Post by ronnierocketago on Feb 22, 2006 15:44:50 GMT
Casino
Martin Scorsese
1995 USA/France
“Casino” is NOT, I repeat, not a sequel nor a remake nor a knock-off of “Goodfellas”. Anyone that fails to comply with this policy of rationality and good taste shall be buried alive in some fucking hole in the middle of the godforsaken desert. I just can not tolerate how the power-controlling retards of America who simply dismiss a film based on politics, personal bias against those attached to it, or worse…stupid shit. Imagine how greater our world would be if people simply and fairly judged a film on its artistic merits.
Anyway, yes “Casino” has the same director, scriptwriter, cast (DeNiro, Pesci, and Vincent), similar truth-based subject/genre material, and even some of the same crew as “Goodfellas,” but so what? Fact is both films are as foreign to each other on the flip side of the coin. The latter dealt with a 25-year story were a young man’s life is grown intertwined with the local Italian-American criminal mafia establishment, and the brutal divorce from it. “Casino” on the other hand truly deals instead with how in a unique moment of time in American history, the same ethnic mob had a financial cop-free paradise in Las Vegas, for ironically they make a steady fortune in the legal enterprise of gambling in their Tangiers Casino. Like all good things, it ended, and the mobsters themselves were responsible for the downfall of Las Vegas as the Adult Disneyland.
In the course of over a decade, we follow Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert DeNiro) as he is the very successful cold calculating appointed-master of the mob’s money machine in the casino. However, his life is made difficult his marriage to a problematic girl in Ginger (Sharon Stone) and lousy relationship with childhood friend turned mob “made-man” Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci). I’ve never read any reviews where anyone has pointed out the intricate relationships of Rothstein’s relationship with Ginger and Nicky, for they make for the most interesting aspects of the picture.
For starters, Scorsese reportedly claims that “Casino” was a metaphor itself for the heyday of artist freedom and independence in 1970s’ Hollywood followed by a more corporate-centered approach to making motion pictures. This message as well extends beyond the plot itself. From the beginning, even as “friends” in the early days in Chicago, we see Rothstein and Nicky having a more symbiotic than personal relationship, for Rothstein was the odds-maker in sports, while Nicky was his brutal enforcer to make sure the losers pay up their bets. However once in Las Vegas, talk about one hell of an awkward couple where in his inspired creativity and intelligence, Rothstein is the great filmmaker, with his casino being his movies in general in terms of being high class, brilliant ideas stolen by his lesser-talented competitors, etc.
However, he has to deal with Nicky, who pointlessly stirs up shit for Rothstein to clean up, takes credit for what is happening, interferes with Rothstein’s operations, and worse is immovable, since he is a “Made Man”. Nicky is almost like the studio executive or producer, who does not understand what Rothstein is doing, attempts to install his own pointless bullshit in the casino and local area, and worse is a detriment to the whole operation itself, just its mob business instead of movies. Yet like the kind of Don Simpson, Jerry Bruckheimer, Jon Peters, Sid Sheinberg, and other Hollywood pricks, Nicky himself up to his last scene never realizes that he is the problem.
The film’s other pivotal relationship is with Rothstein and Ginger, a marriage that was absolutely doomed from the beginning. Yet most people seem to not realize that “Casino” is really a drama involving a love triangle, of which involved Rothstein, Ginger, and the Tangiers Casino. Rothstein believes that with his intellect and fortune he can shape Ginger from opportunistic hooker to that of a loving wife and socialite darling of Las Vegas. However, she has emotional problems, of which her alcoholic and drug use feeds off on, and Rothstein isn’t capable of dealing with them on a humanistic level.
When he fails in his mission with Ginger, he instead turns all of his care and energy to being a micro-managing god of his precious casino. Unlike Ginger, the casino is an artificial object that he can shape however he desires, which is to make it the greatest in Sin City. He introduces sports betting in the casinos, he brings top-class entertainment beyond topless dancers, and even oversees coherent pattern of blueberries in his muffins. In fact, a pivotal scene of this obsession is apparent when after being banished from his own casino by the city council, he is able to oversee complicated functions by the use of electronic surveillance, which is set up in his bedroom with dozens of television sets. He literally now goes to bed with his true love.
Meanwhile, when he refuses to kiss the local city council’s ass because of his strict procedures with his “baby”, he passionately attempts with his skills to publicly defeat them before he is vetoed by his mob masters. While his wife slowly dies away in her addictions, Rothstein is willing to go balls to the walls in his superiors’ face in order to keep his casino.
Martin Scorsese’s “Casino” only possible fault is that unlike “Goodfellas,” it does not have the perfect symmetry of narrative execution in the editing, acting, and direction in its entire running-time. Then again, perfect movies are quite rare and I’m nitpicking. “Casino” is a pretty damn great movie that thankfully has been salvaged from its original critical bashing in 1995 to a worthy level of respect from film buffs due to a decade’s worth of VHS/DVD rentals and countless airings on cable TV. Unfortunately, it also marks the last on-screen collaboration from Scorsese and DeNiro, with no sign in the near future of both compatible legends workings together again. If indeed this is their last cinematic tag team wrestling match, then they hit one hell of a jackpot.
CREDITS
Director
Martin Scorsese
Producers
Barbara De Fina
Joseph P. Reidy
Writers
Nicholas Pileggi
Martin Scorsese
- based on the book "Wiseguys" by Nicholas Pileggi
Cinematographer
Robert Richardson
Production Designer
Dante Ferretti
Editor
Thelma Schoonmaker
CAST
Robert De Niro
Sam 'Ace' Rothstein
Sharon Stone
Ginger McKenna/Rothstein
Joe Pesci
Nicky Santoro
James Woods
Lester Diamond
Frank Vincent
Frank Marino
Pasquale Cajano
Remo Gaggi
Kevin Pollak
Phillip Green
Don Rickles
Billy Sherbert
Martin Scorsese
1995 USA/France
“Casino” is NOT, I repeat, not a sequel nor a remake nor a knock-off of “Goodfellas”. Anyone that fails to comply with this policy of rationality and good taste shall be buried alive in some fucking hole in the middle of the godforsaken desert. I just can not tolerate how the power-controlling retards of America who simply dismiss a film based on politics, personal bias against those attached to it, or worse…stupid shit. Imagine how greater our world would be if people simply and fairly judged a film on its artistic merits.
Anyway, yes “Casino” has the same director, scriptwriter, cast (DeNiro, Pesci, and Vincent), similar truth-based subject/genre material, and even some of the same crew as “Goodfellas,” but so what? Fact is both films are as foreign to each other on the flip side of the coin. The latter dealt with a 25-year story were a young man’s life is grown intertwined with the local Italian-American criminal mafia establishment, and the brutal divorce from it. “Casino” on the other hand truly deals instead with how in a unique moment of time in American history, the same ethnic mob had a financial cop-free paradise in Las Vegas, for ironically they make a steady fortune in the legal enterprise of gambling in their Tangiers Casino. Like all good things, it ended, and the mobsters themselves were responsible for the downfall of Las Vegas as the Adult Disneyland.
In the course of over a decade, we follow Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert DeNiro) as he is the very successful cold calculating appointed-master of the mob’s money machine in the casino. However, his life is made difficult his marriage to a problematic girl in Ginger (Sharon Stone) and lousy relationship with childhood friend turned mob “made-man” Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci). I’ve never read any reviews where anyone has pointed out the intricate relationships of Rothstein’s relationship with Ginger and Nicky, for they make for the most interesting aspects of the picture.
For starters, Scorsese reportedly claims that “Casino” was a metaphor itself for the heyday of artist freedom and independence in 1970s’ Hollywood followed by a more corporate-centered approach to making motion pictures. This message as well extends beyond the plot itself. From the beginning, even as “friends” in the early days in Chicago, we see Rothstein and Nicky having a more symbiotic than personal relationship, for Rothstein was the odds-maker in sports, while Nicky was his brutal enforcer to make sure the losers pay up their bets. However once in Las Vegas, talk about one hell of an awkward couple where in his inspired creativity and intelligence, Rothstein is the great filmmaker, with his casino being his movies in general in terms of being high class, brilliant ideas stolen by his lesser-talented competitors, etc.
However, he has to deal with Nicky, who pointlessly stirs up shit for Rothstein to clean up, takes credit for what is happening, interferes with Rothstein’s operations, and worse is immovable, since he is a “Made Man”. Nicky is almost like the studio executive or producer, who does not understand what Rothstein is doing, attempts to install his own pointless bullshit in the casino and local area, and worse is a detriment to the whole operation itself, just its mob business instead of movies. Yet like the kind of Don Simpson, Jerry Bruckheimer, Jon Peters, Sid Sheinberg, and other Hollywood pricks, Nicky himself up to his last scene never realizes that he is the problem.
The film’s other pivotal relationship is with Rothstein and Ginger, a marriage that was absolutely doomed from the beginning. Yet most people seem to not realize that “Casino” is really a drama involving a love triangle, of which involved Rothstein, Ginger, and the Tangiers Casino. Rothstein believes that with his intellect and fortune he can shape Ginger from opportunistic hooker to that of a loving wife and socialite darling of Las Vegas. However, she has emotional problems, of which her alcoholic and drug use feeds off on, and Rothstein isn’t capable of dealing with them on a humanistic level.
When he fails in his mission with Ginger, he instead turns all of his care and energy to being a micro-managing god of his precious casino. Unlike Ginger, the casino is an artificial object that he can shape however he desires, which is to make it the greatest in Sin City. He introduces sports betting in the casinos, he brings top-class entertainment beyond topless dancers, and even oversees coherent pattern of blueberries in his muffins. In fact, a pivotal scene of this obsession is apparent when after being banished from his own casino by the city council, he is able to oversee complicated functions by the use of electronic surveillance, which is set up in his bedroom with dozens of television sets. He literally now goes to bed with his true love.
Meanwhile, when he refuses to kiss the local city council’s ass because of his strict procedures with his “baby”, he passionately attempts with his skills to publicly defeat them before he is vetoed by his mob masters. While his wife slowly dies away in her addictions, Rothstein is willing to go balls to the walls in his superiors’ face in order to keep his casino.
Martin Scorsese’s “Casino” only possible fault is that unlike “Goodfellas,” it does not have the perfect symmetry of narrative execution in the editing, acting, and direction in its entire running-time. Then again, perfect movies are quite rare and I’m nitpicking. “Casino” is a pretty damn great movie that thankfully has been salvaged from its original critical bashing in 1995 to a worthy level of respect from film buffs due to a decade’s worth of VHS/DVD rentals and countless airings on cable TV. Unfortunately, it also marks the last on-screen collaboration from Scorsese and DeNiro, with no sign in the near future of both compatible legends workings together again. If indeed this is their last cinematic tag team wrestling match, then they hit one hell of a jackpot.
CREDITS
Director
Martin Scorsese
Producers
Barbara De Fina
Joseph P. Reidy
Writers
Nicholas Pileggi
Martin Scorsese
- based on the book "Wiseguys" by Nicholas Pileggi
Cinematographer
Robert Richardson
Production Designer
Dante Ferretti
Editor
Thelma Schoonmaker
CAST
Robert De Niro
Sam 'Ace' Rothstein
Sharon Stone
Ginger McKenna/Rothstein
Joe Pesci
Nicky Santoro
James Woods
Lester Diamond
Frank Vincent
Frank Marino
Pasquale Cajano
Remo Gaggi
Kevin Pollak
Phillip Green
Don Rickles
Billy Sherbert