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| Casino | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical movie poster |
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| Directed by | Martin Scorsese |
| Produced by | Barbara De Fina |
| Written by | Nicholas Pileggi Martin Scorsese |
| Narrated by | Robert De Niro Joe Pesci Frank Vincent |
| Starring | Robert De Niro Joe Pesci Sharon Stone Frank Vincent Don Rickles Pasquale Cajano James Woods Kevin Pollak Alan King |
| Cinematography | Robert Richardson |
| Editing by | Thelma Schoonmaker |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 22, 1995 |
| Running time | 178 min. |
| Country | USA  |
| Language | English French |
| Budget | $52,000,000 |
| IMDb • Allmovie | |
Casino is an Academy Award nominated 1995 crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is based on the book of the same name by Nicholas Pileggi and Larry Shandling. Robert De Niro stars as Sam "Ace" Rothstein, a Jewish chain-smoking top gambling handicapper who is called by the Mob to oversee the day-to-day operations at the fictional Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas. The story is based on the late Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, who ran the Stardust, Fremont and the Hacienda casinos in Las Vegas for the Chicago Outfit from the 1970s until the early 1980s.
Joe Pesci plays Nicky Santoro, based on the real-life Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro, an intimidating enforcer and psychopath. Nicky is sent by the Chicago Outfit to Vegas to make sure that money from the Tangiers is skimmed off the top and that the casinos and mobsters in Vegas are kept in line. Sharon Stone plays Ace's wife, the self-obsessed, spoiled, devious and sly Ginger, a role that earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
When released, Casino had the most uses of the word "fuck" (422) in a feature length film[1], but was outdone two years later by the film Nil by Mouth [2] though it remains the highest number of uses of the word in an American film excluding documentaries. Casino has been considered a companion piece to Scorsese's earlier film, Goodfellas (1990), which also starred De Niro and Pesci.
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Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro), a sports handicapper for the mob, is entrusted by four Midwest mob bosses in Kansas City, Missouri (Remo Gaggi, Vincent Borelli, Americo Capelli and Vinny Forlano) to oversee the management of the Tangiers Hotel's casino in Las Vegas while they illegally skim the casino profits. Sam's experience in gambling and "hands-on" management style allow him to quickly double the profits of the Tangiers. The bosses send his boyhood friend, Nicholas "Nicky" Santoro (Joe Pesci), who is famous for his violent temper, to "protect" Sam and their interests. Sam falls in love with an attractive hustler named Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone). Although he is not sure if marriage is a good idea for the both of them, the decision lies purely that married life will cure her addictions.
However, Nicky's recklessness and cheating across various casinos in Las Vegas causes a blow to his working relationship with Sam when he becomes banned from every establishment within the city. Undeterred, Nicky starts working for himself in Vegas, organizing his own crew, Jack Hardy (Jed Mills), Sal Fusco (Clem Caserta), and Bernie Blue (Bret McCormick), plus a jewelry business and a restaurant with his brother Dominick (Philip Suriano) and his right-hand man Frank Marino (Frank Vincent). Tensions rise when an up-and-coming hood, Tony Dogs (Carl Ciarfalio), along with two other men shoot up one of Gaggi's diners, killing two of his men and a young waitress. An enraged Gaggi demands information out of Dogs by any means necessary. Nicky and his men beat and torture Dogs demanding an answer to why he committed the act. After his head is put in a vise, only does he give up one of his partners.
Meanwhile, Sam is interviewed by a reporter concerning the running of the Tangiers' hotel. After hinting he runs the casino, which is technically under the cover of the legal chairman, Phillip Green (Kevin Pollak), Sam is forced to apply for a gaming license and also finds out that his wife, Ginger is financially aiding her former pimp, Lester (James Woods) with his money troubles. Giving the go-ahead for Nicky and his crew to beat Lester up on his own behalf, makes Ginger seek comfort in Nicky telling him that she is disgusted with Sam's behavior. Checking out of a hotel with her daughter, she decides to flee to Europe with Lester. Concerned for the safety of his daughter, Ginger is forced to return home frightened that Sam could threaten them. With their marriage crumbling, Sam and Ginger spilt for good, despite they would continue to live in the house. However, Ginger's affair with Nicky is soon revealed nearly jeopardising the trust of the mob bosses in Kansas City. Ginger's problems with drugs and alcohol start to escalate, when on a night out to a restaurant, Sam finds out returning to the house that their daughter is found tied to the bed. Meeting his drugged wife in the restaurant, he demands an answer. Ginger turns to Nicky for help, but for punishment for creating a public scene to the mob bosses for their alleged affair and his trust in Sam, she is thrown out the restaurant.
The next morning, Ginger turns up at their family home to collect her possessions resulting in the police being called. Getting access into the house, she steals the key to their safety deposit box (which was put under a false name). Leaving the bank with the cash, she is arrested for aiding the mob. The police have enough information to track down all the leads, even being provided by a blueprint of how the scam actually worked along with dates, names and addresses from Piscano's expense reports. The bosses are arrested and taken to court, where they hold a meeting during a recess in a back room to decide which witnesses should be eliminated to stop them from ratting them out. The executed include Andy Stone (head of the Teamsters Union and Pension Fund), three casino executives, John Nance (the money courier, whose son was in trouble with the FBI for drug-related charges), and ultimately, Nicky and Dominick Santoro, who are severely beaten by their own crew with baseball bats and buried alive in an Indiana cornfield. During this time, Sam's enstranged wife who escapes is found perished in a Los Angeles hotel. Going back to the opening sequence, the truth of Sam's car explosion is revealed that he only survived because of a metal plate underneath the driver's seat. The final scene shows Sam being reduced to what he started from, making bets for the mob and watching sporting events on multiple televisions from his home in San Diego. The film slowly fades out as the audience see his aging face looking straight at the camera as he takes his glases off.
The research for Casino began when Pileggi read a report from the Las Vegas Sun in 1980 about a domestic argument between Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, a casino figure and his wife, Geri McGee, a former topless dancer. [1] This gave him an idea to focus on a new book about the true story of mob infrigement in Las Vegas during the 1970s, when filming of Goodfellas (the screenplay which he co-wrote with Martin Scorsese) was coming to an end. [2] Pileggi decided to contact Martin Scorsese about taking helm of the project which would become known as Casino. [1] Scorsese expressed interest in the project calling this an "idea of success, no limits". [3] Although, he was keen to release the book and then concentrate on a film adaption, Scorsese encouraged him to "reverse the order". [4]
Martin Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi collaborated on the script lasting for a total of five months, towards the end of 1994. [2] Real-life characters such as Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, Ginger, Nicky Santaro and his brother were reshaped. Some characters were combined as well as parts of the story being set in Las Vegas instead of Chicago. A problem emerged when they were forced to refer Chicago as "back home" and use the words "adapted from a true story" instead of "based from a true story". [3] They also decided to change the script, so that the character of Sam "Ace" Rosenstein only worked at the Tangiers Casino as a glimpse to highlight how far we went on the casino floor to the kitchen and the food. [5] According to Martin Scorsese, the initial opening sequence was to feature the main character, Sam "Ace" Rosenstein fighting with his enstranged wife, Ginger on the lawn on their house. Since the scene was too detailed, they changed the sequence to show the explosion of Sam's car and see him fly into the air before hovering over the flames in slow motion - like a soul about to go straight down in hell. [3]
Filming took place in The Riveria Casino in Las Vegas to replicate the fictional Tangiers Casino, during the night - as late as 4.00am in the morning. According to the producer Barbara DeFina, there was no point building a set if the same cost was to use a real-life one. [6] The opening scene - Sam's car explosion - was shot three times with the latter one being used for the film from the real life account of Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, which he proclaimed that he had no idea why flames were coming out of the air-conditioning unit and that he only managed to escape since the driver's door was open. [5]
| Casino: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | ||
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| Soundtrack by Various Artists | ||
| Released | November 20, 1999 | |
| Genre | Soundtrack | |
| Label | MCA | |