CASINO
Scorsese Deals Another Royal Flush
A film review by John Paul Powell
Copyright 1995 John Paul Powell
Published In The Outreach Connection Newspaper (Nov. 22, 1995.)
Starring: Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, James Woods, Don Rickles, Alan King and Kevin Pollak. Directed by: Martin Scorsese. Screenplay by: Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese. Based On The Book by: Nicholas Pileggi. Produced by: Barbara De Fina. A Universal Pictures release.
"They call it Paradise. I don't know why. To call some place Paradise ... kiss it goodbye." - The Eagles (The Last Resort)
The Mormons were bright bulbs. They moved in, spent two years milking cows and praying, then split. In 1864, the army built a fort protecting prospectors from rattlesnake/cactus swarmings and the occasional coyote drive-by shootings. In 1931, the Nevada legislature took a sledgehammer to Pandora's Box. Quickie divorces and gambling were legalized. Sin City rolled out the welcome wagon.
Las Vegas. In Spanish, it's "the meadows." Meadows where money DOES grow on trees. The politicians planted the seeds. Organized crime picked the fruit.
Mob hirelings Lefty Rosenthal and Tony "The Ant" Spilotro were among a host of crooks operating casinos and skimming the till for out-of-state bosses. Rosenthal, the superlative gambler was the brains. Spilotro, the muscle. Though Martin Scorsese and writer/journalist Nicholas Pileggi swapped names (Sam "Ace" Rothstein and Nicky Santoro); CASINO shadows Lefty and Ant's paradise flushed.
Rothstein (Robert De Niro) is the mob's cash register, the fictional Tangiers Casino frontman. He minds the store, oversees employees and patrons, puts out the trash (undesirables) and regulates the take so the bosses get their cut. He pulls the wool over everyone's eyes. The city, the press, the politicians hail him as a community leader. Rothstein is stunned. "Back home, they put me in jail for what I'm doing. Here, they give me awards," he says.
Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) handles the "complications." He safeguards the investment. The psychopathic pitbull cracks skulls and if need be, buries troublemakers in the desert. Dead rats don't chat.
The green comes pouring in. Bosses are happy counting the profits. Rothstein is content running the casino. Everyone's delirious save Santoro. He craves the Big Score. It's Las Vegas, circa 1973. Nobody's eyeballing the bank vault. If you've got the balls, they'll do everything but hold the door open as you loot the joint.
Santoro's gluttony rocks the boat and Rothstein treads water. Dunking Rothstein are his pill-popping, booze-swilling, blood-sucking tipsy wife Ginger (Sharon Stone) and her bottom feeding chum Lester (James Woods). The internal wrangling nukes Eden.
Martin Scorsese loves the material. You can tell. It's in the detailed plotting as Scorsese steers us behind the scenes. A gambler bets and loses, the cash is brought to the casino vault where it's counted and packaged. A middleman nabs the money (the "counters" look the other way), fills a case, drives to the airport and boards a plane to Kansas City, motors to a nondescript bakery and presents the case to the bosses. Scorsese and Pileggi have done more than their homework, they've aced the final exam.
It's in the performances Scorsese commands. Parroting his Goodfellas part, Joe Pesci talks tough and goes ape-shit. We chuckle and we cringe. Under Scorsese's guidance, we observe what Sharon Stone is capable of if she spends time concentrating on acting and not doffing her duds. CASINO is her foremost accomplishment. Normally, anyone wearing a flashy pink suit would have popcorn and spitballs lobbed at them. But this is De Niro and we wouldn't dare.
It's in the realistic dialogue and violence. De Niro and Pesci relate their inner thoughts via narration. The gritty, colourful, witty dialogue underscores the biographical content, as does the violence. There are four brutal scenes that caused Yankee censors to stain their pants and badger Scorsese with the dreaded NC-17 rating. Scorsese doesn't fade to black or cut away. Why should he? These are gangsters, not Avon reps. Gangsters commit repellent deeds. Like it or not, that's life. That's reality.
Censor Boards, why worry? We're adults. We're potty trained. Look ... we can even tie our shoelaces. By fingering the violence, you shelve the message. The mob angle is actually the framework for a morality tale. Of how greed can corrupt, how love can blind and how mistrust can poison any relationship.
CASINO is rated M for Masterpiece. Two exploding cars. Gratuitous 70s blue eyeliner. Ventilated craniums. One head crushed in a vice. Guest star John Bloom (a.k.a. movie critic Joe Bob Briggs). Two baseball bat attacks. Blueberry muffins. Gratuitous Frankie Avalon. No Wayne Newton. Three old fossils (Steve Allan, Jayne Meadows and Jerry Vale). One Black and Decker hammer attack. Pesci Gin-Sus a drunk. Half the Smothers Brothers.
Outreach Rating: 10 high rollers / 10.
-- John Powell (bx462@torfree.net)
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