If you made a list of the greatest directors using the information from my brain (i.e. very little) Martin Scorsese might show up once or twice or fifty different times. The undisputed king of mobster movies tends to rock my socks off every chance he gets namely
Shutter Island, The Departed and
Goodfellas. I had heard about
Casino for years and I finally got the chance to view its amazingness. Sam Rothstein (Robert De Niro) is an old bookie who was sent out to Vegas by some old guys to run the Tangiers Hotel. He tries to run a straight business but when his protector and mob buddy Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) starts running illegal type activities on the side things start to go downhill. It really is a fairly interesting look at different relationships and how quickly they can break apart, especially between De Niro and his wife, Sharon Stone, who received a best actress nomination.
Casino is worth a viewing strictly for the acting talent alone. De Niro is incredibly likable and it is heartbreaking to watch everything collapse around him. Joe Pesci may be the smallest guy on the block but his tenacity and ruthlessness results in some of the most memorable scenes. The entire film is superbly crafted and broke many boundaries. It was criticized for its violence (which isn't too bad but definitely harsh) and had the most F-bombs of any movie up to that point. My only complaints is the fact that
Casino is 3 hours long and there is so much dialog that I had to watch with the subtitles turned on. If you love Scorsese though you won't pass up this film.
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Christopher O'Connell
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