Casino

Before Scorcese made Goodfellas, he said that he didn't want to make anymore films about gangsters, but he made one anyway.  Then in 1995 he did it again.  It seems that he had become "addicted" to Nichola Pileggi's true crime books on the mob as source material.  Of course, many movies have been made about the history of Las Vegas, it's founding by criminals and it's mob culture that was only recently run out of town by greedy corporations.  Pileggi, though, has always been a true crime novelist that prefers to focus on lesser known figures in the mafia (like Henry Hill).  Here he decided to focus on Frank Rosenthal, a Jewish mobster who ran the Hacienda, Fremont, & Stardust casinos.  His character is transformend into "Sam 'Ace' Rothstein" in the film and is played by Scocese's perennial actor:  Robert De Niro.  

"Lefty" Rosenthal was a gangster that born in Chicago in 1929; by the 1960's he was one of the biggest bookmakers in the central US.  According to his Wikipedia page, by 1961, had made quite a name for himself as a very talented sports bettor, handicapper and oddsmaker.  Now, Vegas was controlled by the mid western mob out of Kansas City and Saint Louis--the big bosses couldn't go to Vegas, so they hired lower level gangsters talented in gambling and bookmaking to run Vegas for them.  Almost all the casinos had legitimate boards; keeping them in dark about who was really in charge--which where guys like Rosenthal came in.  Those guys would run the show, "enforce" casino cheating (and I mean really Enforce!), and made sure the proper amount was skimmed in the count room to go back to Kansas to the bosses:  all under the noses of the board members.

This is essentitally what Casino is about.  It sounds like a pretty boring subject, unless you count the occasional ultra-violent ways that these guys "dealt" with cheaters.  Somehow, though, Pileggi managed to write a book about it that was intricate but interesting; Scorcese sweeps in with his talent for gangster direction and a wicked finger for needle drops and makes a supremely glitzy film that isn't boring and has stood the test of time.  It stars, in addition to De Niro, Joe Pesci, Sharon Stone, & Don Rickles to name just a few.  Most of the characters, with exception of Pesci's character, are not based on real people.  But the scenario was real enough.

Some film facts:

Pesci character was based on a particularly vicious mid western mobster by the name of Anthony Spilotro.  In 1986 filmmaker Michael Mann got a television series called "Crime Story" green lighted about a tough Chicago cop, turned fed, who goes after an infamous loose-cannon of a mobster, and chases him all the way to Vegas.  The character of Ray Luca played by "Closer" actor Tony Denison is also based on Spilotro.  At the end of the first season, Mann has him and his dim witted mafia side-kick incinerated in a nuclear test explosion--really...it's hilarious.

The film holds the Guinness Book of Records all time record for having the most swearing in any film to date.  The word "fuck" alone is uttered 422 times, that comes out to 2.4 times per minute.

Sharon Stone hounded Scorcese for the part of Ginger; it was set to go to Melanie Griffith, but in the end Stone won out.

Hilariously, Rosenthal wanted an 80 year Richard Widmark cast as him in the film.  Blown up---I don't think so!

One John Bloom as a small part in the film--to fans of horror schlock, he is much better known as Joe Bob Briggs.

The film is even infamous for some of it's violence.  Apparently at the time of it's release there was a "mom & church" backlash against it, "condemning" it for it's death scenes in particular.  And if you love horror films with any sort of gore, like we do around here, there is one scene in particular that has become a favorite amongst fans.

Oh the screams and the yells!!!  And then there is the way the film starts out--literally with a bang.


Of course, in real life Rosenthal died of old age in Miami after starting a sports betting site.