One of the Greatest Films of the 1990s

Rating: 10/10 (30 November 2006)

1996 was a strong Oscar year  Nixon, Dead Man Walking, Braveheart, The Usual Suspects, Sense and Sensibility, Se7en  but Casino was bizarrely, and shamefully, snubbed that year, with Sharon Stone receiving the movie's only nomination.
Told almost exclusively through narration, the film follows the fortunes of Jimmy Conway, an essentially decent man who runs a casino for the mob, and how his loyalty to psycho made-man Nicky Santoro and love of upscale hustler Ginger McKenna leads him down a path of doomed tragedy.
Everything about this movie displays a host of talent playing at their peak. All the leads are magnificent; the writing sharp and funny; the direction confident and spellbinding in its aesthetic sensibility; the editing tight and witty; and the soundtrack, providing CONSTANT background atmosphere, is perfect. The whole thing looks beautiful, with a dazzling array of incredible interiors and costumes that perfectly capture the era, the story, and the characters inhabiting it.
Epic in scale, as all Scorsese tends to be, the movie plays out like a Greek tragedy, with every character on a trajectory that only leads down into spectacular, violent, drug addled oblivion. Fascinating, riveting, inventive, gaudy, and funny  a success on every level and one of the greatest films of the 90s.
NOTE: The head-in-vice scene is painful. I can watch all manner of exploitation/cannibal/grindhouse fare over dinner, but I still can't watch the head-in-vice scene.