Casino is a 1995 epic gangster film directed by Martin Scorsese and adapted by Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi from the latter's nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. It stars Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, Don Rickles, Kevin Pollak, Frank Vincent, and James Woods. The film was the eighth collaboration between director Scorsese and De Niro.
Casino follows Sam "Ace" Rothstein (De Niro), a gambling expert handicapper who is asked by the Chicago Outfit to oversee the day-to-day casino and hotel operations at the Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas. Other significant characters include Nicky Santoro (Pesci), a "made man" and childhood friend of Ace, and Ginger McKenna (Stone), a streetwise chip hustler whom Ace marries, and with whom he has a daughter. The film details Ace's operation of the casino, the difficulties he confronts in his job, the Mafia's involvement with the casino, and the gradual breakdown of his relationships and standing, as Las Vegas changes over the years.
The primary characters are based on real people: Ace is inspired by the life of Frank Rosenthal, also known as "Lefty", who ran the Stardust, Fremont, Marina, and Hacienda casinos in Las Vegas for the Chicago Outfit from 1968 until 1981. Nicky and Ginger are based on mob enforcer Anthony Spilotro and former dancer and socialite Geri McGee, respectively. Casino was released on November 22, 1995, by Universal Pictures, to a mostly positive critical reception, and was a worldwide box office success. Stone's performance was singled out for acclaim, earning her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Plot
In 1973, sports handicapper Sam "Ace" Rothstein is sent by the Chicago Mafia to Las Vegas to run the Tangiers Casino, with Philip Green serving as its frontman and Ace's childhood friend Nicky Santoro assigned to protect both him and the casino. Ace soon doubles the casino's profits, with a portion regularly skimmed and delivered to the Midwest Mafia bosses. After Nicky is blacklisted from working in Las Vegas casinos, he assembles a crew that includes his younger brother Dominick and right-hand man Frankie Marino to carry out extortion and jewellery burglaries for their own profit. Nicky's criminal activities soon attract unwanted media and police attention.
Ace falls in love with the con artist and former prostitute Ginger McKenna. They marry and have a daughter, Amy, but their marriage is soon strained by Ginger's drug and alcohol addiction and her relationship with Lester Diamond, her former lover and a pimp. Eventually, Ace arranges for Nicky and his crew to beat Lester after catching him accepting $25,000 from Ginger at a café.
In 1976, Ace fires slot manager Don Ward for incompetence. Ward is the brother-in-law of Clark County Commission chairman Pat Webb, who fails to persuade Ace to reinstate him. In retaliation, Webb has Ace's gaming licence application denied, jeopardising Ace's position. Ace responds by insulting the gaming board and local politicians during the licensing hearing, creating a spectacle for the news cameras and bringing more unwanted attention to the casino. Unable to legally run the casino, Ace begins hosting a local television talk show from the Tangiers, frustrating the Midwest bosses by drawing even more attention to their operation. Ace blames Nicky's reckless criminality for the growing scrutiny, leading to a confrontation in the desert that ends with Nicky threatening him. Ace's repeated attempts to persuade Nicky to leave Las Vegas further strain their friendship.
In 1980, with his marriage on the verge of collapse, Ace considers divorcing Ginger. She later kidnaps Amy and plans to flee to Europe with Lester. After learning of her plan, Ace convinces Ginger to return with their daughter. Later that night, Ace catches Ginger arranging a contract killing against him. Although he throws her out, he reluctantly forgives her when she returns. Ginger confides in Nicky, and the two begin an affair, which private investigators soon expose. Nicky ends the affair after Ginger asks him to kill Ace and threatens to inform the FBI about their criminal activities. Ginger steals much of Ace's cash and jewellery and prepares to abandon Ace and Amy, only to be arrested by the FBI shortly afterwards.
In 1982, the FBI discovers records kept by Artie, who oversees the skimming operation. The FBI closes the Tangiers and persuades Green to cooperate. Agents also approach Ace and show him photographs of Nicky and Ginger together, but he refuses to help. The Midwest bosses are arrested and, to protect themselves, they arrange the murders of everyone involved in the casino operation who could testify against them. In 1983, an impoverished Ginger dies from a drug overdose in Los Angeles, which Ace suspects was tainted to be lethal. That same year, Ace narrowly survives a car bomb and suspects Nicky was responsible. In 1986, the Midwest bosses, having grown tired of Nicky's reckless criminality, have him and his brother beaten with baseball bats by Frankie and buried alive in a shallow grave in a remote Illinois cornfield.
In the years that follow, the Mafia is pushed out of the casino industry by large corporations, which demolish nearly all of the old casinos. They are replaced by newer, more glamorous casinos that Ace laments are impersonal and soulless. Because he remains a reliable earner for the Mafia, Ace is spared and relocates to San Diego, where he resumes working as a sports handicapper.
Cast
Production
Development
Casino is based on New York crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi's book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. The research for Casino began when Pileggi read a 1980 report from the Las Vegas Sun about a domestic argument between Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, a casino figure, and his wife Geri McGee, a former topless dancer. This gave him an idea to focus on a new book about the true story of mob infringement in Las Vegas during the 1970s, when filming of Goodfellas (whose screenplay he co-wrote with Scorsese) was coming to an end. The fictional Tangiers resort reflected the story of the Stardust Resort and Casino, which had been bought by Argent Corporation in 1974 using loans from the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund. Argent was owned by Allen Glick, but the casino was believed to be controlled by various organized crime families from the Midwest. Over the next six years, Argent Corporation siphoned off between $7 and $15 million using rigged scales. This skimming operation, when uncovered by the FBI, was the largest ever exposed. A number of organized crime figures were convicted as a result of the skimming.
Nicholas Pileggi contacted Martin Scorsese about taking the lead of the project, which became known as Casino. Scorsese expressed interest, calling this an "idea of success, no limits." Pileggi was keen to release the book and then concentrate on a film adaptation, but Scorsese encouraged him to "reverse the order."
Scorsese and Pileggi collaborated on the script for five months, towards the end of 1994. Real-life characters were reshaped, such as Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, Geri McGee, Anthony Spilotro, Spilotro's brother Michael, Spilotro's right-hand man Frank Cullotta, and mob boss Joseph Aiuppa. Some characters were combined, and parts of the story were set in Kansas City instead of Chicago. A problem emerged when they were forced to refer to Chicago as "back home" and use the words "adapted from a true story" instead of "based on a true story." Real life mobster turned witness Frank Cullotta inspired the character Frank Marino (played by Frank Vincent), served as a technical advisor for the film, and also played an on-screen role as a hitman. In interviews, Cullotta expressed his initial displeasure at his character Frank Marino participating in the murder of the Santoro brothers, but Scorsese persuaded him to accept it on the basis that Nicky could only be lured to his death by a trusted friend.
They also decided to simplify the script, so that the character of Sam "Ace" Rothstein worked only at the Tangiers Casino, in order to show a glimpse of the trials involved in operating a Mafia-run casino hotel without overwhelming the audience. According to Scorsese, the initial opening sequence was to feature the main character, Sam Rothstein, fighting with his estranged wife Ginger on the lawn of their house. The scene was too detailed, so they changed the sequence to show the explosion of Sam's car and him flying into the air before hovering over the flames in slow motion—like a soul about to go straight down to hell.
Costume designer Rita Ryack was chosen to design De Niro's suits. Despite common legend citing that the clothing budget exceeded $1 million, Ryack has since revealed it was much lower.
Principal photography Filming happened at night in the Riviera casino in Las Vegas, with the nearby defunct Landmark Hotel as the entrance, to replicate the fictional Tangiers. According to Barbara De Fina, the film's producer, there was no reason to construct a set if they could simply film around an actual casino. The opening scene, with Sam's car exploding, was shot three times; the third take was used for the film. During the table arguing scene, De Niro called Stone a "good actress". Saul Bass designed the title sequence, which was his last work. The total cost for the titles was $11,316, not including the fees for the Basses. Bass justified the cost to De Fina by noting that creating a continuous explosion from a second shot of an explosion demanded a lot of experimentation, as did getting the flight path of the body exactly right. When first submitted to the MPAA, the film received an NC-17 rating due to its depictions of violence. Several edits were made in order to reduce the rating to R.
The film was shot in the common top Super 35 format as it allowed the picture to be reformatted for television broadcast. Scorsese said, "I wish I could just shoot straight anamorphic, but the lenses we had in this situation were actually much more diversified. To a certain extent, shooting a film this way can make certain technical aspects more difficult, but to me, anything is better than panning and scanning on TV. We can re-frame just about every shot we did on this picture for video." Cinematographer Robert Richardson, on the other hand, was not impressed with the quality of the release prints, and did not touch the format again until Kill Bill: Volume 1, at which point the digital intermediate process was available.
Soundtrack
Disc 1 "Contempt – Theme De Camille" by Georges Delerue (2:32) "Angelina/Zooma, Zooma Medley" by Louis Prima (4:16) "Hoochie Coochie Man" by Muddy Waters (2:50) "I'll Take You There" by The Staple Singers (4:29) "Nights in White Satin" by The Moody Blues (4:27) "How High the Moon" by Les Paul & Mary Ford (2:08) "Hurt" by Timi Yuro (2:27) "Ain't Got No Home" by Clarence 'Frogman' Henry (2:22) "Without You" by Nilsson (3:20) "Love Is the Drug" by Roxy Music (4:08) "I'm Sorry" by Brenda Lee (2:38) "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac (3:36) "The Thrill Is Gone" by B.B. King (5:26) "Love Is Strange" by Mickey & Sylvia (2:54) "The 'In' Crowd" by Ramsey Lewis (5:50) "Stardust" by Hoagy Carmichael (3:47)
Disc 2 "Walk on the Wild Side" by Jimmy Smith (5:56) "Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)" by Otis Redding (2:42) "I Ain't Superstitious" by Jeff Beck Group (4:53) "The Glory of Love" by The Velvetones (2:51) "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by Devo (2:39) "What a Diff'rence a Day Made" by Dinah Washington (2:29) "Working in the Coal Mine" by Lee Dorsey (2:45) "House of the Rising Sun" by Eric Burdon (4:38) "Those Were the Days" by Cream (2:55) "Who Can I Turn To?" by Tony Bennett (2:55) "Slippin' and Slidin'" by Little Richard (2:42) "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You" by Dean Martin (2:13)