Casino is a 1995 American crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Nicholas Pileggi, who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Scorsese. The two previously collaborated on the 1990 hit film Goodfellas.
The film marks the eighth collaboration between director Scorsese and Robert De Niro, following Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), New York, New York (1977), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1983), Goodfellas (1990), and Cape Fear (1991).
De Niro stars as Sam "Ace" Rothstein, a Jewish American top gambling handicapper who is called by the Italian Mob to oversee the day-to-day operations at the fictional Tangiers casino in Las Vegas. His character is based on Frank 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 real-life Mob enforcer Anthony Spilotro. A made man, Nicky is sent to Vegas to make sure that money from the Tangiers is skimmed off the top and that the mobsters in Vegas are kept in line. Sharon Stone plays Ginger, Ace's wife, a role that earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture â€" Drama and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Plot
In 1973, Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro), a sports handicapper and Mafia associate, is sent to Las Vegas to run the Teamsters-funded Tangiers Casino on behalf of the Chicago Outfit. Taking advantage of lax gaming laws allowing him to work at the casino while his gaming license is still pending, Ace becomes the Tangiers' de facto boss and doubles the casino's profits, which are skimmed by the Mob before the records are reported to income tax agencies. Impressed with Ace's work, the bosses send Ace's friend, enforcer and caporegime Nicholas "Nicky" Santoro (Joe Pesci) along with his brother Dominick, his best friend Frankie Marino and their crew to protect Ace and the whole business. Nicky, however, begins to become more of a liability than an asset; his violent and vicious temper quickly gets him banned by the gaming board from every casino, and his name is placed in the Black Book. In retaliation, Nicky gathers his own crew, opens a jewelry store and a restaurant, and begins running unsanctioned shakedowns and burglaries.
Ace, meanwhile, meets and falls in love with a hustler, Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone). Ace soon proposes marriage and a family, but Ginger refuses. She changes her mind after Ace assures her that even if it doesn't work out, he will make sure she is taken care of for the rest of her life. They soon conceive a daughter, Amy, and marry. Their relationship begins to deteriorate when Ace and Nicky catch Ginger giving money to her former boyfriend, her pimp from her days as a prostitute, Lester Diamond, now a small-time con man. Ace also makes an enemy in Clark County Commissioner Pat Webb by firing Webb's brother-in-law Don Ward for incompetence, and refusing to reinstate him. Webb retaliates by pulling Ace's casino license application from the backlog and forcing him to have a license hearing in 1980, while secretly arranging for the gaming board and State Senator Harrison Roberts to reject the license. Ace responds by appearing on television and openly accusing the city government of corruption. The bosses, unappreciative of Ace's publicity, ask him to return home, but he refuses, stubbornly blaming Nicky's reckless lawbreaking for his own problems, which leads to a heated argument with Nicky in the desert.
The bosses soon notice that the amounts of the skim are getting lighter due to local mobsters taking some of it for themselves, so they appoint Kansas City underboss Artie Piscano to oversee the skim, but he keeps incriminating ledgers and is caught on an FBI bug discussing the skim. Ginger tries to file for a divorce, but Ace refuses, stating that she has severe drug and alcohol problems and that she will likely spend all of her money within a year and come back to him anyway. Ace loses patience with Ginger after she and Lester are in Los Angeles with plans to run away to Europe with Amy. Ace talks Ginger into bringing Amy back, but he accidentally overhears her talking on the telephone with someone about having him killed, and he evicts her from the house. She returns, on Ace's condition that she carry a beeper on her for him to contact her whenever he must. Ginger turns to Nicky for help in getting her share of her and Ace's money from the bank, and they begin an affair, something which is against mob rules and could get Ace, Nicky and Ginger killed. Ace reaches his limit with Ginger when she ties Amy to her bed to have a night with Nicky. Ace confronts Ginger in the restaurant, learns of her affair with Nicky and disowns her. She turns to Nicky, but Nicky refuses to have Ace killed and blames Ginger for her rash actions, claiming that Ace will likely not give her any money now. Ginger flies into a rage and attacks Nicky, but he throws her out. The next morning, the hysterical Ginger goes to the Rothstein house and creates a disturbance by smashing Ace's car with her own to the point that the police are dispatched to the scene. Ginger, escorted by an officer, then uses the distraction to take the key to their bank deposit box. All of these events are occurring under FBI surveillance, having been alerted by Piscano's discussions heard by the bug. Ginger takes the cash from the safe deposit, but before she can escape, the FBI, hoping to use her as a witness against the mob's activity, pull over and arrest her for aiding and abetting.
It turns out that, because of the threats made by the mob, Ginger says nothing, but it doesn't matter; the FBI has collected enough evidence to arrest several casino executives involved with the skim. Philip Green, the casino's main executive, decides to be cooperate with the FBI. The FBI raid Piscano's home and find his ledgers, detailing every transaction of the skim. Piscano becomes so upset he suffers a heart attack and dies, right in front of his wife. The casino empire crumbles and the bosses are all arrested. Nicky, catching wind of the early arrests, flees Las Vegas and manages to evade capture. The FBI comes to see Ace with the pictures they took of Ginger. Refusing to look, he turns them away.
During an after trial meeting, the bosses decide to eliminate anyone involved or with knowledge of the skim in order to keep them from testifying. They kill money courier John Nance, a few casino executives and Teamsters Union president Andy Stone (though they know he won't talk, Andy isn't Italian and they decide not to risk it). Ginger dies nearly penniless in Los Angeles of a drug overdose (a hot dose, as Ace learns via second autopsy). Ace, on the other hand, is almost killed in 1983 in a botched car bombing, which was never authorized by the bosses, but Ace suspects Nicky was involved. Before Ace can confront him, however, Nicky and Dominick are savagely beaten with baseball bats and buried alive in an Indiana cornfield by Frankie and the rest of their crew. Ace narrates that the bosses had "had enough of Nicky", and had ordered Nicky's crew to get rid of him in exchange for clemency for covering up Nicky's affair with Ginger.
With the Mob now out of power, the old casinos are purchased by big corporations and demolished to make way for gaudier gambling attractions financed by junk bonds. Ace laments that this new "family friendly" Las Vegas lacks the same kind of catering to the players as the older, stating "Back then dealers knew your name, what you drank, what you played, today it's like checking into an airport. And if you order room service, you're lucky if you get it by Thursday." In the final scene, an older Ace is shown living in San Diego, once again as a sports handicapper for the Mob, or in his words, "...right back where I started." Ace closes the film with the words, "...and why mess up a good thing? And that's that."
Cast
- Robert De Niro as Sam "Ace" Rothstein
- Joe Pesci as Nicholas "Nicky" Santoro
- Sharon Stone as Ginger McKenna
- James Woods as Lester Diamond
- Frank Vincent as Frankie Marino
- Don Rickles as Billy Sherbert
- Pasquale Cajano as Remo Gaggi
- John Bloom as Donald "Don" Ward
- L. Q. Jones as Clark County Commissioner Pat Webb
- Kevin Pollak as Philip Green
- Alan King as Andy Stone
- Bill Allison as John Nance
- Philip Suriano as Dominick Santoro
- Vinny Vella as Artie Piscano
- Joseph Rigano as Vincent Borelli
- Nobu Matsuhisa as K. K. Ichikawa
- Richard Riehle as Charlie "Clean Face" Clark
- Dick Smothers as Nevada State Senator Harrison Roberts (character said to be based on Harry Reid)
- Griffin Dunne as Barney Greenstein (scene deleted)
- Oscar Goodman as Himself
- Frankie Avalon as Himself
- Steve Allen as Himself
- Jayne Meadows as Herself
- Cole Dragone as Vincent's Kid Brother
- Frank Cullotta as Hitmen
Production
Development
The research for Casino began when screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi read a 1980 report from the Las Vegas Sun about a domestic argument between Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, a casino figure and his wife, Geri McGee, a former topless dancer. This gave him an idea to focus on a new book about the true story of mob infringement in Las Vegas during the 1970s, when filming of Goodfellas (the screenplay which he co-wrote with Scorsese) was coming to an end. The fictional Tangiers resort reflected the story of the Stardust Resort and Casino, which had been bought by Argent Corporation in 1974 using loans from the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund. Argent was owned by Allen Glick, but the casino was believed to be controlled by various organized crime families from the Midwest. Over the next six years, Argent Corporation siphoned off between $7 and $15 million using rigged scales. When exposed by the FBI, this skimming operation was the largest ever exposed. A number of organized crime figures were convicted as a result of the skimming.
Pileggi decided to contact Scorsese about taking the helm of the project, which would become known as Casino. Scorsese expressed interest in the project, calling this an "idea of success, no limits". Although Pileggi was keen to release the book and then concentrate on a film adaptation, Scorsese encouraged him to "reverse the order".
Scorsese and Pileggi collaborated on the script for five months, towards the end of 1994. Real-life characters such as Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, Geri, Anthony Spilotro and his brother were reshaped. Some characters were combined, and parts of the story were set in Las Vegas instead of Chicago. A problem emerged when they were forced to refer to Chicago as "back home" and use the words "adapted from a true story" instead of "based on a true story". They also decided to simplify the script, so that the character of Sam "Ace" Rothstein only worked at the Tangiers Casino, in order to show a glimpse of the trials involved in operating a Mafia-run casino hotel without overwhelming the audience. According to Scorsese, the initial opening sequence was to feature the main character, Sam Rothstein, fighting with his estranged wife, Ginger, on the lawn of their house. Since the scene was too detailed, they changed the sequence to show the explosion of Sam's car and his flying into the air before hovering over the flames in slow motionâ€"like a soul about to go straight down to hell.
Principal photography
Filming took place at night in the Riviera casino in Las Vegas to replicate the fictional Tangiers with the nearby defunct Landmark Hotel as the entrance. According to the producer Barbara De Fina, there was no point in building a set if the cost was the same to use a real-life one. The opening scene, with Sam's car exploding, was shot three times with the third used for the film. When first submitted to the MPAA, the film received an NC-17 rating due to its depictions of violence. Several edits were made in order to reduce the rating to R.
Reception
The film was a box-office success, making $116 million worldwide on a $40â€"50 million budget.
While the film was heavily criticized for its excessive violence, it garnered a mostly positive critical response. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an 80% "fresh" rating, based on 61 reviews. On Metacritic, the rating is 73 (generally favorable reviews) out of 100 based on 17 reviews.
Sharon Stone received critical acclaim for her performance and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture â€" Drama. Martin Scorsese was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Director.
American Film Institute lists
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies â€" Nominated
- AFI's 10 Top 10 â€" Nominated Gangster Film
Soundtrack
- Disc 1
- "Contempt â€" Theme De Camille" by Georges Delerue
- "Angelina/Zooma, Zooma Medley" by Louis Prima
- "Hoochie Coochie Man" by Muddy Waters
- "I'll Take You There" by The Staple Singers
- "Nights in White Satin" by The Moody Blues
- "How High The Moon" by Les Paul & Mary Ford
- "Hurt" by Timi Yuro
- "Ain't Got No Home" by Clarence 'Frogman' Henry
- "Without You" by Nilsson
- "Love Is the Drug" by Roxy Music
- "I'm Sorry" by Brenda Lee
- "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac
- "The Thrill Is Gone" by B.B. King
- "Love Is Strange" by Mickey & Sylvia
- "The 'In' Crowd" by Ramsey Lewis
- "Stardust" by Hoagy Carmichael
- Disc 2
- "Walk on the Wild Side" by Jimmy Smith
- "Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)" by Otis Redding
- "I Ain't Superstitious" by Jeff Beck Group
- "The Glory of Love" by The Velvetones
- "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by Devo
- "What a Diff'rence a Day Made" by Dinah Washington
- "Working in the Coal Mine" by Lee Dorsey
- "The House of the Rising Sun" by The Animals
- "Those Were the Days" by Cream
- "Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me)" by Tony Bennett
- "Slippin' and Slidin'" by Little Richard
- "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You" by Dean Martin
- "Compared to What" (Live) by Les McCann & Eddie Harris
- "Basin Street Blues/When It's Sleepy Time Down South" by Louis Prima
- "St. Matthew Passion (Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder)" by Johann Sebastian Bach (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Georg Solti)
References
- Bibliography
- Thompson, David; Chrstie, Ian (1996). Scorsese on Scorsese. Faber and Faber. ISBNÂ 978-0-571-22002-1.Â
- Evans, David (2006). De Niro: A Biography.Â
External links
- Casino at the Internet Movie Database
- Casino at the TCM Movie Database
- Casino at AllMovie
- Casino at Box Office Mojo
- Casino at Rotten Tomatoes
- Casino at Metacritic
