Another pretty decent film from the Scorsesee lot

Rating: 8/10 (12 November 2011)

I have not had the pleasure of seeing many of Martin Scorsesee's films, and this might actually be the first. I have heard that he is a well known director with a unique style, but as I have not seen any of his films, I cannot comment on it; but if they are anything like Casino then so far I am impressed. I heard of Martin Scorsesee not from watching movies but from a Alternate band named King Missile (known for a song which they wrote about as certain part of the male anatomy that a person was able to remove, and then ended up losing, and finding it again and having to fork out $20 to buy it back - weird group). I will not go into the details of what their song was about and what they wanted to do to Martin Scorsesee even though they said that he made the best films.
Casino is a movie about people and about how that begin with everything and end with nothing. The movie is based around Sam (Robert DeNiro) who is made the director of a Casino by the mafia. His childhood friend Nicky (Joe Pesci) comes to Las Vegas to apply his business - thuggery - to the town almost untouched by thugs. It is set in a time when the gangs ruled Las Vegas and gambling was a game of skill, and enticing people out of their money was done by the way one arranges their poker machines. The conclusion shows us that those days are passed as now the corporations own Las Vegas and the casinos only exist if their theme is worth it.
As I said earlier the movie is about people, and to explore the movie we must explore the people and the relationships that they have with each other. There are three main characters and they are Sam, Nicky, and Ginger. Sam and Nicky do not change where as Ginger does. This is important because the Ginger and Nicky claim that Sam has changed, but this is differential to the nobility of his character. One might ask how can Sam be noble when there is no honour among thieves? Well, in this time there is honour and this honour his held at the point of the gun. There is a way that the mafia does things and if people don't do what the mafia tells you then you will find yourself buried in a hole in the middle of a corn field. Yet the problem with this honour is that it works on the assumption that might means right, meaning that once somebodies power exceeds your own then either you comply or suffer the consequences.
Sam's character is the central character. He is clean, an spends the whole movie clean. He is a man that does not take risks, he only takes certainties. As is said at the beginning of the movie, he is a man that when he makes a bet, the entire bookmaking industry changes. As such he is the perfect man for a casino because he knows how to make money. Now he has a record in illegal gambling so it is difficult to get him into a casino, but as long as you treat the authorities in Las Vegas okay, then they won't happen you - the minute you step over the line and upset somebody, then they can put the pressure upon you.
As I said before, Sam does not take chances. He is a man that runs everything his way. He is obsessed that everything runs smoothly. He does not pay people to think because their thoughts are not his thoughts and they don't know how to work the people and the floor. The example is the poker machines. He puts the big jackpot machines in plain view rather than hiding them. Hiding them keeps people away and as such they don't run the risk of hitting the big jackpot, but having them in plain view brings more people to them so that they waste more money trying to win the big jackpot. Of course his obsessiveness with things running his way is very much a flaw, as he wants to always know where his wife is, and this leads to distrust and finally to the breakdown in their marriage. It was not all his fault as he tried to marry a woman who was not meant to be married and it ended up destroying him and her. The blueberry muffin affair is another instance where is compulsiveness goes overboard.
Casino is about power and the question of who really rules. In one way we see that the mafia rules Vegas from the east, while on the other hand, the authorities are so corrupt that they let them, yet if you upset the authorities then they can and will tighten their fist. Or is it the king of the thugs - Nicky - who rules. It seems like he does, but in the end he only finds himself in a pit in a cornfield.