite Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal) and Nicky Santoro, the first hour merges documentary-style detail (including copious narration) with Scorsese's signature technical flair to depict how the Mob skimmed millions from the casinos. As Rothstein's success unravels, Scorsese unstintingly reveals the viciousness of the old school Vegas powerbrokers (including more gruesome violence than any previous Scorsese work), yet the virtuoso final montage and unsettling coda suggest that the new Disney-fied Vegas robbed the city of its success-fantasy soul. Notwithstanding the bravura visuals and attention to 1970s period detail, and despite a career-best performance from Sharon Stone as Rothstein's hustler-drug addict wife, most reviews noted that the reunion of director Scorsese with writer Nicholas Pileggi and stars Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci paled in comparison to 1990's Goodfellas. The De Niro-Pesci opposition was too familiar, as was the overlong story of Rothstein's rise and fall. Stone scored the film's sole Oscar nomination and won the Golden Globe for Best Actress. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Tags: mafia , gambling , casino , organizedcrime , doublecross
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