Post by StevePulaski on Jun 25, 2012 9:43:29 GMT -5
Robert De Niro does brilliant work as Sam "Aces" Rothstein.
Rating: ★★★★
NOTE:[/u] Sorry there hasn't been a "Required Viewing" entry in several weeks. I have already stated that I will be doing two films every two weeks now, and I still promise to continue doing it that way. I've just been trying to get used to all the time I have now that I'm off, and figure out what to do with it. I promise I will try and keep these going, and for now, it will be biweekly starting from this week (next two "RV's" will come the week of July 9, 2012).
Casino is one of my favorite films of all time. I hate to open a review or a "Required Viewing" entry with such a modest, cliche statement but it is the truth. I saw Casino at a young age (think six or seven), and really didn't understand half of it. I liked the lights, the fights, and hearing all the coarse language that was light years ahead of my time. Just to hear Joe Pesci's Nicky Santoro heartlessly say to, Robert De Niro's Sam Rothstein, "Sammy, tell this Jew m*********** here to pay that marker!" felt so liberating and satisfying. I conclude that this is the best film, along with Clerks and Goodfellas, to utilize swearing in its purest, most useful form - to showcase true personality in the characters, and how realistic conversations with people of this breed would've gone, especially under excruciating pressure.
The film centers around Sam Rothstein, the manager at the Tangiers casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, who is at the top of his game, being a well-respected, cleaned up wiseguy in the business. His pal, Nicky Santoro, is usually more trouble than he's worth. He's an animalistic, deeply disturbed mobster with a cut-throat way of negotiating. If you've seen or heard anything about Joe Pesci's Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas, Scorsese's previous picture, note the character hasn't changed much. Pesci sinks his teeth into fiercely satisfying dialog, along with monologues between Rothstein and other mob members that are just brilliant.
Rothstein and Santoro team up to try and make the casino rich with money, but when Rothstein becomes romantically involved with Ginger (Sharon Stone in a delightfully perfect role), a hustler still under the control of her pimp, Lester Diamond (James Woods), his life gets turned on its head, and she becomes needy, consuming, and power hungry in her efforts to take Rothstein for everything he has.
If you haven't seen Casino and are in need of an urgent viewing, I implore you not to watch it on a cable network like Bravo or Spike (which it is currently playing on through the month of June). Why cable networks are allowed to acquire the rights of mobster flicks such as Casino and Goodfellas is an act of film tampering that should not be allowed. When aired on a network other than premium cable networks such as HBO, Max, Starz, Encore, Showtime, TMC, etc, the film will be censored, chopped, and butchered so heavily its real meaning will be obscured. Bravo is the absolute worst network to watch the film on. It will dub swear words in with "appropriate words," sometimes making the mobsters sound like little kids fighting in a playground. The infamous "desert scene" from Casino, in its censored form, is available on Youtube and I encourage one to watch it and see whether or not they believe it showcases what writer/director Martin Scorsese wanted to be seen. It makes the film out to be a laugh riot and an absolute joke on the indelible legacy of organized crime. It's horrendous butchering. At least Spike has the courtesy to at least simply censor the obscenities, instead of replacing them with needless soundbites (some of which used to edit Joe Pesci's speaking roles are from Home Alone and you can see where that will inevitably lead us).
Why is it "Required Viewing?": Casino is an unthinkably raw and provocative film, some have unfairly ostracized as a "rehash" of Goodfellas. This is an exercise in modern film noir, with electric cinematography, painstaking detail in its writing and director, and master actors doing masterful work throughout the course of the picture. By the end, along with films about organized crime, we are indelibly scarred with unadulterated greatness.
My original four star review of Casino, stevethemovieman.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=perfect&action=display&thread=1252