Casino (1995) - Connections - IMDb

Martin Scorsese delivers another high octane gangster story with Robert De Niro as the real life casino owner Sam “Ace” Rosenthal. Though I wouldn’t say I liked this as much as “Goodfellas”, this movie is still an incredible piece of film that’s not talked about enough. In many ways, this film is similar to past Scorsese pictures—mainly “Goodfellas” and “Raging Bull”—but it’s also different in a number of ways.
Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci (Pesci playing Nicky Santoro) make a wonderful duo. Niro’s character has this intense and calculating feel to him at all times. There are many scenes where Niro as Ace is watching for cheaters in his casino, and his facial expressions are able to convey how analytical the character is. Pesci, of course, plays the “tough guy” role the best that he can. Like in “Goodfellas”, he’s a crazy guy that could go off the handle at any time. I also can’t not mention Sharon Stone as Ginger. She plays a person that’s self-destructive and selfish. Let me tell you, she can play a person you can hate. There’s even a sequence where she nearly kidnaps Ace’s kid. Even though I’ve never been around anyone like that, I could tell that the display of someone who never learns and ends up with same problem constantly was realistic.
The cinematography, music, and writing are three notable things in this movie that jumped at me. I can still see the many glamorous shots of the casinos, the money, and the high life. One specific shot that made me say “woah” was when Ace was waiting for a meeting with Nicky in the middle of the desert. As Ace is looking at Nicky’s car pull up, we see the car’s reflection in Ace’s sunglasses. I thought that was a cool shot that’s able to show how nervous Ace was at the moment. Moving on to the music, Scorsese is an expert at matching music to his films. The only directors I know that do it as good or better are Tarantino and Kubrick. From beginning to end, the music marks certain changes that are happening in life. At first, the music is happy and about good things. Then the songs change to more darker themes as the film progresses. Not to sound like a broke record, but that’s similar to how “Goodfellas” did it. Finally, the writing was effective and powerful. I was absorbed into the story from first few seconds. I wanted to hear and see what was going to happen, and I just loved seeing how Ace lived his life. Additionally, the way that characters speak to each other felt real. And those argument scenes between Ace and Ginger have this somber and authentic mood to it. Frankly, everything about this film is astounding.
When I was watching this, I picked up on the theme of trust. More specifically, how trust can affect relationships. I noticed that this came up quite often: Ace wanted to make sure he could trust Ginger; Ace and Nicky trusted each other; and the bosses trusted Ace. But once this trust is broken in any of these relationships, the relationship itself fails. Ace couldn’t trust Ginger, so their marriage was failing. Ace and Nicky weren’t good friends anymore because Nicky didn’t trust him. And the bosses almost killed Ace because of the distrust. For all three, the reason trust was broken was because of greed. This goes to show, trust is a vital aspect of any relationship. If your head is not in the right place, everyone will eventually drift away from you. In this way, I find this film is like “Raging Bull”. Except here, it’s the woman that’s causing the problem. To further explain, “Raging Bull” is about a man who’s distrusting of his wife for no reason other than his paranoia, and “Casino” is about a man who’s distrusting of his wife because his wife is an unfaithful person. I like how you get two different versions of the same issue if you’ve watched both movies.
As for any underlying issues, I don’t have any deep concerns other than that the theme of “crime doesn’t pay” in here is generic since so many other movies has this message. I will say, though, that this film did not resonate with me like past Scorsese films have. It might be because I think “Goodfellas” is a better movie, or maybe the movie didn’t try anything too unique in its delivery.
As I’m wrapping up this review, I’d like to say that this is a fun movie that any fan of gangster movies or Scorsese films can get behind. You will not be disappointed if you chose to view it. All aspects of filmmaking and acting is masterful. I will rate this a 9.2/10.