Casino (1995)
WARNING! This review contains spoilers
Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, James Woods; d. Martin Scorsese; A

Casino: GoodFellas with tumbleweeds? I don't think so. While many do believe that Casino was a result of Martin Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi trying to capitalize on their success with 1990's GoodFellas, and while the two may share many similarities, they are two different films. GoodFellas was a film about a man who brought down his empire by his own wrong moves; Casino is a film about a group of people whose downfalls are caused by the corrupting city around them.

Robert De Niro stars as Midwestern Jewish mobster Sam "Ace" Rothstein, an expert handicapper and gambler who is sent to Las Vegas by midwest mob bosses to look over one of their casinos, the Tangiers. At first, Ace is unsure about the idea of him going to Las Vegas and looking over a casino. He's aware that his criminal record and connection with the Mafia may hurt his chances of getting a gambling licence to run the casino, but, he is advised that he can still work and run the casino without a licence. Since the Gaming Commision is seriously backed up, all Ace has to do is apply for a certain job (such as food manager). Whenever his application reaches the top of the Commission's pile, all he has to do is apply for another one and the application will be sent at the bottom of the heap. Meanwhile, Ace can work his magic on the casino, while living in the city that "washes away your sins." Well, at least for guys like him. Ace, a keen and meticulous gambler and businessman, adapts to Las Vegas with no problem at all, and masters the art and politics of running a casino in Las Vegas: Ace is aware that even though what he specializes in is legal in Las Vegas, he's still treading in dangerous waters. In order to make sure the casino is secure from any legal troubles, he's got to treat politicians like royalty, by either giving them the works in the casino and hotel, or by letting their relatives work for his casino. Unfortunatley, this is not particuarly a method anybody would prefer, as Ace has to deal with conniving politicians who manage to swindle money from the casinos and is stuck with an incopmetent yokel who doesn't know how to do anything right. Ace can deal with the swindling politicians easily but it's the yokel who will prove to be trouble later on. Also, besides dealing with the politicians, Ace has to keep a sharp eye on the gamblers themselves. Being an expert gambler as he is, he knows all the tricks of the trade. He has a complex security/survelience system set up within the casino that includes cameras, a checks and balances system of sorts on the floor, and former gambling swindlers watching the casino gamblers from overhead. Ace also has to make sure that he makes sure that all of his ties to the Mafia are left unseen, and that no blatant, outright connection should be made. But, he's also got to make sure that the Mafia bosses "back home" get their fair share of the large sum of money that the casino makes. All Ace needs is additional help from the bosses in terms of covering up his unoficial and unapproved ownership of the casino (they hire an innocuous man played by Kevin Pollack) and protection from people (such as members of rival gangs) who ever had the misfortune of getting out of line in Ace's casino or with Ace himself. And this is where Nicky Santoro comes in.

Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) was an old boyhood friend of Ace's. And what better foil for Ace is there than the wild Nicky? Ace is a man of subility. Nicky is a man of sledgehammer obviousness. Ace glides through Las Vegas like an intangible gambling god, Nicky rips through the city like the Tazmanian Devil on speed. He's a gangster in every sense of the word and cares less if anyone knows about it. All he wants to do is make money, steal, and gamble. So of course it's a grave mistake when the bosses back at home decide to send Nicky over to Las Vegas to look after his old buddy Ace. Ace, of course, is nervious about Nicky's moving to Las Vegas, and warns Nicky to water down his antics once moving there. Nicky, doesn't listen. Las Vegas to him is a drug, a drug more powerful and more dangerous than the cocaine he gets addicted to in the final third of the film. Even though he was already a tough gangster before he moves to Las Vegas, he becomes even worse when he settles there. He assembles a small crew of gangsters and local gamblers who often manage to take money from the casinos and disrupt the order. They even disrupt the peace of Ace's casinos. In one incident a friend of Nicky's decides that he wants to gamble with his bare feet on the table. Ace orders him out, but not without some rude insults coming from the gambler. Naturally when Nicky finds out that this gambling buddy of his has insulted poor Ace, he's a bit upset. Despite the fact that they are old friends, though, Nicky and Ace start drift apart. They are just too different from each other. Ace is a business-driven man whose stone-wall persona makes him impossible to reach. The only reason why his name is known is because he is such a great business man. Nicky's name becomes known because he's just too wild to cover up his violent antics. It is just one thing on top of another. First, he gets himself ejected from all the casinos of Las Vegas, putting him in the same list with Al Capone. Then, he begins to steal jewlery and sell them at a jewlery store that he himself made, located in none other than Las Vegas. On top of that he begins to violently attack and threaten certain people, culminating in a string of murders that are all connected to him by the law and the media. And because it's dangerous for Ace to be connected with such activity, which is so obviously rotted in the Mafia, he separates himself from Nicky. But Nicky is not the only problem Ace has to deal with.

Earlier in the film, while explaining to the audience the complex security system of the Tangiers (both Ace and Nicky narriate the picture), besides seeing the very observational Ace in action, we also see him fall in love. On one of the casino's survelience sceen he sees a blonde woman (Sharon Stone) doing some rather illegal things in terms of gambling. When he goes inside the casino to see her in person, any sense of anger at her wrong doing is not seen. He's smitten by her and makes the move to go out with her. Her name is Ginger, a hustler and a hooker who expoilts Ace's love and money. It can't be anymore obvious that Ginger has no feelings for Ace. She's more concerned with his wallet than his flesh or his persona. She uses his money to sell and buy drugs, and to pay off her former (or is he?) pimp and boyfriend Lester Diamond (James Woods). Lester proves to be a problem for Ace, he consistantly asks Ginger to stop communicating with him but she refuses. In spite of Ginger's frank and obvious nonfeelingss for Ace, Ace negotates her into marrying him, and the two even have a child. But what a lifeless marriage they have. Ginger gets more titlation from the many, many jewels Ace gives her than she does from him. Then again, it's understandable why Ginger might not have any feelings for Ace, because Ace is a man of few feelings. Of course he jealously guards Ginger, firing any employees that might even complement his beauty and priding himself over the fact that he was the only one who knew "what moved her." That is, of course, pricy things like jewlery, fur coats, and of course, the money. While Ace might have know what moved her he doesn't know how to control her. In the middle and final thirds of the film Ginger begins to get out of hand, and Nicky can't settle the matter because, well, he's having an affair with her (Nicky himself is married with a young son). She turns into a babbling drunk and drug addict, and her resentment of Ace grows as he, by force, tries to solve the Lester problem (he has a few of his people beat the slick but weak pimp up) and becomes increasingly paranoid. Ace has put his uttermost trust into the untrustworthy woman, and thus when she proves to be untrustworthy to him, that is when he begins the grilling. Ace's annoying behavoir, at least to Ginger, gets the best of her, as well as those drugs, and begins a series of walk-outs. She threatens divorce, threatens to take way their daughter, Amy, and even threatens to kill him. The only time she can truly break free from Ace is when he stops trusting her, emotionally detaches himself from her, and stops associating himself with her.

Meanwhile, besides dealing with Nicky and Ginger, Ace has problems of his own. He makes a stupid move, even though one can clearly see it was great for buisness, when he fires the son-in-law of the sheriff. The sheriff comes to his office to negotiate with Ace on hiring his son-in-law back, but Ace, the expert buisnessman, refuses. The sheriff then decides this is an insult and begins a full-fledge assult on Ace. He discovers that he doesn't have a license, and even still, he hasn't even applied for a license that would best suit his position. On top of that, a whole media frenzy has commenced with Ace's being connected with Nicky and the newspaper distorting his words to reveal that he is the boss of the Tangiers. To make matters worse, a corrupt and hypocritical commite of Senators will not allow Ace to even have a trail to get a gambling license. Things aren't going well inside the casino, either. The large sum of money that the Mafia bosses were getting at the start of the film have shrunken to such a small number that the man who origially brought the money in a suitcase brings it in his coat pocket. But Ace continues to do business, but agiates his bosses when he decides he wants to be a TV star and starts hosting a talk show from the casino. Then, of course, he's got to deal with the attempts made on his life, including a car bombing, the first image seen in the film. Ace survives the fire, but others aren't so lucky. Ginger, after leaving Ace in a drunken frenzy, dies from a bad dosage of drugs. Nicky is beaten to death by a fellow gangster, and is buried alive, with his brother, in a cornfield.

In the end, Ace is left alone. All of the mob bosses have been imprisoned and have probably died. Ginger and Nicky are dead and so is Las Vegas, or at least the Las Vegas he knew. Now instead of glamorous, adult-themed casinos, there are theme parks, kiddie rides, and all things Disney. Now instead of a herd of energetic gamblers rushing through the gates of the casino it is a herd of senior citizens. And through this all Ace is still there, still doing his job, looking ahead at a lonely, uncertain future.

Casino is definatlely a movie that grows on you. When I first watched Casino, I didn't think much of it, much like I did with Cape Fear. But Cape Fear lacks that special something that Casino has that made me give it four stars. After I returned the tape from Blockbuster, it stuck in my mind. It wasn't the feeling that I had with Cape Fear, though. There was something haunting about the film that was just begging me to give it another chance. With persuesion from friends, I rented it again, this time on DVD, and I liked it much, much better.

Indeed there is something haunting about Casino. It is a tragic tale of three people whose lives are destroyed because of the corrupting manner of Las Vegas. The story and the characters are memorable, haunting and tragic. The most intriguing character, to me, is Sam Rothstein, played superbly by Robert De Niro (can he do no wrong?). He is the most tragic of them all, even his entrance in the movie is tragic. He narriates about love and trust, and then hints at betrayal. Meanwhile, on camera, we see Rothstein walking camly from a building to his car where, apon starting the engine, he is blown up. This will be a repeating theme through out the film for Rothstien. Things that he trusts will betray him, like Ginger and Nicky. His narration is lacking in any joy. When he talks about the past grandeur of the Tangiers, it's with heart-wrenching nostalgia and and faded pride. When he talks of the new Las Vegas, it's with bitter resentment yet depressing defeat because he knows that, despite the fact that he hates the new Las Vegas, he'll never be able to escape it. He is unable to make a pure human connection with any human being, not even with his old friend Nicky. It seems that he his too busy trying to figure them out, but unfortunatley, people are not gambling games. His downfall is caused by himself because of such inability to understand people, as well as the world around him. He thinks that giving Ginger jewlery will keep her with him and make her love him but she still feels nothing for him. He thinks that beating up Lester will remove him from Ginger, but that cruel, brutal attack only further separates her emotionally from him. What I also find most interesting in regards to this character is how he is shot on camerea. Often Sam is placed in the dead center of the frame. Indeed he is in the middle of things. He's trapped between to destructive forces, Nicky and Ginger, he's trapped between the legit world and the underworld, and he's trapped inside of himself. Also great is the use of color and costumes to emphasise his character. Rothstein's Technicolor-friendly suits and lavish home clothing gives him the look and the feel of an unreal king. His clothes are not like other's in the film, further separating him from everyone else. Again, De Niro gives another brilliant performance that I think diserves to be among the ranks of Travis Bickle, Vito Corleone, etc.

I have not seen many films staring Sharon Stone, in fact I haven't seen any now that I think about it. But judging from her terrible job of hosting AMC's Murder By Hitchcock, she mustn't be that good of an actress. So, Scorsese must have pulled his directiong magic again by pulling an excellent performance out of Stone. Of course, it's no surprise that Joe Pesci also gives a great performance. Sure, his character might be similar to that in GoodFellas (or even Raging Bull for that matter), but all that matters is that even if he plays different variations of the same character, he plays it well everytime. A strong supporting cast also helps this film immensely, with another great performance coming from James Woods.

Casino should be considered one of Martin Scorsese's best. His use of the camera and his direction of the actors are superb, which isn't surprising since he's done it before. Excellent use of slow-motion and freeze-frame, and the best camera work is at the begenning. You observe the casino and the gamblers with Ace, as the camera movements, angles, and editing is just as observant and meticulous as he is. The usage of music is also great, especially the peice of music that is played over the credits. It perfectly sums up the tragic nature of the movie about to take place. The cinematography is stunning. There are none of the red lights that populate a Scorsese film, now it is a luminous white light. The way the actors are positioned in this film is great, as well as how often smoke fills the screen. Everything about the technical aspect of this film (camera work, cinematography, editing, etc) is just beautiful.

Those who feel that Casino was a rip off of GoodFellas obviously did not look long and hard at Casino. Whereas GoodFellas is a witty, exhillerating wild ride through the life of Henry Hill, whose fall from grace was caused by himself and only himself. Casino is a nearly humorless, slowly paced film that focuses on a group of people whose downfalls are not only caused by their own character flaws but by other people. In short, Casino is to GoodFellas as Vertigo is to Rear Window. Casino does have some entertaining, humorous qualities but it is truly a darker film than GoodFellas. I would reccomend Casino to anyone, but just don't get into with GoodFellas in mind.

© Vert A Go Go Reviews 2001