Casino (1995)

Greed, deception, money, power, and murder occur between two mobster best friends and a trophy wife over a gambling empire.

Director:

Martin Scorsese

Writers:

Nicholas Pileggi (book), Nicholas Pileggi (screenplay),

Stars:

Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci

Top 250 #141 | Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 3 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robert De Niro	...	Sam 'Ace' Rothstein
Sharon Stone	...	Ginger McKenna
Joe Pesci	...	Nicky Santoro
James Woods	...	Lester Diamond
Frank Vincent	...	Frank Marino
Pasquale Cajano	...	Remo Gaggi
Kevin Pollak	...	Phillip Green
Don Rickles	...	Billy Sherbert
Vinny Vella	...	Artie Piscano
Alan King	...	Andy Stone
L.Q. Jones	...	Pat Webb
Dick Smothers	...	Senator
Joseph Rigano	...	Vincent Borelli
John Bloom	...	Don Ward
Melissa Prophet	...	Jennifer Santoro

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

casino | boyhood friend | murder | greed | 1970s | 

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Taglines:

No one stays at the top forever.

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Genres:

Biography | Crime | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong brutal violence, pervasive strong language, drug use and some sexuality

Details

Country:

USA France

Language:

English French Persian

Release Date:

22 November 1995 (USA)

Also Known As:

Kasino

Filming Locations:

357 Desert Inn Road, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$52,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

£3,834,340 (UK) (15 March 1996)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Syalis DA, Légende Entreprises

Technical Specs

Runtime:

178 min

Sound Mix:

DTS-Stereo DTS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

"Ace" Rothstein's vehicle during the bombing scenes is a 1981 Cadillac featuring the ill-fated "V 8-6-4" engine. Offered for only one year, the engine was meant to save fuel by shutting off unneeded cylinders. This can be seen in the dashboard shot of the "MPG Sentinel" and its "Active Cyls" button at the end of the movie.

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Goofs

After the failed car bombing, Sam is put into the ambulance feet-first. People are loaded into ambulances head-first, since most of the monitoring equipment is in the front.

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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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Connections

Spoofed in Jane Austen's Mafia! (1998)

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Soundtracks

"Sweet Dreams"
Written by Don Gibson
Performed by Emmylou Harris
Courtesy of Reprise Records
by Arrangement with Warner Special Products
Published by Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.

User Reviews

Typically fantastic Scorcese film

I have to admit my bias, because I believe that Scorcese cannot do wrong - ever. Even his lesser-known or critically panned films are above the "great film" line, and Casino is certainly no exception.

Casino spans three decades and chronicles the true story of a faction of the mob who ran Las Vegas casinos. Robert DeNiro plays Ace Rothstein, a fantastic bookie who is chosen to run the Tangiers hotel and casino. Along the way, he marries a drug-addicted con-artist trophy wife (Sharon Stone) and struggles with his friendship with loose-cannon Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci). Rothstein is a complicated figure in that he is not a heavy, yet he wields a lot of power due to the respect he has gained from his mob bosses back home.

Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci are both fantastic in their roles, and Sharon Stone actually turned out a non-irritating performance. As the viewer, you can't stand her, but that is the point. Scorcese's normal supporting cast are also involved in this film, including his great mother - even though she usually has incredibly minimal roles, they are always memorable.

Scorcese seems to have several different directing styles, and Casino follows in the tradition of Goodfellas as a pseudo-documentary. A lot of the exposition is revealed by the characters themselves in the form of voice-overs, and several scenes are filmed in documentarian fashion. The entire production however, is sleek and very quick. The use of music bears mentioning as well: Most Martin Scorcese films have an amazing soundtrack that adds to and enhances the scene. Being a child of the MTV age, I'm a sucker for good uses of music in films and Scorcese is a master. Scorcese doesn't just utilize the soundtrack, he makes it part of the storytelling - by the music, we chronologically know what time period we are witnessing, since one cannot rely on other factors, such as fashion alone. One of my favorite scenes in film which effectively involves music is actually from Casino - the very intense scene when the relationship between DeNiro, Stone and Pesci come to a head in the climax of the film. The pounding music cut throughout this scene is a cover of "Satisfaction" by Devo and the result is absolutely brilliant.

Being a complete film geek, I generally don't go to films that feature certain stars, I go to films by certain directors and Scorcese is one of them. While this was probably the tenth time I'd seen this film there were more things I noticed, and I'm sure I'll notice more upon my eleventh viewing. The man is a complete genius, and a gift to film - my suggestion is to watch some of his films, then check out his unbelievable series, "A Personal Journey with Martin Scorcese Through American Movies" which was done the same year as Casino. The series is essentially a primer on the history of film, sectioned off by film genres. You not only will experience his amazing intellect and massive knowledge of film history, but his incredible humility as well.

--Shelly