Casino

Summary

“When you love someone, you’ve got to trust them. There’s no other way.”

In 1995, Martin Scorsese’s film Casino was released in the theaters. Five years earlier Scorsese had teamed up with writer Nicolas Pileggi to adapt Pileggi’s fantastic true crime book Wiseguy into the film Goodfellas. The film had been a phenomenal success and still ranks as one of the greatest page to screen adaptations of all time. It made good sense that they would team up again in the future. After Scorsese had tackled a period drama (Age of Innocence) and a remake of a classic thriller (Cape Fear,) they began work on adapting Pileggi’s book Casino. The film also gave Scorsese a chance to reunite both De Niro and Joe Pesci who had been two of the three key players in Goodfellas. When the film was released, it received a good but not overwhelmingly positive reception. Many accused the film of lacking the heart of Goodfellas. It was accused of being too long due to its nearly three hour runtime. Revisiting the film, I just want to say that those critics were just plain wrong. Casino may not be the same dramatic success that Goodfellas was, but it would be considered an absolute masterpiece if it was not weighed down by association with the other film.

As the story begins, in 1983, Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert De Niro) walks to his car, starts the ignition, and his car explodes. Years earlier, Ace proved himself as an incredibly gifted earner for mob bosses in sports gambling. He was a tremendously talented handicapper and relied on inside sources across the nation to make smart bets. His friend Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) was meant to watch over him and keep him safe so that he could keep making money for the bosses. After making a name for himself, Ace gains the opportunity to go out to Las Vegas and help the casinos continue to send lots of money back to the mob out of Kansas City (including the notorious gangster Johnny Remo.) The goal of the mobsters is to continue to receive their monthly briefcase of cash that is skimmed off the top in the counting room of the Tangiers Casino. Aided by teamster unions under the control of Andy Stone (Alan King,) Ace is informed he just needs to apply for his license in order to work in the Tangier’s Casino. Due to loopholes in the regulations, Ace can work as his application is being processed – even if the processing of his application takes years. It isn’t long before the mob is skimming far more money off the top due to Ace’s oversight of the operations. He has a natural eye for catching thieves and schemers. With his helpful aide Billy Sherbert (Don Rickles,) he brings far more cash to the bottom line. The first signs of trouble come when Nicky decides to move out to Las Vegas to set up shop. The second signs of trouble come when Ace falls in love with a hustler named Ginger (Sharon Stone) that is infatuated with her loser pimp Lester Diamond (James Woods.) 

Based on the book by Nicolas Pileggi, which was based on the true story of Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal and Tony Spilotro, Casino is an incredibly ambitious film. Scorsese not only recreates Las Vegas in the Seventies and Eighties, he endeavors to explain exactly how the machinations of the mob’s schemes worked. It’s fascinating. The film has been lambasted by some for the overuse of narration, but I think those complaints are a bit overwrought. Without the voiceover narration, it would be much harder to encompass how everything worked. That said, some of the voiceover narration could have used a couple more takes to land correctly (mainly on Joe Pesci’s side which seemed a bit too casual for my taste.) The film has also been criticized for its use of music. Scorsese had the budget to cram in almost anything he wanted. This can be distracting but that was the vibe that Scorsese wanted to create. The film is dealing with people that are on tons of uppers making money hand over fist and breaking the law constantly…. so why would the film want to slow down the pace of that? For me, the music works. I am always cool with a soundtrack that wants to blast a lot of The Rolling Stones (six songs!)

The final complaint I will address is the running time of the film. At just under three hours long the film is an hour longer than most dramas. I thought that the film’s screen time flew by. I wouldn’t have taken anything out of the film aside from maybe shortening the opening titles sequence. There is a lot this film is trying to do and I felt like it didn’t waste any time to do it.

The acting in the film is great. Robert De Niro is utterly believable as Ace. De Niro is so believable that it never seems implausible for even a second that he is Jewish rather than Italian. He plays the role with the proper gravitas and never becomes a caricature. Joe Pesci is great as Nicky Santoro, although I did feel like he didn’t quite nail parts of his voiceover. That is a minor gripe, because honestly I would be pleased if Joe Pesci played a character in every film. Sharon Stone’s performance has often been discussed by my brother and I. She is so believable as Ginger that she managed to make my brother and I feel convinced that she must be a bad person in real life. How much of this was acting for her? This is a case of perfect casting. She nails it. James Woods is a lot of fun to watch as the scumbag pimp Lester. The other performance that stands out is

Don Rickles as the concerned confidante of Ace. While it was a minor role, it was great to see the late comedian demonstrate some range. There is also a fantastic cameo by Joe Bob Briggs as a clueless employee of the casino. 

Scorsese really shines behind the camera in Casino. The film has some of the most sweeping camera movements imaginable. The camera is always moving, like the soundtrack is always changing. Casino has a very different energy from Goodfellas. Love it or hate it – Scorsese’s fingerprints are everywhere. The staggering amount of detail that was put into the film makes the film one of Scorsese’s most ambitious. Production designer Dante Ferretti does an incredible job. For myself – I loved it. It was great to revisit it after all these years.

Video

Casino is definitely a sure thing on UHD. The Blu-ray from 2008 did a pretty solid job of showing off the film, but the new 4K HEVC/H.265 transfer from Universal Pictures looks fantastic. Fine detail is greatly improved and allows the viewers to truly relish the costume and set designs from the film. The HDR makes the colors much more vivid than on the Blu-ray. The film looks much better on UHD.

Audio

Universal Pictures have updated the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track for this release to a new DTS:X Master Audio track. The track gives a subtle boost to the surround from the prior track. I did not detect any huge change here, but it sounded good on my surround system.

Supplements:

The supplements featured (with the exception of the audio commentary) are only found on the Blu-Ray included in the set. 

On Both Discs:

‘Moments” Commentary track: Martin Scorsese, Sharon Stone, Nicholas Pileggi, and others discuss the film. 

Only on the Blu-ray: 

• Deleted Scenes
• Vegas and the Mob — NBC News – This short piece examines how the mob came to Vegas and how corporations eventually took over.
• History Alive: True Crime Authors: Casino with Nicholas Pileggi — The History Channel – this piece contains interviews with writer Nicholas Pileggi and footage of the real “Lefty” Rosenthal.

Overall scores 

Video – 4.5/5

Audio – 4.5/5

Supplements – 4/5

Overall – 4.5/5

Casino is an absolutely fantastic film. If Scorsese didn’t make so many great films, this would probably be considered a masterpiece. The critics didn’t give the film as much credit as it deserved when it was released. Revisiting the film twenty five years later, it holds up beautifully. De Niro, Pesci, and Sharon Stone are all great in their roles. Revisiting the film on UHD brings new life to the film. Highly recommended.