Casino

Martin Scorsese, USA 1995, 178 minutes

Casino has an explosive start. Literally. In 1983 a man gets into his car, turns the ignition, and it blows up. Cue typically impressive Saul Bass credits, showing the man falling through the flames. Who is/was he and how did he get into this situation? That's what the rest of Casino will explain. Back to 1973 and brilliant gambler Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro) has just been appointed to run the Tangiers casino in Las Vegas, as a front man for the Kansas City mob. Really, Sam wants to run the Tangiers his way, free from the unwanted interferences of the mob and the Vegas authorities - a bunch of shit kicking cowboys who love to remind outsiders of their precarious status. Sam works hard to establish his paradise on Earth, running a tight ship. Along the way, he falls for hustler Ginger (Sharon Stone). Then his psychotic gangster buddy, Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) shows up, wanting to share the paradise. Between the three of them, the fall is inevitable...

In many ways Casino could be understood as Goodfellas II: we've got Scorsese directing De Niro and Pesci in a Nicholas Pileggi scripted true-crime tale about one man's rise and fall (with that perennial Scorsese theme of redemption inevitably popping up along the way). And it's all fluidly edited by Thelma Schoonmaker, accompanied by a liberal dose of popular music (Casino's soundtrack CD was a double) But, whereas Goodfellas was more a straightforward tale about life as a wiseguy, Casino aspires towards a more mythic, universal, status. Sam is supposed to be a sort of Milton style Satan figure, whose pride brings about his downfall.

If Casino has a fault, it's that we've seen it all before: The actors, with the exception of Stone, who shows new depths as Ginger, are all playing roles we're familiar with. Pesci's Nicky is Pesci's Tommy, whilst De Niro had played Satan himself in Angel Heart. Scorsese may well be the most cineliterate and technically competent director around, but even he is running out of new moves. Thematically, his understanding and representation of women hasn't progressed: Ginger starts and finishes as the whore. Unlike the other points in the triangle, Sam and Nicky, she is denied a voice. Nevertheless, Scorsese and co. will never make a bad film, only another one.

"Scorsese returning to what he knows best. ****" - Empire

Review by Keith Brown
Taken from EUFS Programme 1996-97