Casino

 

                

            Well as you all know, when you feel that burnt out feeling you get after watch a bizarre mob movie with a crazy a**, middle aged woman that looks like Joan Rivers, you know the best course of action is to watch a movie where a real director knows how to make a movie about the mafia. That's right everyone, today on its 30th Anniversary I've decided for the first time ever to sit down and watch Martin Scorsese's 1995 classic, Casino. And here is a word of advice Ladies and Gentlemen, when you make a movie about the mafia you hire a ton of New Yorkers or people from New Jersey, and not the crazy ones from Jersey Shore you get the guys who look like Robert De Niro or Joe Pesci. Now if you're making a movie about Asian Mafia or Yakuza then you get any actors from Japan.

             In the mid-1970's Las Vegas, low-level mobster Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro) gets tapped by his bosses to head the Tangiers Casino. At first, he's a great success in the job, but over the years, problems with a loose-cannon enforcer and childhood friend, Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci), his ex-hustler turned crazy wife Ginger (Sharon Stone) and a handful of corrupt politicians put Sam in ever-increasing danger. Martin Scorsese directs this adaptation (Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas) from the works of Nicholas Pileggi. 

             I watched this movie twice and granted I needed a second opinion from my end for many reasons when watching the film for the first time I felt a little conflicted mainly because the film is the typical gangster rise and fall. Though watching the film, the second time around I began to realize that there's something more to the movie I never quite give credit to the story telling that's based on actual events involving around these three characters. Based on the book by Nicholas Pileggi the same author who wrote Wise Guys based on Goodfellas, while researching Casino Pileggi read a report from the Las Vegas Sun circa 1980, about an argument between Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, a casino figure, and his wife Geri McGee, a former topless dancer. Upon which gave Pileggi the inspiration for the next book to write based on 1970's Las Vegas. While filming came to an end for Goodfellas Pileggi came to Scorsese about the next idea to transition into film. Goodfellas was basically based on a true story or bibliography on Henry Hill and sure Casino is based on a true story to the extent of it being based on actual events. While the interesting thing about Casino is, that it's really shows the dilemma of what makes a good gangster to a bad gangster and De Niro's character is a smart gangster to the extent of keeping his distances with the mob but doing gangster things when his casino gets out of line a great example of that aspect is De Niro spotting a pair of cheaters and gives the hammer to one of them as well as giving all the cheaters a warning on what will happen if they come back. Then on the other side you have Joe Pesci's character represents that gangster that obviously gets out of hand as well as gets way to sloppy that you most certainly see tensions between De Niro and Pesci who at the beginning of the film their childhood friends moreover later in the film they become enemies which really when you think about it becomes a sad factor because you have a remorse for De Niro because he loses a lot of things but through the course of the movie he still follows his principles as well as never breaking his own thoughts and beliefs. Both De Niro and Pesci do such an excellent job playing off one another as well as playing reverse roles to where De Niro is the antagonist in Goodfellas and Pesci plays the protagonist but more importantly the friend to Liotta's character and with this movie De Niro is the protagonist and Pesci is the antagonist who gets out of control and unstable that it's kind of a great dilemma  of these guys trying to run a business but the other is so blinded by greed you see how things become a dangerous dilemma till the very end. Either way both men do a great job at playing these gangsters they we're born to play especially in one scene where Pesci has a guy in a gripped vice to his head and you can hear the head cracking or the eye popping out like this movie really does amp up the violence especially when the bring metal bats in the mix. No doubt Casino is up there in the top ten greatest gangster movies of all time and out of the mob movies that Scorsese's done, for certain Goodfellas and Casino are his grand masterpieces and as for his greatest masterpiece well, that's a conversation for another time. The movie itself is a grand total of three hours so if your trying to watch a movie like this my advice would be a ton of coffee but if you can't handle three hour long movie then you can always split the movie in half, and last I check the film alone is on Amazon Prime for now so if you’re looking for a movie to watch I would highly recommend watching Casino, for its great storytelling as well as great list of actors that will make you believe this movie was made by a real filmmaker and not just some amateur director that tries to make a gangster movie but ends up shooting himself in the groin.