Film Review: Casino (1995)

(source: tmdb.org)

The best American film maker living today is Martin Scorsese. He owes that reputation to great diversity of his work, made of extraordinary films throughout half a century that often divide critics over the question which of them is the best. Many, especially those of less snobbish persuasion, would point to Goodfellas, gangster film which combined epic docudrama and black comedy in a way that made it most accessible to general public and, later, popular source of Internet memes. Five years later Scorsese applied the same formula in Casino, film that can serve as perfect companion piece to Goodfellas.

Just like Goodfellas, the film is based on the real events described in a book by Nicholas Pileggi, who also served as screenwriter. In this particular instance, those events were related to Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, Chicago bookmaker who used to run Las Vegas casinos for Mafia in 1970s and early 1980s. His fictional alter ego, played by Robert De Niro, is Samuel “Ace” Rothstein, Jewish American bookmaker with immense talent for picking up odds and outcome of sports events. Chicago Outfit and other Mafia organisations from Midwest, with whom he had been associated, send him to Las Vegas to supervise Tangier’s, one of the casinos under their control. Ace is very good at his job and easily manoeuvres between running legitimate business, dealing with card cheats, taking care of corrupt politicians and making sure that his criminal bosses take the cut of immense profits. The bosses also sent his childhood friend and gangster Nicky Santoro (played by Joe Pesci) to protect him, but Nicky sees Las Vegas as an opportunity to engage in unrefined street crime that starts to bring unwanted attention to Ace and his less problematic and more lucrative activities. The real problems for Ace begin, however, when he meets and falls in love and marries showgirl and former prostitute Ginger McKenna (played by Sharon Stone). He marries her despite her shady past only to discover that her lack of morals, alcoholism and drug dependency ruins not only his family, but begins to threaten his relationship with Nicky and his own life.

Some critics would be tempted to accuse Scorsese of lacking originality in Casino. At first glance, this film looks a lot like some sort of sequel or remake to Goodfellas. This is not only in terms of having most of the previous film’s major cast (De Niro, Pesci) and subject, but also employing the similar style. This film also begins with spectacular violent incident to switch into narrative that would show decades or years preceding it. Again, the film uses voice-over narration by two major characters, occasionally joined by some supporting characters, which brings not only exposition, but some sort of ironic and darkly humorous commentary on the events shown in the film. The film also uses soundtrack based on pop standards of 1950s, 1960s and 1970s with lyrics that often give scenes another flavour of irony. Those songs are also accompanied with classic piece by Johann Sebastian Bach used in the opening titles and famous “Theme de Camille” from Georges Delerue’s score for Godard’s Contempt. Like in Goodfellas, black humour is accompanied with scenes of brutal violence, with Scorsese deliberately making them more graphic and extreme than in previous film (in order to, as he later explained, to saturate increasingly restrictive MPAA censors with shocking content to make them ignore and let less troublesome scenes pass).

Despite all those similarities Casino is at the end of the day very different film Goodfellas. While the previous film dealt with American organised crime at its lowest level, showing often not so attractive lives of small time street hoods, this one is set in spot where the organised crime not only closest to legitimate business but also to show business. Las Vegas, unofficial American (and arguably global) capital of hedonism is shown as the most glitzy and attractive place, full of beautiful hotels, casinos, luxurious villas and beautiful women. This effect is underlined by cinematography by Robert Richardson that uses a lot of bright colours and have the protagonist lit in a way resembling supernatural and almost angelic being, thus confirming protagonist’s words that Las Vegas was “paradise”. Yet, this idyll is also shown to be an illusion; bright, shining city in the middle of the desert is fuelled by unrestrained greed, whether manifested by degenerate gamblers who destroy their lives at slot machines and card tables or casino staff that steal from their bosses. This greed is also fuelled by incredible easiness in which large amount of money change hands, which clouds peoples’ judgment in most devastating ways.

Two major actors also play characters very different from those played in Goodfellas. De Niro plays man who is not the gangster in the strictest of sense. Ace is obviously intelligent and capable character that prefers to use his greatest asset – brains – instead of brawn to get ahead. Yet even he isn’t immune to the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas and ultimately makes wrong choices – flamboyant fashion style that brings too much attention to himself, very public feuds with local officials and, ultimately, taking obviously unsuitable person for his life partner. Joe Pesci, at first glance, plays character similar to the one played in Goodfellas. Nicky Santoro is a violent street thug, but, on the other hand, he is somewhat more restrained than Tommy DeVito; he has more finesse and street smarts and occasionally backs down when it suits his interests. He also has capability to act as a true friend and give good counsel to people. Yet, like in the case of Ace, the glamour, glitz and easy money of Las Vegas would ultimately corrupt him and bring bad decision ultimately resulting in bloodbath. Those two great performances are well matched by Sharon Stone who delivers one of the greatest role of her career. Stone, one of greatest sex symbols of 1990s Hollywood, is very believable as glamorous showgirl and she could have played femme fatale in her sleep. But here she offers something more. Ginger lacks not only morals, but also an intelligence and self-restraint. While other women in her position would have easily destroyed or exploited Ace, she allows demons of her past to control her actions, whether in suicidal relationship with her former pimp (played by James Woods in small, but effective role) or continuous descent into the alcoholism and drug habit, made even worse in context of her predictably failing attempts to be a good mother. Ginger, unlike two other major characters, doesn’t have any redeeming qualities and she begins looking less attractive near the end, when poor habits take their toll. Stone nevertheless keeps audience glued to the screen with her performance and she quite deservingly won Golden Globe for Best Actress in Drama. She, like this film and like so many great works of Scorsese, remained without Academy Award. All those who are willing to spend three hours of watching Casino would later spend much more time wondering why.

RATING: 9/10 (++++)