Casino (film)
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| Casino | |
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| Directed by | Martin Scorsese |
| Produced by | Barbara De Fina |
| Written by | Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese |
| Starring | Robert De Niro Joe Pesci Sharon Stone Frank Vincent Don Rickles James Woods Kevin Pollak Alan King |
| Cinematography | Robert Richardson |
| Editing by | Thelma Schoonmaker |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 22, 1995 |
| Running time | 178 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $52,000,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
Casino is a 1995 movie directed by Martin Scorsese, based on the book of the same name by Nicholas Pileggi and Larry Shandling. Robert De Niro stars as Sam "Ace" Rothstein, a top gambling handicapper who is called by the Mob to oversee the day-to-day operations at the fictional Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas. The story is based on Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, who ran the Stardust, Fremont and the Hacienda casinos in Las Vegas for The Mob from the 1970s until the early 1980s.
Joe Pesci plays Nicky Santoro, based on the real-life Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro, an intimidating enforcer for the Chicago Outfit. Santoro is sent to Vegas by the bosses to make sure that money from the Tangiers is skimmed off the top and that the casinos and mobsters in Vegas are kept in line. Sharon Stone plays Rothstein's wife, Ginger, a role that earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Pileggi has described Casino as Scorsese's last installment to his gangster trilogy, supplementing Mean Streets and Goodfellas. However, the film has more obvious stylistic connections to the latter (Goodfellas), Scorsese's 1990 cinematic masterpiece. Also, both films were based on a book by Pileggi and starred De Niro and Pesci. For these reasons, some people even consider Casino an unofficial sequel to Goodfellas.
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[edit] Story
The film is the adaptation of Casino, the true-crime account of the lives of mob associates Frank Rosenthal (renamed Sam "Ace" Rothstein for the movie), Tony "The Ant" Spilotro (renamed Nicholas "Nicky" Santoro), Joseph Aiuppa (Remo Gaggi) and Frank Culotta (Frank Marino). Rothstein and Santoro narrate the film.
Rothstein is entrusted by the leaders of the Chicago outfit, led by Gaggi from Chicago, Illinois, to manage a Las Vegas casino (the Tangiers) they have financed via the Teamsters' Pension Fund and send them skimmed profits. Rothstein's friend Santoro shows up later (he was first sent to Vegas by Gaggi to keep an eye on Rothstein and to, more or less, "protect" him) and starts working for himself. While Rothstein appears to be a kind-hearted gentleman, Santoro is the polar opposite: an amoral psychopath who will not hesitate to kill anyone he sees as a threat. In one scene, after Santoro is asked by Gaggi to protect Rothstein, Santoro stabs a man in the neck with a pen multiple times solely for insulting Rothstein then mocks the man's whimpers. His cruelty also comes to the surface at another point when he takes his anger out on the casino manager, Billy Sherbert (Don Rickles) and hits him in the face with a telephone, calling him a "Jew fuck."
Rothstein and Santoro's relationship meets its biggest test when a woman named Ginger McKenna (based on Geraldine McGee) comes into Rothstein's life. After dating for a few months they have a daughter and get married, Sam having insisted on having the child first to ensure Ginger's commitment to him. All seems well until Rothstein catches Ginger sneaking around with her old boyfriend, Lester Diamond (based on Lenny Marmor). Rothstein and Santoro have their men beat Diamond, but it doesn't stop him. Ginger and Diamond eventually kidnap the daughter, Amy, and flee for Los Angeles, making plans to escape to Europe. However, Rothstein tracks them down and convinces Ginger to bring Amy back home.
Though not satisfied, Rothstein accepts Ginger back inside the house, but that night, Rothstein catches Ginger speaking on the phone, asking someone to assassinate her husband. Furious, Rothstein hangs the phone up and forces her out of the house. She returns later on, but Rothstein has an even harder time accepting her back.
Not wanting to leave Rothstein with her money, Ginger seduces the one man who will help her: Nicky. They begin an affair. The breaking point occurs when Rothstein and Santoro have a falling out over Santoro's reckless criminal activities and the unwanted attention they receive from the police. Worried for his friend, Rothstein tries to convince Santoro to keep a lower profile, but he will not listen. It is then that Rothstein realizes Santoro's true goal: to take over the casino empire by overthrowing Remo Gaggi.
Rothstein returns home one night to find his daughter Amy tied to the bedposts - by Ginger. Rothstein calls Santoro, and Santoro tells him that Ginger is at his restaurant with him. Furious, Rothstein rushes to the restaurant and confronts Ginger, warning her that should she ever abuse their daughter again, he will murder her. Rothstein forces her out, but she sneaks back inside after Rothstein leaves.
Ginger blames Santoro for the mess, while Santoro tells her it is she who is at fault. Ginger begs Santoro to kill Rothstein, but Santoro refuses, having been Sam's best friend for 35 years. When Santoro tells Ginger that he won't be able to get her money now, Ginger attacks Santoro. Santoro then shows his brutal nature and mercilessly throws her out of the restaurant with help from his right-hand man Frank Marino (Frank Vincent).
The next day, Ginger goes to Rothstein's home, and demands that he give her the share of the money that is hers and the jewelry they have collected during their marriage. When she arrives, she repeatedly smashes her car into Sam's car several times, prompting nearby neighbors to call the police. Ginger causes a scene in front of Sam's house and when the police arrive, she demands that they help her enter the house. Sam says he will permit her inside for a few moments to gather some clothes. Ginger sneaks into Sam's office and breaks into his desk, stealing the key to the safe deposit box where most of their cash is stored. At the bank, Ginger collects a large amount of cash from the box and drives off, pursued by two federal agents. They pull her over shortly after and she is arrested on charges of aiding and abetting.
Ginger's arrest begins the crumbling of the casino empire. The big bosses, ruled by Gaggi, decide to murder anybody who could incriminate them. They kill a lawyer named Andy Stone, three casino executives, and the money courier John Nance who was hiding out in Costa Rica. (Nance's son was already in trouble with the FBI on drug charges; the bosses decided to execute Nance to prevent his potentially testifying in court to protect his son.) Returning to the opening scene of the film, Rothstein himself is nearly killed by a car bomb, but he suspects the attempt on his life was not ordered by the bosses.
Ultimately Nicky Santoro and his brother Dominick are severely beaten with bats and buried alive in a cornfield in Indiana. By this time the bosses have had enough of Nicky, so states Rothstein while narrating, as both are buried while they are still breathing. Frank Marino participates in the beating of the Santoro brothers, claiming that he has had enough of their dirty work, though he still feels a little bad while watching the Santoros' burial. This is the scene in which Nicky's narration ceases for good, as it screams in pain when Nicky is hit in the back by Marino. Ginger sinks deeper into drug addiction and eventually dies from a drug overdose, alone and destitute. In his narration, Rothstein states the same people who killed the others shot her up with a "hot dose" of drugs in order to kill her.
The film finishes with a voiceover by Rothstein explaining that the Tangiers is levelled, along with all the older, classic casinos and are replaced with bigger, modern, junk bond-funded, corporate-run affairs. Rothstein also explains that the quaint, friendly feeling of Las Vegas has been replaced by a greedier, more apathetic one. Rothstein returns to his work as a sports handicapper for the mob, as he can still pick winners, but he is still haunted by the losses of Ginger and Santoro.
[edit] Trivia
- The movie is notable for the "revenge" Frank Vincent gets on Joe Pesci. In Goodfellas, Pesci's character, Tommy DeVito, kills Vincent's character, Billy Batts. As well as in Raging Bull, where Joey Lamotta, played by Pesci, gives a severe beating to the Vincent character, Salvy Batts. However, the fortune is reversed in Casino as Vincent's character, Frank Marino helps kill Pesci's character Nicky Santoro, ironically, by beating him with a bat.
- The real Frank Cullotta, who plays the character of Curly, appears in the scene where John Nance, the money courier, is murdered in Costa Rica. Frank Cullotta apparently asks Nance "Where do you think you're going, Jag-Off?" before shooting him in the head. Ironically, Frank Cullotta and Bill Allison (who played Nance) both served as Technical Advisors for the movie as well as making cameo appearances.
- The film holds the 3rd highest record for most uses of the word "fuck" (398) in a feature length film, but had the highest in history upon its release.
- In the scene with Nicky Santoro (Pesci) drunkenly playing 21, he says to Billy Sherbert (Don Rickles) "What are you staring at, you bald-headed Jew Prick?" This is one of Don Rickles' trademark insults, although Joe Pesci is the one who says it in the film.
- Although their main inspirations are Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal and Anthony Spilotro De Niro and Pesci's characters, Sam Rothstein and Nicky Santoro, also appear to be inspired partly from the real-life turn of the century gangsters Arnold "Mr.Big" Rothstein and Jules "Nicky" Arnstein.
- The Joe Pesci character could also be derived from Salvatore "Tom Mix" Santoro who was a tough and seasoned hood that became Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo's underboss. Santoro was involved in narcotics and loan-sharking activities. He was arrested for heroin trafficking in 1959 and was a labour relations expert.
- The Tangiers Casino is based on The Stardust Resort & Casino, which closed forever on November 1, 2006. Snippets of Hoagy Carmichael's composition Stardust in the soundtrack give a subtle hit as to the casino's true identity.
[edit] Differences between Fact and Fiction
- When Anthony and Michael Spilotro were beaten and buried alive in the cornfield, they were eventually found and dug up, leading to an autopsy being performed on them, an autopsy that would find sand in the brothers' lungs. In the film, Dominick Santoro is actually finished and killed before being dumped into the hole, and Nicky Santoro breathes his last breath during the burying process.
- The character of Frank Marino (played by Frank Vincent and based on Frank Cullotta) participates in the killing of the Santoro brothers. In reality, Frank Cullotta was not present and played no part in the beating of the Spilotro brothers (on whom the Santoro brothers were based), and only betrayed them by testifying against them about the M & M murders when Anthony Spilotro ordered him killed over the phone.
- The character of John Nance (based on George Vandermark) is murdered in the film with two gunshots to the stomach and one directly into the brain. In reality, George Vandermark was murdered along with his drug addict son, Jeffrey. His body was never found, unlike in the movie where Nance's corpse is left in full open view.
- In the film, Artie Piscano (based on Carl Deluna) dies of a heart attack during an FBI Raid on his home. In reality, Deluna was tried and arrested and is still living to this day (2006).
[edit] Similarities to Goodfellas
- In Goodfellas, Joe Pesci's character is murdered after being promised to be made. In Casino, Joe Pesci's character is murdered partly for breaking the Made Man Code.
- In Goodfellas, Frank Vincent says "What's Right is Right" moments before his death. The same occurs in Casino, only this time, Joe Pesci says it.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role | Based On |
|---|---|---|
| Robert De Niro | Sam "Ace" Rothstein | Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal |
| Joe Pesci | Nicky Santoro | Tony "The Ant" Spilotro |
| Sharon Stone | Ginger McKenna Rothstein | Geraldine McGee Rosenthal |
| Frank Vincent | Frankie Marino | Frank Cullota |
| Pasquale Cajano | Remo Gaggi | Joseph Aiuppa |
| Alan King | Andy Stone | Allen Dorfman |
| Bill Allison | John Nance | George Vandermark |
| Don Rickles | Billy Sherbert | Murray Ehrenberg |
| Philip Suriano | Dominick Santoro | Michael Spilotro |
| Carl Ciarfalio | Tony Dogs | James Miraglia |
| Vinny Vella | Artie Piscano | Carl Deluna |
| Kevin Pollak | Philip Green | Allen Glick |
| James Woods | Lester Diamond | Leonard Marmor |
| Nobu Matsuhisa | K. K. Ichikawa | Wan "Broken Tooth" Kuok-koi |
| Ffiolliott Le Coque | Anna Scott | Tamara Rand |
| Bret McCormick | Bernie Blue | Frankie "Blue" Bluestein |
| Dick Smothers | Senator Harrison Roberts | Harry Reid |
| Oscar Goodman | Himself | Himself |
[edit] External links
- Casino at the Internet Movie Database
- Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal Official Website
- Anthony "Tony The Ant" Spilotoro's FBI File(pdf format 5.6 MB file size)
- The look and fashion from the film
