Casino (1995)

Oscar-Winning legend Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon, Taxi Driver, The Departed) directs this epic tale about The Rise and Fall of the Mob in Las Vegas, based on true events.  It's the story of how mafia handicapper Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert DeNiro) took over the Tangiers casino on The Strip and helped bring it to unprecendented sucess, helped by mafia enforcer Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci).  He falls in love with a local hustler named Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone) and over time, their relationship deteriorates as does his handle on many crazy things being done by Nicky....and eventually the Mob no longer had power in Las Vegas.  Nominated for one Oscar (Sharon Stone, Best Actress), this was initially met with some disappointment upon release as many compared it to Scorsese's similarly themed classic mob epic Goodfellas from five years prior.  Over time, its reputation has grown thanks to several memorable scenes and performances - the stacked cast also includes James Woods, Don Rickles, Kevin Pollak, Alan King, and Frank Vincent.

Host: Geoff Gershon
Edited By Ella Gershon
Producer: Marlene Gershon 

Transcript

CASINO - 1995

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Starring Robert DeNiro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, James Woods, Don Rickles, Alan King, Kevin Pollak, LQ Jones, Dick Smothers, Frank Vincent, John Bloom, Pasquale Casjano, Melissa Prophet, Bill Allison, Vinny Vella, Oscar Goodman, and Catherine Scorsese

Genre: Crime Drama (Audio clip)

Let's get the big thing out of the way: NO this is not as good as Goodfellas. 🤫 It's comparable yes but it doesn't have the same narrative focus nor tight pacing of that seminal film....few films do in fact. And is it fair to compare it to Goodfellas? Well yeah....you have the same two co-stars (DeNiro, Pesci) playing somewhat similar roles....you have a story which spans more than a decade through organized crime....non-stop classic rock needle drops....extreme violence....and dual voice-over narration throughout. So just because it's no Goodfellas, does that make it a weak film overall?

Not at all, it's still Scorsese at the height of his powers taking us through the last gasp of the Italian mob running Las Vegas....and the first 90 or so minutes are just absorbing docudrama containing several impressive sequences, mostly devoted to the ins and outs of running a casino. Everything just POPS off the screen at a blistering pace thanks to more stellar work from long-time Scorsese collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker as editor and....legendary DP Robert Richardson who shows all the razzle dazzle you world expect from within a top-tier '70's casino on the 'Vegas strip.

Everyone in the cast is also 100% committed including the three main stars. Stone is next-level in a performance which takes her in any number of seemingly uncomfortable directions as we see her Ginger spiral into both drug and alcohol abuse AND justifiably earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress that year.  Pesci actually gives a slightly more nuanced performance than I remember upon first viewing - yes his Nicky is a violent hothead in the vein of Tommy from Goodfellas but he DOES exhibit some level of humanity especially in scenes with his son. And Deniro is lights out as Ace, the cerebral mob handicapper-now-casino-bosss who loses his focus fairly easily as he goes gaga for Ginger, eventually losing any sense of rational thought he seemed to have from the get-go.

And his deteriorating relationship with Ginger - along with Nicky's downfall on several fronts as he becomes way too defiant towards the bosses back home in the Midwest - pretty much dominates the second half of this movie as it shifts increasingly from docudrama to melodrama.  Undoubtedly the second half is a LOT less fun than the first half and that's by design but it does also start to drag a bit with some seemingly repetitive scenes of Ginger going off the deep end - it's probably during this last hour when Casino starts to fall behind Goodfellas as it just starts to feel a bit less engaging. And don't get me wrong - Goodfellas also very much focuses on the downfall of our protagonists but it also has that AMAZING high-energy sequence of Ray Liotta's Henry driving around drugged-up, with helicopters overhead, and Henry Nilson playing....this was a movie that seemingly peaked during the third act unlike Casino which seems to peak in its first hour. Just my personal preference....

The violence is also even more unsparing this time around culminating with a brutal beat-down sequence in the middle of a cornfield which STILL makes my stomach churn a bit. :/ That said, I LOVE the clever note that this film ends on taking us through to modern-day Vegas (as of 1995 mind you) which sorta reminds me of the fourth wall dig to the audience served by Scorcese at the end of Wolf of Wall Street. 

Best Needledrop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film): 

Wow where do we even begin?  This film’s soundtrack is just STACKED with notable period pop songs spanning roughly 15 years from the late ‘60’s into the early ‘80’s from a truly diverse assortment of artists including Dean Martin, Louis Prima, Otis Redding, Muddy Waters, Little Richard, Brenda Lee, Fleetwood Mac, Dinah Washington, and….of course Mr. Scorsese’s personal favorite….come on it’s just not a Scorsese crime drama without “Gimme Shelter” am I right? (Audio clip) 

SPEAKING of the ‘Stones….yeah I’m gonna go there because I can remember when first seeing this in theaters, I had NEVER heard THIS particular cover version of what is likely THE most iconic song from the Rolling Stone’s exhaustive catalog….I’m referring to their 1965 smash hit, “I Can’t Get No” Satisfaction.”  Well THIS version is prominently featuring during at least two different sequences late in the movie – now in the ‘80’s – when everything is pretty much falling apart as Nicky is becoming more and more reckless….as is Ginger with BOTH characters getting more unhinged thanks to an excess of cocaine.  (Audio clip) 

And what BETTER musical representation of cocaine use than the bat-shit synth pop during their ‘80’s heyday of Akron, Ohio’s OWN favorite New Wave pop group DEVO?  Fronted by Mark Motherspaugh and with some truly ramped up guitar work from his brother Bob Motherspaugh, THIS version just kills it perfectly adding to the uneasiness and increasing chaos of these sequences….it’s considered by many hard-core rock historians as one of THE great cover songs  - it’s even said that Mick Jagger himself LOVED this version – and it was featured on the band’s debut album in ’78 titled “Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!”  This is Devo’s own version of “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.” (Audio clip)    

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film):

Throughout the first half of ‘90’s, it was a pretty big trend for Hollywood to often stunt-cast many of the hippest stand-up comedians out there in various genre movies, often providing them with a scene or two to riff a bit and provide some comic relief: Denis Leary, Chris Rock, Rick Ducommun, Dennis Miller, Martin Lawrence, and probably the most prevalent one around this time, Kevin Pollack.  Now by the end of the decade, several of these guys went on to become actual LEGIT actors and/or true movie stars mainly Lawrence, Pollack, and Leary. (Audio clip) 

And what would often happen with actors like these is that even within a more serious role and/or story, they could always be counted on to provide some clever dialogue…bring an droll laugh to enliven things a bit.  And even in bigger, more serious movies like A Few Good Men or previous episodes like The Usual Suspects, Pollack was one of the best at doing JUST that. (Audio clip) 

So therefore my question to Mr. Scorsese has to be: WHY cast not only Kevin Pollack in a prominent role in this film but also two LEGENDARY (sadly both now passed) comedians in additional roles – Alan King as Andy Stone and Don Rickles as Billy Sherbert – and give them ABSOLUTELY NOTHING funny to say or do?? In a movie which also has more than its share of humor no less….I can remember at the time of this film’s release, I just found a bit distracting…especially for Pollack whose character pretty much says nothing and just looks grim for most of his screentime.  Just a strange choice…probably even moreso for Don Rickles who was always one of THE great insult comics, sorry I just kept waiting for him to say something funny.  (Audio clip)  

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):

It’s during the first forty minutes of this film when it’s almost ALL voice-over narration, mostly by DeNiro’s Ace – coincidentally this is also literally RIGHT before both Nicky and Ginger become bigger parts of the story – most of this is set-up and you wouldn’t be wrong referring to this portion as the First Act.  And let’s just say that right around the 35 minute mark is when my FAVORITE sequence occurs pretty much closing out the first act.  Now that Nicky’s in town keeping the more FORMAL dangerous elements – mainly rival gangs – from scamming the casino, Ace still has to worry about the local scam-artists…. (Audio clip) 

Pretty much the entire sequence is set to “I Ain’t Superstitious” by Jeff Beck and those wah-wah guitar riffs are just the PERFECT accompaniment to the building tension as Ace kneels down between these two tables – with the camera following his gliding POV to notice how this scam is taking place between two different black jack players at adjacent tables.  I swear just that ONE shot panning past DeNiro’s head is worth it…. (Audio clip) 

And it just gets better and better as the camera smoothly shifts from different angles including even an X-ray vision shot of a morse code machine hidden on the thigh of one conspirator.  And it all culminates in a backroom with both “yokels” getting a pretty stern warning…..the threat of the saw but the canny usage of the hammer.  Just a fantastic bravura sequence! (Audio clip) 

MVP (person most responsible for the success of this film):

This is a no-brainer of course….this was one of HIS blank check passion projects and he put his unmistakable stamp on it – for directing one of THE best films ever about Sin City itself….Marty Scorsese is the MVP. (Audio clip) 

Final Rating: 4 stars out of 5 

Yup it's pretty impossible to NOT compare different movies from him at this point but that should be a high compliment to the level of excellence he has brought to so many movies - it may not be his best but even 2nd-Tier Scorcese is still pretty great! :) Happy 30th Anniversary to that swell gang running the Tangiers!

Streaming on hulu & AMC+

And that ends another MORALITY CAR WASH review!