Money Cannot Buy Happiness Even at a Casino

Rating: 8/10 (11 March 2007)

The characters of Casino have everything that money can buy: beautiful cars, beautiful clothes, beautiful houses, and yet it is still not enough. The people that win the most money at the casinos are not the people that get the jack-pots. The money ultimately goes to the owners of the casinos. As pointed in the film, even the jack-pot and Black Jack winners end up being losers eventually if they play long enough.
In the film "Casino" not even the people running the casinos win either in the end. They also eventually lose as if they had also played too long, which seems to be the message of Casino. Because no matter how much money is gained, the characters always want more, and they resort to acts of unspeakable cruelty to keep the money flowing, for themselves and their mob bosses back in Chicago who are financing the casino scheme.
This is possibly Scorcese's most disturbing and violent film. The characters are compelling but none are particularly sympathetic. Rothstein, perfectly suited to actor Robert De Niro, seems the only character to at least have some kind of sensible code. But even he is not above resorting to acts of violence if anyone is caught cheating at his casino, The Tangiers.
In addition to De Niro, the acting of the other cast members is equally first rate, with a tour-de-force performance by Sharon Stone as the most tragic character of the story. Her character, from the in-the-know casino hustler paying off the valets to the dependent drug-addict giving thousands of dollars to her old pimp and junkie, is completely believable from beginning to end. Pesci also turns in another fine performance very similar to the character he portrayed in Goodfellas as the ruthless jewel robber and murderer.
The film is somewhat hampered by voice-overs that last too long in some places. The beginning voice-over makes sense as De Niro describes the operations of the casino. But then other characters chime in and it gets over burdensome. Also, the violent is incredibly graphic, even for Scorcese. Definitely not for all tastes and certainly NOT for children.
Still, despite some misgivings, Casino is still a great film. Maybe neither an Oscar winner nor Scorcese's best but certainly the director's most ambitious project.