Rise and fall of Las Vegas gambling - Scorsesse style

Rating: 8/10 (15 April 2003)

The real life story of how the Mafia - through dubious front men - won and lost casino gambling in Las Vegas.
Hard to see how director Martin Scorsesse could really go wrong with a script and subject like this. Totally down his street. This is almost Goodfellers Part II and to make this more obvious they even have some of the same cast - including Robert De Niro as Sam Rothstien the mob front man taking heat from the overworld AND the underworld.
If this film had have been made before Goodfellers (probably the best organised crime picture ever made) then it would have been better received. This is not as good and requires too much setting up (almost documentary style) and we don't really care quite as much. It also has a nasty underbelly.
The message is that gambling is for idiots and in this world nobody trusts anybody else. This is not a point that you have to go searching for, because it is pushed down your throat through voice-over and then underlined through action. People here are cold and in it for themselves; although this may be true-to-life.
I love the little scenes that are truthful. The smiling receptionist setting up the robbery of the guest. People being lured in to debt for the fun of handing out punishment. Casino cheats being dealt with on the spot. It presents a view of 1970's Las Vegas almost as if it were a middle eastern country where thieves have their hands removed.
The real thrust of this film is the feeling of being at the cross-roads. Where legitimate business and organised crime meet. De Niro has to play both sides and this is not without danger; as the opening and closing scenes demonstrate.
Joe Pesci represents the old school rob 'em/shoot 'em world of the mob. A thuggish money earner while de Niro is a rob'em through a fountain pen type. Uniquely, in my own viewing experience, they share voice-overs giving different spins on the same events.
Despite being a thug I prefer Pesci because he is walking the only path that he knows. He is a good thief because he is brave and immoral. "It is all about the dollars." He says. De Niro (Rothstien) had choices and made bad ones.
Despite being garlanded Sharon Stone does nothing with her "love interest" role apart from looking good and doing some shrieking. Like everyone else she is selfish and me-first, a Las Vegas hustler who lives as a parasite. While interesting, in that it gives the story some variety, the fact that she hooks up with the De Niro (who has his doubts - even in voice over) shows that no one is quite as smart as they like to think.
Scorsesse is good at the making people human with little subplots or humour, but he loses the film in some of the violence. It goes on too long and merely drags us through the gutter with the characters. It also cuts against the grain and timing of what goes before.
Casino isn't a great film because it doesn't hang together well and we don't care about the main three characters. They made a pact with the devil and they have to abide by the consequences.
What remains utterly baffling is the final reel in which the old Las Vegas is blown up to be replaced by the corporation, family safe, version which is sneered at in final commentary: Almost tearful about the dying of America's last wild frontier. In Scorrese's world nothing is worse than being boring, safe and Mafia free...