Casino

Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2006)

One thing that I love about Martin Scorsese's movies is their more-dimensional portrayal of characters. I often have both, feelings of sympathy and feelings of revulsion towards the people in his movies. The same feeling occurs towards Las Vegas and its casinos in "Casino". On the one hand Scorsese glorifies the old casinos. When Ace laments in the end, that today Las Vegas is nothing more than a gambling Disneyland, we suffer with him. It's a place run by emotionless businessman. On the other hand, however, Scorsese knows about the victims that the old system claimed, about the abyss behind the shiny surface. The film is acted very well by the "Goodfellas"-duo Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, while the biggest surprise for me was Sharon Stone. For me Ginger is a victim of this system, although some people might argue that she herself is responsible for the situation she's in. In the end, she is not the only victim and many other problems will be solved in the desert surrounding Las Vegas.