Casino

UK Release Date. 23 February 1996
Certification. 18
Running Time. 2 hours 58 mins
Director. Martin Scorsese
Cast. Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Kevin Pollak, Don Rickles, Sharon Stone, Frank Vincent, James Woods.
Rating. 82%

Review.

Few directors have as distinguished a body of work as Martin Scorsese. For the past five decades, Scorsese has routinely produced seminal cinema. From his early films in the 1970s (Taxi Driver), through to a prolific mid-period in the 1980s (Raging Bull) and 1990s (Goodfellas), and into the 21st century, 2000s (The Departed) and 2010s (The Wolf Of Wall Street). Yet, incomprehensibly Scorsese still only has one Academy Award - the 2007 Academy Award for Best Directing for The Departed.

Of all of Martin Scorsese's films, Casino is arguably the most violent and brutal, and certainly one of the most difficult to watch. Scorsese rarely stylises the violence in his films, instead opting for more gritty realism. Casino pulls no punches, and leaves little to the imagination in depicting the true-life brutality of the criminals who ruled Las Vegas in the 1970s. 

Based on Nicholas Pileggi's book, Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas, Pileggi wrote the screenplay alongside Martin Scorsese. Casino is a tale of greed, power, deception and distrust between two members of the Chicago Mafia - Sam Rothstein (Robert De Niro) and Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci).

Sam Rothstein has ambition, even before being elevated to the unofficial position of running Tangiers Casino. As a casino executive (Public Relations Director), Sam turns Tangiers into a lucrative money-making venture for the Chicago Mafia, but success changes everything. Sam wants more. Sam wants legitimacy. Almost inevitably, things go awry; you don't get to the top without making enemies along the way.

Assigned to protect Sam by Chicago Mafia boss Remo Gaggi (Pasquale Cajano), Nicky Santoro is an impulsive and violent sociopath. Repeatedly warned to keep a low profile in Las Vegas, Nicky becomes the main player in the Las Vegas underworld almost overnight simply because there is no-one who operates with the same level of brutality as Nicky.

Finally, Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone) catches the eye of Sam Rothstein in the casino one night. Breathtakingly beautiful, sexy and sultry, Ginger's beauty, charisma and confidence drain as the film progresses and her life spirals out of control. A career-best performance from Sharon Stone, who received her one and only Academy Award nomination for the role.

But in truth, all three actors deliver strong, compelling performances.

Scorsese tells the story supremely, setting up the central conflict through a tolerable narration from Sam and Nicky that reveals innermost thoughts, intentions and current level of mistrust. Ginger does not narrate, presumably to reinforce the point that she's cannot be trusted as a narrator, instead she is manipulating both men in the background, fulfilling her own personal (and often questionable) motives.

Casino is relentless - even exhausting - not once letting the pace wane during the three-hour run time. Epic, but also intimate, the story revealing the personal dissatisfaction that poisons minds, no matter of position or standing.

Casino is a film about success - a commentary on capitalism. But interestingly not about getting to the top, instead, the film documents the struggle to stay there. Casino starts where most films finish. I think this is one of the main reasons Casino stands apart - Scorsese investigates ambition and ego through the framework of the American Dream.