The Nicholas Pileggi book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas reunited director Martin Scorsese with actor Robert De Niro for an unprecedented eighth time. Casino (1995), while enjoyed by many, is generally well regarded in the Scorsese movie canon, though much enjoyed as a solid movie with solid use of music and storytelling, is not ranked among the best movies directed by the celebrated director.
Casino functions as a love triangle mixed in with a robust story of greed, money, power and murder between two childhood friends with the Tangiers Casino and Hotel of the 1970s in Las Vegas, Nevada at the center. Robert De Niro portrays Jewish American Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein, a gambler and handicapping expert asked by organized criminals from Chicago, Illinois to oversee day-to-day operations at the Tangiers, which ostensibly is overseen by Phillip Green as portrayed by Kevin Pollak.
Nicky Santoro, as portrayed by Joe Pesci, is the childhood friend to Rothstein. Santoro also is a made man, meaning fully initiated with trust into the Mafia as a trusted member of the family. Santoro is an enforcer that keeps people in line with organized crime through violence, with Frank Marino as portrayed by Frank Vincent as a trusted helper. The story of Rothstein and Santoro is nearly as important as the story of Rothstein, Ginger McKenna and, ultimately, Lester Diamond.
Lester Diamond, as played by James Woods, is the preexisting con-artist turned pimp with significant emotional influence over Ginger McKenna, who becomes Sam Rothstein’s wife. Sharon Stone portrays McKenna, a hustler, dancer and former prostitute who Rothstein marries in his early 40s despite this past. Don Rickles portrays Billy Sherbert, Rothstein’s enforcer. It is Sherbert and Santoro that in part support the triangle between Diamond, McKenna and Rothstein, though intrigue aided by an intriguing soundtrack aid the story that at multiple points that become the central story for the future of the Tangiers Casino and Hotel.
That larger story comes to include Pat Webb, Clark County gaming commission chairman. L.Q. Jones portrays Webb, and the precise way this plays out is worth the time you should invest in the movie Casino, especially if you are a fan of organized crime movies. The underlying story for how these two come to meet in the scene pictured above remains a solid piece of humor in the face of competition over the fate of a gambling empire and matters of the heart.
Family, loyalty and the torment that comes from keeping those you love close feels like the core stories for how to have a run in organized crime. The movie Casino spins nearly three hours of intrigue that largely works. The movie Goodfellas (1990), which preceded Casino by a mere five years, gets more love for playing in a similar sandbox while more authoritatively depicting a lifestyle that resonated better for critics and the general public alike. I rate Casino at 4.25-stars on a scale of one-to-five.
Matt – Saturday, January 9, 2021
Matt Lynn Digital 