This Martin Scorsese film depicts the Janus-like quality of Las Vegas--it has a glittering, glamorous face, as well as a brutal, cruel one. Ace Rothstein and Nicky Santoro, mobsters who move to Las Vegas to make their mark, live and work in this paradoxical world. Seen through their eyes, each as a foil to the other, the details of mob involvement in the casinos of the 1970's and '80's are revealed. Ace is the smooth operator of the Tangiers casino, while Nicky is his boyhood friend and tough strongman, robbing and shaking down the locals. However, they each have a tragic flaw--Ace falls in love with a hustler, Ginger, and Nicky falls into an ever-deepening spiral of drugs and violence.
Written by Tad Dibbern <DIBBERN_D@a1.mscf.upenn.edu>
As they were shooting scenes in Las Vegas set in the 1970s, the husband of an elderly woman extra was given a period-correct leisure suit to wear by the wardrobe department. However, instead of providing the woman with period clothes, they told her, much to her chagrin, that her out-of-date attire was just fine.
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Goofs
Continuity:
When Nicky calls Sam after Sam kicked the big cowboy from Nicky's crew out of the casino for cursing him, Nicky apologizes, then hangs up the phone. Nicky then asks the cowboy why he "took off his boots and put his feet on the blackjack table." However, Sam never told Nicky this information.
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Quotes
[first lines]
Ace Rothstein:
[voice-over]
When you love someone, you've gotta trust them. There's no other way. You've got to give them the key to everything that's yours. Otherwise, what's the point? And for a while, I believed, that's the kind of love I had.
[Ace's car explodes]
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"Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)"
Written by Otis Redding & Steve Cropper Performed by Otis Redding Courtesy of Atco Records By Arrangement with Warner Special Products Published by Irving Music, Inc.
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